It’s been about two years now… It started with some innocuous bs that ended up being a computer worm. I’ve only seen vobfus come up once or twice since, so I think that’s a non-issue. However, I’ve had issues off and on since then and I’ve done everything I can think of to get on top of things. Problems are as follows (this list is NOT comprehensive:)
Wifi disruption – not from issues with our network, but because my usb wifi adapter suddenly wouldn’t work anymore. Maybe it would be uninstalled, maybe the network settings would change… one of my three network adapters is no longer recognized by my computer, but switching them out will occasionally fix things for a minute. I found a nice script to reset all network adapters, but it’s only a bandaid and doesn’t always work.
Bank info and passwords stolen.
MBR went missing a couple times.
keyboard and/or mouse stopped working.
Optical drive starts messing up BADLY, making awful sounds and spinning at breakneck speeds so I have to disconnect it. Thank God for my external drive, which is starting to come down with a “cough.”
I had to go into BIOS and turn my pc fan on because my CPU was getting hot-hot.
My network adapters get weird.
My serial bus(es) keep phasing in and out of existence.
I have reinstalled Windows so many times that I think I may be a master now. Each time, I reset the television, flash my BIOS, reinstall…turn around three times, face East, sacrifice a goat…. Not really, but you get the picture. Once it’s reinstalled, I immediately kill Autoplay, disable all “remote assistance” crap, disable Netbios, download updates (who knows how long I’ll have to do it?)… um… I’ve run FRST so many times since I recently started feeling like I was making headway but I haven’t yet managed to get the logs to safety so I can post them here.. I have a whole routine but I may be missing points here and it’s easy to have a plan and get sidetracked by what’s going on in the moment.
My 1.5 y/o ssd is on its death bed.
It’s like somebody is watching what I’m doing and intervening… if I try to download a clean copy of windows, it’ll get to about 75% and then fail. My internet speed (mine.. nobody else in the house) starts at a somewhat reasonable number and then quickly drops to chilled molasses.
NordVPN gets crippled shortly after installing.
Windows Defender is a b!t@h.. just bends right over and takes it up rear input..
Emsisoft is a joke… won’t find anything until AFTER its found by something else… I’ve manually quarantined more files than it has done.
Bitdefender is the same.. I think they use the same engines.
Malwarebytes is ok.. finds stuff and then it goes missing as if it ratted on on the mafia.. it’s still installed, just invisible.
I’ve used Combo Cleaner… again.. sometimes it works, sometimes it’s AWOL.
I’ve used Tron Script… which is clearly meant to be used on a computer with uninterrupted internet, undisturbed by handsy malware…
Television screen glitches on start up (I use it as a monitor… and yes, they CAN be affected by viruses if directly connected)
I’ve been learning Linux just because of all these issues…. Even my Linux machines are showing signs that something is wrong. Not big things, but again with the network adapters… I have found that, so far, I have no connectivity issues after I get Squid running.
I have used Ubuntu Rescue Pack (live dvd) to remove potential boot viruses. Sometimes it’ll find nothing. Sometimes, like last night, It’ll hit on 80 bad guys – I quarantine everything, but I don’t know what happens to them when I shut off the machine… None of what I do gets saved.
Etc, etc, etc and so on and so forth.
Also, I think we’ve been botnet-ed. I’ve reset our Gateway (Xfinity) and SSID and password (I get the dirtiest looks whenever I change the wifi passord.. God forbid somebody should have to let me punch in a new password FOR THEM for the sake of the household…)
However…
I have several windows isos and some other programs that still sha just fine..
All my USB drives scan clean by the same ani-malware weapons that have pointed (possibly a bit witch-hunty) fingers at hundreds of malicious files so far…
Oh… I took a brief look at alternate data streams… and I’m a bit scared. I think there’s something very bad lurking among my files…
IDK what to do.. I’ve tried doing this stuff by myself because the learning experience is more than worth its weight in bitcoin, but it just can’t do it anymore. I can’t afford a new computer; I can’t afford to keep buying new SSDs; I can’t just completely quarantine my external hard drives summing up to about 15Tb of digital artwork and other various data. Also, I feel like, in doing things and failing parlously such as I am, I’m just getting closer and closer to en endgame move like ransomware or identity theft…
Sometimes I feel like I’m just being super paranoid and that in washing one hand, the other gets dirty… IDK. I’m at wit’s end and need a resolution to all this so I can get on with my life.
Please… for the love of God… Help me. Put me out of my misery.
My baby is a refurbished HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF PC. I love it. Reupped my BIOS to J01 2.28 (I heard there are problems after that, so I’m not poking that bear with any sticks. Windows 21H2… the SHA always checks out, but I have to use a USB flash drive to reinstall. I have several hard copies and a couple recovery disks, but I don’t know if I can trust them. I’ve got a separate hard drive and three laptops running Linux Mint… I use the Ubuntu Rescue Pack; I’ve used Hiren’s Boot CD and others, like Kaspersky, Comodo… I’m feeling like whatever heavy hitting malware there is, it’s not camped out in my hard drive because I’ve reset everything from CMOS up, although this did significantly sway the war in my favor at first.
I think that’s all I got for now. I’m resetting my PC again and I’ll do the same with the TV. Screw flashing BIOS. And I’ll stay away from internet as long as I can, but that only delays the main event.. it won’t be long before defender starts hitting on malware that’s known for changing windows settings. That’s another thing… I love how Windows 10 Home doesn’t give us the tools to access Group Policy and that Windows Defender can’t be usurped through the registry… but that Group Policy can be used against us AND that there are clearly many other ways to cripple defender… I’ve installed GPEDIT and tried to get a foothold there, but I can only learn so much….
If I can, I’ll get a viable log from FRST to post and a list of the various baddies that I quarantine when I get to that point. I just couldn’t wait until I had something to show to get this message into a bottle.
Edited by Gumwaddy, Today, 04:49 PM.
Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/771042/somebodys-screwing-with-me/