@#%$#^%$@ Spyware!

[EstimatedProphet]

I've got some damn spyware that's hooked itself to my computer and I can't get rid of it. It's bypassing Spybot S&D and it's even messing up Mozilla firefox. The 2 programs that are causing me trouble are cleveriehooker.jeired and DSO exploit. They will not go away. Anyone know any way of getting rid of them? I am on a windows XP computer.

[jdsmith]

1. Ad-Aware catches more than Spybot for me

[LTR]

2. Here ya go

http://www.pestpatrol.com/PestInfo/c/cleveriehooker.asp

http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/library/jeired/index.phtml

http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/12548.html

Remember, Google is your friend. Just type in each of the terms.

Is Firefox your default browser?

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Firefox is my default, yes

and the spyware has such a lock on my system right now that I can't go from google to several pages, so I can't even do an effective search. It automatically gets redirected to another search engine.

[LTR]

4. Sounds like a browser hijack

Your HOSTS file has been taken over, and is redirecting you to strange search engines.

Download 'Hijack This':

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Direct download link:

http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_hijackthis.html

After your HOSTS file is cleaned up, go to this page and create your own hacked HOSTS file:

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

I did this, and I have had no problems with either spyware or hijacks.

I use Avant Browser (an IE shell that blocks pop-ups) and have Firefox (no Java enabled) as a backup just in case.

[LTR]

7. In addition...

You may want to try and uninstall the pesky programs first.

Go to your control panel, then "Add/Remove Programs". Get rid of the obviously named programs first. Read all instructions carefully.

You may be able to get rid of them this way first.

Download AdAware. Seems to be more effective against hijacker scripts.

http://www.lavasoft.de

AdAware will uninstall currently running programs. YOu may have to select the 'restart' option at the end of the scan to zap the stragglers. Do this.

[jdsmith]

5. I had several browser highjackers

I kept trying Spybot's updates and for more than a month kept being told that "No new updates are available." So I just went ahead and downloaded a new Spybot from the website. It immediately caught over a hundred things that it had not been detecting only a few minutes earlier--including five or six highjackers.

Then I updated Ad-Aware the same way. It found another hundred+.

[TwoHandedLayup]

6. Check for Viruses

I hope you are running some anti virus software. I spent about 8 hours with my neighbors computer with a similar situation this past weekend.

He had several viruses that had corrupted his computer so much that we couldn't clean all the adware and viruses even in safe mode and DOS.

If you are running Anti virus, make sure it is updated and boot to safe mode, hit f8 at the start of the boot process. Do a complete scan of your computer and hopefully it will clean it.

Also do your windows updates. go to www.windowsupdate.com to make sure you have as many holes plugged as possible.

[curlyred]

8. CWShredder

Got rid of the last hijacker we had. We run Spybot and Adaware regularly, but still caught something nasty on the web.

[LTR]

9. good program

Direct download link:

http://download.softpedia.com:8080/ANTIVIRUS/CWShredder.exe

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. Re: Spybot and the DSO exploit

Check this one source:

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=57180

re: Spybot and the DSO exploit. I have seen this documented elsewhere. Future releases of Spybot will reportedly handle this in a different manner.

Here's some info on cleveriehooker.jeired from the Pest Patrol web site.

http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/c/cleveriehooker.asp

And another URL on both problems:

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=13&t=2377