Ezula is Satan.....

Alluveal · Post by **Alluveal** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:34 pm

Actually, I need help more than anything. I was searching for song lyrics online when I was suddenly met with pop up window after pop up window. After twenty had appeared, they finally stopped, BUT, to my suprise (and utter joy - NOT) my machine was suddenly moving at a crawl. Why? once I had closed all the windows, I learned that programs were being installed on my PC . . . one after the other.

This pissed me off because my google toolbar has been working awesome lately and usually blocks crap like this. I also run spywareblaster to "immunize" my system against this kind of bunk.

So, I ended programs on everything I could that was being installed, but it simply wouldn't stop. I pulled the plug, which I assume was stupid, but I was damn pissed. When I logged back in, I found all these fun new icons on my desktop: Bargain Buddy, Top Text, etc. Doing some research online I learned all about Ezula and its evil ways.

I updated my Adaware and ran it. I updated my PestPatrol and ran it. I also ran Spybot. this seemed to clear things up, but I wasn't satisfied. I'm sure my registry is full of evils. Am I paranoid? Probably.

Are there any good (FREE) registry cleaners out there? Or, am I better off saving everything and re-formatting? Also, anyone know any other good (FREE) spyware programs. I have three but I'm still not happy.

Finally, is there anyone out there who can hack into Ezula's headquarters and render them crippled for the next 10-15 years? Egging some cars? Sue em? Beat em up? Kick their asses? These fuckers need to pay.

Bahd Zoolander · Post by **Bahd Zoolander** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 4:52 pm

SpyBot cleans some things out of the registry, but it also has some false positive issues if you're running XP SP2.

RegCleaner (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download460.html) will clean out orphaned entries, but it's not specifically geared towards spyware or viruses. It's the old, free version of this program (http://www.jv16.org/). I haven't used the non-free version, but I'd assume it's as good or better than the old one.

For the most part the only thing in your registry that can hurt you is something that is run on startup. You can Start->Run->Msconfig and see what is in the startup and service lists and disable anything you don't recognize.

This program (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freew ... cexp.shtml) will show you everything that is currently running on your system, and if you don't recognize something you can just right-click and google it to try and see what it is. You can also kill it off temporarily, but it will most likely be back when you reboot unless you remove it from the startup list.

Alluveal · Post by **Alluveal** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:31 pm

Thx, Bahd. I will try that.

Gurn Brell · Post by **Gurn Brell** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:15 pm

Soundsl like a browser hijaker.

If you have the patience to wait for expert answers go to this site

http://castlecops.com/forums.html&sid=e ... d5361589c4

They will ask you to download a program called hijackthis. This shows you and them everythring running on your comp. Install it run it copy the log and paste it on their forum. Within a day or two one of them normally gets back to you and helps you clean out your comp and registry. Normally takes a couple of tries from what I have read on there.

Also this site has links to downloads for most freeware and paid antivirus and protection programs you can use.

I use a reg ed a startup monitor and CWS killer I found on there.

Hope that helps you clean that crap out.

Gurrney

Ickhor · Post by **Ickhor** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:50 pm

post hijackthis log. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/

also, use firefox next time.

Stormaye · Post by **Stormaye** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:08 pm

Ickhor wrote:post hijackthis log. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/

also, use firefox next time.

I've had one pernicious little beastie hop across firefox too. Nothing is sacred anymore.

Ickhor · Post by **Ickhor** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:35 pm

Firefox is significantly less vulnerable. It may still be vulnerable, but so is Fort Knox.

SicTimMitchell · Post by **SicTimMitchell** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 6:08 am

1. I'm a huge Firefox fan.

2. Firefox is open source. I could write something to fuck with it, and I suck at the hard stuff. (I was an early social hacker. Big difference. It's also where I got the name "Swordfish," decades before that stupid Travolta movie.)

The reason IE and Windows in general are so vulnerable to attack is because they're so popular. Look, I know guys who work for MS, and they are some of the best and brightest programmers in the world. (One wrote the first commercial ray-tracing program for a home computer, ever.) MS really skims the cream of the crop, and MS takes care of them very, very well.

Is it really worth it writing virii or spyware for the Mac?

All software is vulnerable. The really good thing is that by the time most hardcore hackers grow up, they get good jobs and girlfriends and aren't interested in hacking any more.

Public key encryption is not theoretically impossible to break. Think what that would do to the Internet.

SicTimMitchell · Post by **SicTimMitchell** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 6:17 am

P.S.

I sincerely believe the government has already broken PKE. They made a big stink about not being able to, made it temporarily illegal (I was one of the guys who kept the code on his hard drive at this time, although I didn't go so far as the guy from England who got it tattooed on his arm), and introduced legislation for alternative "crackable" encryption.

Then they suddenly shut up and dropped the whole thing.

Ickhor · Post by **Ickhor** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:03 pm

The entire attack vector if IE spywares (ActiveX) does not exist under firefox.

Ickhor · Post by **Ickhor** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:10 pm

What does PKI have to do with anything? Of course it's breakable, there's no way to prove that someone will never come up with a clever way to factor large numbers, or to do reverse discrete logarithms.

I personally don't believe the government has broken it, but I also don't wear a tinfoil hat.

rajavengerGIA · Post by **rajavengerGIA** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:29 am

run spy sweeper i cant currently get site from laziness but i use to run only nortan and it pick u[pp like 1-5 viruses after 2 hours of work. my dad then got me spy sweeper and in the first run ig ot like 200 traces and 100 spywear then it got rit of it all. by ffar the best thing for us and yes im typing this slow to minimize spelling errors =P

Mysten · Post by **Mysten** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:47 am

rajavengerGIA wrote:yes im typing this slow to minimize spelling errors =P

It didn't help

rajavengerGIA · Post by **rajavengerGIA** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:41 am

bah i tried sooooo hard too