Beware for any MySpace page that displays: “This profile contains adult content. CLICK HERE to install MS Viewer.”
What you’ll get is far from adult content. You will be infected with a variant of the Zlob Trojan.
Source: F-Secure Blog
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Archive for February, 2007
Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome and round of applause for Steven. He will be contributing security news and information to RandomFix. He currently has his own website, Security Zone which should be up in a few weeks.
So it’s been about a week since I installed True Launch Bar and so far, so good. I enjoy all the features that I’ve been able to mess with and I just realized how much more there are to figure out. From having hot keys to open various programs or do certain shortcuts, to having virtual folders on the task/quick launch bar, this thing has made me much more efficient.
I plan to buy the four pack of licenses so I can run it on my work computer and then wherever else. The $50.00 license is well worth it. This piece of software is well built, and by that I mean very well coded. There is an open forum in which you can discuss feature requests as well as bug reports.
If you’re interested, just head over to TrueLaunchBar.com.
If you continuously receive this error message while booting into Windows or just out of nowhere, especially if you have just removed a bunch of spyware or viruses, then consider this fix.
The other symptoms is you should see this error in the Event Viewer:
Faulting application update.exe, version 6.2.29.0, faulting module update.exe, version 6.2.29.0, fault address 0×0008f0c7.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
If you see the above mentioned in the Application section of the Event Viewer, chances are that the fix I have will work.
Download this batch file. Run the batch file and reboot.
The batch file re-registers several .dll files that are crucial to Windows Update. I could find nothing in regards to this on the net nor through Google and even Experts-Exchange. I guess it was a real anomaly. However, I hope if you encounter this you can use this fix to get your computer working.
Update:
I thought I fixed it but was wrong. I ended up also having to stop the Automatic Updates service by going to Start > Run, typing in “services.msc” looking for “Automatic Updates,” double clicking on the service, first changing it from starting automatically to disabled and then stopping the service by clicking on the stop button up above.
Then I had to go into C:\Windows\System32 and I went into the SoftwareDistribution folder and deleted everything.
I went back to the services.msc and re-enabled the Automatic Updates service as well as changed the startup from disabled to automatic.
Here is an excellent write up by none other than Microsoft themselves. It’s a great article going into detail about what is new and improved with Vista. I’m sure you’ve heard the majority of it all but this stuff is interesting due to the under the hood nature of the details. It’s much more complex than the normal, “you are much more secure with Vista, blah blah blah.” This delves into much more detail. Read it, I hope you like it. I got it off digg.com.
Just in case you see some changes around here, that’s me just changing up the look. I’ve finally had some time to get into customizing my K2 theme. I plan to change the color scheme and a few other things. I will definitely be adding a new header as well. Have a great day.
I don’t know where I saw this if it was via Digg.com or another blog I frequent but it’s a social networking site for bloggers. I signed up, my user ID is Nocturnal. I don’t have many friends or acquaintances yet but hopefully in the near future, I’ll get a few.
In the mean time, if you see me or if you join, feel free to search for me by user name, Nocturnal.
My dilemma is as follows, I have a computer that was infected with spyware. I removed it all and now when I attempt to run a scan using Panda’s ActiveScan I am greeted with an error indicating the ActiveX file could not have been downloaded. This is a generic error message as the actual ActiveX file is showing up in C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files.
I’ve tried all the suggestions including clearing out all temp files, Temp Internet Files, changing the security default from medium-high to low, to enabling all ActiveX downloads even including unsigned ones (although I changed it back once I realized that it didn’t make a difference). I tried re-registering several .dll files to no avail.
I’m at my wit’s end. I don’t know what else to do. I know there is a fix out there but no one seems to know. I’ve searched Google using all the terms that the error message gives me yet I can’t seem to come across one single page that indicates what to do/how to fix the problem. Most of the results are anti-spyware forums in which people help you to remove spyware that is on your computer. The thread ends up ending without any indication of how to fix the Panda ActiveScan ActiveX problem.
I went to www.pcpitstop.com and ran their ActiveX checker and it all checks out. I put http://www.pandasoftware.com into the Trusted Zone for the time being, no dice. I’m able to run Microsoft Updates without any problems. Norton Internet Security 2005 was on this computer but I removed it with SymNRT.
I even went so far as to remove all the registry entries that have to do with the Panda classID. That did not work either.
The only thing left in my arsenal is to do a data backup and then reinstall Windows. The thing is, I would love to avoid this as I know there is some fix out there that will fix this problem, I just haven’t stumbled upon it yet. Damn it this is one of the most frustrating problems I’ve encountered in such a long time. In the past when I encountered this I don’t believe I ever found a fix and I’ve always just opted for a clean install after backing up the client’s data. No more though, I do not want to go that option, I want to fix the computer without having to resort to that. I know it’s possible, I just know it. I will be searching high and low this evening and tomorrow morning. If I do fix it, of course I will have it up here for everyone else to use. Until then, or wish me some luck because I will need all I can get.
I was able to reset the BIOS password by removing the keyboard and then removing the battery that is placed right below the keyboard. I removed the battery, powered the unit on, turned the unit off and then put the battery back in. Upon turning the unit back on I no longer was prompted to input a BIOS password. I don’t know if this works on all K series notebooks but on the K33 it did work fine.
Currently working on a FRV25 which is experiencing this: Upon turning it on, you see the Sony splash screen, and immediately afterwards it goes to a blank screen. You can see the backlight working. I connected an external monitor and the same issue persisted. I then swapped out the memory for known working modules as well as changed out the processor for a known working CPU. Both things did not help to alleviate the issue.
I tried researching via Google and all I could come up with is a convoluted Hardware Analysis forum which stinks. There were a few posts, that I could find, out of several hundred, that indicated a problem similar to mine. I don’t know the fix but I thought I’d document this for future reference. If I figure it out, I will definitely post it here.