Tag Archives: malware

Malware cannot be removed without internet access

Computer Aid Posted on by

I just had an interesting experience, where a customer got a malware infection, and shortly before I arrive, their ISP decides to block their internet access.

So I get myself set up, to remove the infection via UBCD4win, and I cannot get spyware signature updates.

So I found myself in the situation where I couldn’t fix the problem without taking the computer back to the office (where I had a working internet connection), in order to remove a malware infection!

But then again, it shouldn’t be a big surprise… the internet is the main vehicle for spreading malware in the first place, so it follows that you need the same internet access to disinfect a PC.

bsod screensaver installed by malware

Computer Aid Posted on by

Interesting malware.

Recently, I’ve found some infected systems that will also install the BSOD screensaver.

At first, I thought the customer (or someone related) had installed the BSOD screensaver as a joke, and it was unrelated to the infection.

But the first time this happened, the customer called me a few days later to say that something was still wrong with the system… I was told: The system would show a “blue screen with white writing”, and then the PC would restart.

I know I wouldn’t leave a system in such a state (and I had forgotten about the BSOD screensaver…), so I re-visited the customer as soon as possible.

I was not happy to see that the system was working fine and the BSOD (blue screen of death) would go away by just moving the mouse.

BSOD

However, changing the screensaver wasn’t as easy as I thought… the malware had also hidden some tabs from the display properties (desktop tab and screen saver tab).

So after some fishing around I found that a minor change in the registry made the tabs re-appear (go to HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem , and delete the NoDispScrSavPage and NoDispBackgroundPage keys.