I obtained a paid/registered version of Malwarebytes on my Windows 7 PC after dealing with an earlier infection from the fake "Windows Security" pop up malware a month ago.
1. I did a system restore, installed Malwarebytes and scanned & cleaned my system. Didn't have any visible issues for a while
2. In the last week, Malwarebytes protection identified 2 or 3 executables it halted and quarantined.
3. What just started happening a few days ago is that every new browser tab that I opened up in Firefox would go to some website with an advertisement on it. This did not happen in Chrome or Opera
4. I logged on as another user, scanned with Malwarebytes, and it found a few items, but the behavior still persisted.
5. I did some googling and decided to try out ComboFix (I apparently did not read far enough)
6. ComboFix finished, and I was able to reboot my system, but it is not allowing any of my web browsers to run. I get the "illegal operation on a registry key that has been marked for deletion" error.
7. I finally found out that:
• I Should not have run combofix without being told by someone well versed with its workings
• ComboFix logs can only be interpreted properly by someone well versed with its workings
So I have come here to ask for some help. I know the quick fix is to do a restore, but I wanted to solicit advice before I tried that. I am posting this from my same machine (using the same back-up administrator account I used to install Malwarebytes).
Thanks in advance, and I humbly beg forgiveness for all of my errors, misgivings and personality flaws!
I have attached my ComboFix log below.
Hi and Welcome!! My name isJeff. I would be more than happy to take a look at your malware results logs and help you with solving any malware problems you might have. Logs can take a while to research, so please be patient and know that I am working hard to get you a clean and functional system back in your hands. I'd be grateful if you would note the following:
I will be working on your Malware issues, this may or may not, solve other issues you have with your machine.
Please subscribe to this topic, if you haven't already. You can subscribe by clicking the Watch Topic button to the right of your topic title and then choosing the notification method ( Recommended: Inmediate Notification)
The fixes are specific to your problem and should only be used for the issues on this machine.
Please continue to review my answers until I tell you your machine appears to be clear. Absence of symptoms does not mean that everything is clear.
It's often worth reading through these instructions and printing them for ease of reference.
If you don't know or understand something, please don't hesitate to say or ask!! It's better to be sure and safe than sorry.
Please reply to this thread. Do not start a new topic.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Please do not delete anything unless instructed to. DO NOT use any TOOLS such as Combofix or HijackThis fixes without supervision.
Doing so could make your system inoperable and could require a full reinstall of your OS losing all your programs and data.
Vista and Windows 7 users: These tools MUST be run from the executable (.exe) every time you run them
with Admin Rights (Right click, choose "Run as Administrator")
Stay with this topic until I give you the all clean post.
———-
Are you using a different computer to post here with now? If so…go ahead and just reboot your system on the infected computer and that will resolve your error message you are receiving about an "illegal operation". I would be wrong if I did not mention that ComboFix if used incorrectly could render your system completely inoperable and only a trained helper should guide you through using it.
———-
Please download DDS from either of these links
LINK 1 LINK 2
and save it to your desktop.
Disable any script blocking protection
Right-click and Run as Administrator dds to run the tool.
When done, two DDS.txt's will open.
Save both reports to your desktop.
————————————————— Please include the contents of the following in your next reply:
DDS.txt
Attach.txt
———-
Please download aswMBR to your desktop.
Right click and Run as Administrator the aswMBR icon to run it.
Click the Scan button to start scan.
When it finishes, press the save log button, save the logfile to your desktop and post its contents in your next reply.
[external image: Posted Image] Click the image to enlarge it
———-
In your next reply please post both of the logs created by DDS and the log created by aswMBR.
My name is