Things haven't looked so well

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EddieMann
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by EddieMann »

phantombeta wrote:
wildweasel wrote:
but could my flash drives and wacom tablet get infected if I plug them in?
Flash drives, theoretically, if the virus in question is tenacious enough to hide from your scanners - but two separate scans by two different programs came up with nothing, so the chances of that happening are significantly lower. Your tablet, though? Not unless it has any form of onboard storage.
That's wrong, actually. If you can flash a new firmware on it from your computer, a virus can flash a malicious firmware on it. I imagine it's unlikely that someone has made a virus that flashes a malicious firmware to a drawing tablet, though.
So not even my flash drives are safe? None of my antiviruses are exactly reporting anything, but I'm still not settled.
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Rachael
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by Rachael »

It depends on the malware. MOST malware will not do anything fucky with Flash devices but remember it's not outside the realm of them to do so. I don't have any advice to give you if you're unsure, other than to back up all your important data and always keep it in a safe location.
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EddieMann
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by EddieMann »

Okay, so there's no more notifcations and chrome fullscreens properly, but I still see trafficvalidation.tools in the corner and I'm unsure if it's something to worry about or not.
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Rachael
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by Rachael »

Look - thing here is - we can't tell you it's safe. That's simply dependent on a lot of things we cannot see. It might be, or there might be something hidden we don't know about.

Is it a good idea to go at it stubbornly without reinstalling? Definitely not. But here's the catch: you might actually be clean, anyway! But... you might not be... again - we don't know.

So the real question becomes - how much do you value your data, and how much do you value your online security? The answer to that question should give you some idea of how important it is right now to wipe everything and start with a clean slate, backing up only the most important stuff.
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EddieMann
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by EddieMann »

Rachael wrote:Look - thing here is - we can't tell you it's safe. That's simply dependent on a lot of things we cannot see. It might be, or there might be something hidden we don't know about.

Is it a good idea to go at it stubbornly without reinstalling? Definitely not. But here's the catch: you might actually be clean, anyway! But... you might not be... again - we don't know.

So the real question becomes - how much do you value your data, and how much do you value your online security? The answer to that question should give you some idea of how important it is right now to wipe everything and start with a clean slate, backing up only the most important stuff.
It's only a matter of time until I can snoop the Win7 installation disk so I can properly wipe and clean the computer up, wish me luck.
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EddieMann
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by EddieMann »

After multiple scans and even having to disable McAfee to use ComboFix, I just saw the browser hijacker come up again. Don't know if it's safe to change the passwords on this computer.
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wildweasel
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by wildweasel »

EddieMann wrote:After multiple scans and even having to disable McAfee to use ComboFix, I just saw the browser hijacker come up again. Don't know if it's safe to change the passwords on this computer.
Start backing up everything important and clean-reinstall your computer if you're able.
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Abba Zabba
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by Abba Zabba »

Wishing you the best in dealing with this frustrating mess. When I had problems like this before, voice chatting with my buds always helped immensely on calming down and focusing on how to fix it. Have you tried using any basic restore points? You might be able to rewind and run scans and just test different restore points (not to be confused with a backup restore) to see if you get one that's normal and exhibits no infected behavior.

For backing up your stuff (besides online), the a common way is with a plain old external drive. In my case, I have a disc drive and a heap of unwritten CDs lying around, so I use that.

Once you seem to have the situation under control you 100% without a doubt set up simple but really effective means of preventative measures. Disable javascript and flash by default, and only enable them on trusted websites. Make sure you follow that up with a browser filter, like UBlock Origin or NoScript.

Lastly, if you have any questions about this or need to chat it out, feel free to drop a PM.
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abbuw
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Re: Things haven't looked so well

Post by abbuw »

I recall getting a particularly nasty rogue AV that rewrote my hosts file to direct me to all sorts of shady sites. Maybe that's going on here?
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