Trojan Horse Downloader .VB.R

[blackjeep]

One of my daughter's "friends" has apparently sent her (my computer) what AVG has identified as "Trojan Horse Downloader .VB.R" . AVG isn't able to isolate it. It has rendered Ad Aware inoperative by not allowing the reference file to load. Spybot can't find it.

When I looked in the location of the Trojan that AVG lists, the file isn't there. I did a search with the Windows search utility and it said that it was in an inaccesible spot.

I'm running Windows XP Professional.

Any idea what this trojan does and how to eliminate it?? Thanks for any help.

 

[onetimer]

turn off system restore <a href="http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001111912274039?OpenDocument&src=sec_doc_nam">Instructions Here</a>
reboot
rescan

 

[blackjeep]

Hi Onetimer, I turned off system restore as you suggested. I ran AVG anti-virus and no virus (or trojan) was detected. I guess that the trojan was "living in" the system restore files, which are deleted when system restore is turned off. I had to uninstall, download and reinstall Ad-Aware. Apparently, something disabled Ad-Aware some time back. It appeared to run, but in the last few weeks it reported no problems. After I installed the new Ad-Aware SE, it detected 151 cookies and such.

The reason this whole episode was brought to light was that AVG updated itself automagically Thursday morning and in the evening scan, it found the Trojan. Although it couldn't eliminate it, it got the process started to resolve the problem.

I attribute the trouble to my daughter's use of instant messaging. One of her "friends" has infected us with a key logger on a previous occasion through instant messaging. I understand that instant messaging leaves you wide open for this kind of attack. Does anyone out there have an idea of how to make instant messaging more secure??

Thanks, Onetimer, for your help.

 

[nanna]

Zone Labs has a program called IM Secure that you can download - the basic version is free, just like ZoneAlarm.


nanna

 

[susie_q]

Have you ever heard of Ad-Aware causing a system to crash by downloading it? Our 17 year old told us a friend had that happen. I'm not saavy enough to know if that's possible or not. I do know, the kids know more about computer operations than I do.

 

[nanna]

Have you ever heard of Ad-Aware causing a system to crash by downloading it? Our 17 year old told us a friend had that happen. I'm not saavy enough to know if that's possible or not. I do know, the kids know more about computer operations than I do.

I can and have crashed my system in all kinds of ways.

Downloading software of any kind is but one way ...

I have found that defragging before downloading anything allows for a higher probability clean install, and gives the downloader a "timeout" to consider whether that is _really_ something that one had to have on the computer.

YMMV


nanna
(not a geek, tho I play one at times)

 

[susie_q]

Thanks nanna,

Just had my notebook crash last week and not really looking forward to another wall. Have heard a lot of good things about Ad-Aware. If we feel brave, we'll run a defrag first. Thank you for the reply.