What's the worst ad/spy/mal ware or virus you've seen

jimbo45

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Hi there

Ignoring Ransomware which fortunately I haven't had what's the WORST piece of ad/cr@p/mal / ware or virus you've had to deal with.

My worst one was trying to get rid of BUBBLEDOCK on a colleagues computer -- this would popup zillions of windows without allowing you to do very much on the computer. Traces of this were so deep into the computer that "classical virus removal" didn't work -- even sophisticated Virus removal which flagged it as removed didn't get rid of it completely/ - I just re-formatted and re-installed windows. That must be the WORST piece of software I've ever seen. It didn't damage any data but it was a pain to deal with.

Here's a description -- don't bother with the removal part of the article though.

Bubble Dock or a variant of Win32/BubbleDock.A Removal Report

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
'Tripped' over some nasty 'installware' a while back.
I sat helplessly watching my computer go nuts! (wish I could have recorded it, was a real hoot!)
Checked my power and connection, then out came the clean install stick and product key!
It was crazy! ;)
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion
  • PC2
    Tablet - Windows 10 Home
Blaster in XP. It restarted PC in 60 seconds after startup. What is the worst, I did clean install 3 times a in row and I was still getting infected through the network, before Windows Updates could be downloaded. :confused:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo E525
    CPU
    AMD A4-3300M @ 2,0GHz
    Memory
    6GB DDR3 1333MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 6480G 512MB shared
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    WD 465GB
    Cooling
    Fusion Tweaker
    Keyboard
    Logitech K360
    Mouse
    Logitech M705
    Internet Speed
    50/50 MBps
    Browser
    Yandex
    Antivirus
    No AV & No Firewall
    Other Info
    Headphones: Sennheiser RS170
I've actually been pretty lucky (knock on wood). I've had a few viruses and a couple trojans over the years. Nothing that Spybot/Adaware couldn't handle. The most interesting one was a dialer that was stuffed at me. It took about 20 seconds of the page being open for it to install and about 10 more seconds for it to 'connect'. I couldn't get the mouse from the middle of the screen to the tray, right click Zone Alarm and "lock".

It connected me to some porn site. I closed the browser and cleaned. No big problem, or so I thought. About a week later, I got a letter stating that I owed said porn site $30. I ignored it. A week later another letter showed up, threatening 'action'. I was royally pissed. They were nice enough to have a phone number in the letter. I called and told them that if they EVER contacted me again, the State Attorney General would get a call from me. Never heard from them again.

How did they get my name/address? Thanks AT&T. No wonder I dropped them.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP h8 envy 1534
    CPU
    AMD FX-6200 (3.8GHz)
    Motherboard
    M3970AM-HP (Angelica2) (Gigabyte)
    Memory
    10GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Eyefinity Radeon HD 7570
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Kaskersky Internet Security 2016
Hmmm... Personally, I haven't had to deal with anything too nasty on my systems that I can recall. But other peoples', oh yeah! The last actual time I had a virus was from a hard drive I was scanning and somehow the virus jumped over to my system drive and almost ran me down! Had to do boot to safe mode, do a virus scan on my WHOLE system and remove said offending code.

Mainly though, I've seen quite a few pieces of malware that block access to EVERY system feature of Windows, like Task Manager, Control Panel, msconfig, everything. Usually the internet browsers that were installed were also affected and couldn't connect. Those are pretty annoying though.

I have however, known of someone that got hit with the cryptolocker virus this past year. Crazy stuff, girl lost all of her data.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
Believe or not, but my worst nightmare was Babylon, I tried Babylon as a translating program which was not bad but after I uninstalled the program that "extra" part took few days to get rid of. Had NOD32 for a while and it used to squeal like a pig many times a day and 99% of warnings were false positives. Avast is doing a good job for me for awhile now but weekly checks with it, Mbam and few others rarely find something worse than PUPs here and there.
I do read everything I see when downloading and installing stuff, watch where and what I'm downloading and pay attention if browser warns me about certain sites.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I once had a Virus that attached itself to McAfee and ran it's 'delete files without prompt' routine - It deleted most of my Word docs IIRC...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    PC-DOS v1.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    IBM
    CPU
    Intel 8088, 4.77MHz
    Memory
    16K, 640K max
    Graphics Card(s)
    What's that?
    Sound Card
    Not quite
    Screen Resolution
    80 X 24 text
    Hard Drives
    dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives
I once had a Virus that attached itself to McAfee and ran it's 'delete files without prompt' routine - It deleted most of my Word docs IIRC...
Good old McAfee, you can always count on it.....
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I encountered one and I don't recall its name... but it played audio advertising on the PC and nothing would stop it. I had to go to the "nuclear option" and reload Windows from scratch to get rid of it for good...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built Intel i7-3770k-based system
    CPU
    Intel i7-3770k, Overclocked to 4.6GHz (46x100) with Corsair H110i GT cooler
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 OC Formula 2.30 BIOS
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 2133 Corsair Vengeance Pro
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 980ti SC ACS 6GB DDR5 by EVGA
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD, Corsair SP2500 speakers and subwoofer
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27EA33 [Monitor] (27.2"vis) HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (system drive)
    WD 6TB Red NAS hard drives x 2 in Storage Spaces (redundancy)
    PSU
    Corsair 750ax fully modular power supply with sleeved cables
    Case
    Corsair Air 540 with 7 x 140mm fans on front, rear and top panels
    Cooling
    Corsair H110i GT liquid cooled CPU with 4 x 140" Corsair SP "push-pull" and 3 x 140mm fans
    Keyboard
    Thermaltake Poseidon Z illuminated keyboard
    Mouse
    Corsair M65 wired
    Internet Speed
    85MBps DSL
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, MalwareBytes Pro and CCleaner Pro
    Other Info
    Client of Windows Server 2012 R2 10 PC's, laptops and smartphones on the WLAN.

    1GBps Ethernet ports
Also, iTunes!!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built Intel i7-3770k-based system
    CPU
    Intel i7-3770k, Overclocked to 4.6GHz (46x100) with Corsair H110i GT cooler
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 OC Formula 2.30 BIOS
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 2133 Corsair Vengeance Pro
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 980ti SC ACS 6GB DDR5 by EVGA
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD, Corsair SP2500 speakers and subwoofer
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27EA33 [Monitor] (27.2"vis) HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (system drive)
    WD 6TB Red NAS hard drives x 2 in Storage Spaces (redundancy)
    PSU
    Corsair 750ax fully modular power supply with sleeved cables
    Case
    Corsair Air 540 with 7 x 140mm fans on front, rear and top panels
    Cooling
    Corsair H110i GT liquid cooled CPU with 4 x 140" Corsair SP "push-pull" and 3 x 140mm fans
    Keyboard
    Thermaltake Poseidon Z illuminated keyboard
    Mouse
    Corsair M65 wired
    Internet Speed
    85MBps DSL
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, MalwareBytes Pro and CCleaner Pro
    Other Info
    Client of Windows Server 2012 R2 10 PC's, laptops and smartphones on the WLAN.

    1GBps Ethernet ports
I'll be that guy and go there, but the worst spyware I've encountered BY FAR, is the NSA. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
I encountered one and I don't recall its name... but it played audio advertising on the PC and nothing would stop it. I had to go to the "nuclear option" and reload Windows from scratch to get rid of it for good...

My friend actually had the same issue a year ago. It turns out it was a rootkit, and we removed it with Kaspersky TDSS Killer. It would play audio ADs randomly.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Home Premium
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
iTunes, the first and only time I installed it on my old pc, I lost access to all my dvd drives, the only way I got them back was to reinstall windows. So now I never use it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home build
    CPU
    i5-3550
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H
    Memory
    8gb Gskill 1600 9-9-9-24 xmp
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 760 OC
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GL2760H 27inch hdmi; LG Flatron E2351 23inch dvi
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1x Samsung Evo 850 120GB
    1x 4TB WD HDD
    1x 4TB Seagate HDD
    1x 3TB WD HDD
    1x 2TB Seagate HDD
    1x 2TB Seagate External HDD
    1x 1TB Seagate External HDD
    PSU
    Coolermaster V750
    Case
    Coolermaster HAF Advanced
    Cooling
    Standard
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Razor Abyssus USB
    Internet Speed
    Broadband
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast Premier & Malwarebytes
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