Illicit Activity

Hi, I currently use Windows XP. I have a wireless internet and I believe my computer has been hacked by someone. I believe that all my passwords and stuff when I type them in, are being emailed to some other person and they are getting into my accounts. Due to the fact that I do my banking on the internet, this could be a real issue. Does anyone know of how I can stop this type of activity? I use Zone Alarm the Firewall. Also I found a .CS (comma-seperated-something-a-rather) file listing all of my accounts names and passwords in the C:\Windows\System32\catroot directory, that I did not put there. I found this as I downloaded a program to detect malicious activity on the PC called Microsoft Malicous Detection Tool that found this file.

Thankyou for all advice.

Greetz.

If you are truly paranoid that your system has been Compromised, then backup your important data, format and re-install. :)

Curious have you ran your AntiVirus scanner in safemode with system restore disabled?

The first question you should ask is if your computer is physically secure? that is, no possibility of unauthorised access in your absence.

I am afraid that the only reliable course of action is to reformat and reinstall. I personally use DBAN to do a single pass overwrite of the entire HDD.

http://www.dban.org/

If you are curious as to what might have attacked you I would suggest you download, install, update then run in safe mode the following applications (they are free for private use).

http://malwarebytes.org/
http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html [Spybot S&D]
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ [A-Squared]

You might also like to open up ZoneAlarm and have a look at what programs are authorised for internet access?

Please remember to use a trustworthy machine to change all your passwords. ;)

Please also make sure that your OS is fully patched (I am sure that you have) and consider using this application:

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

It will tell you if you have any vulnerable applications apart from your OS (yes it is free).

Another one to have a look at:

http://www.winpatrol.com/

And use this to protect your registry:

http://tds.diamondcs.com.au/freeutilities/regprot.php

Good luck! :)

Nihil you still use A-Squared.. I mean does it still "work' ?

Oh btw, to the guy with the "someone has hacked into my machine" .. Format and re-install.. Get firewall and AV up first (Please get original version and pay for them and for the OS too) .. PATCH PATCH PATCH ..

Hi there ByTe~,

Yes A-Squared is still around and still works. The latest version is 4.5.0.1 dated 8th. June 2009.

You can also get a firewall and system monitor (a bit like UAC) from Tall Emu, packaged with the standard A-Squared application.

Free for private use, and it works with Win2000, which ZoneAlarm no longer supports.

:)

Lol.. okay.. I thought A-squared was dead.. I used to use it long back.. Thanks anyway.

People wouldn't have a problem with malware installing drivers to hook into NDIS and anything related to the keyboard and mouse if they'd setup their accounts properly from the get-go. The things Vista implemented wouldn't be needed if newfags would grasp the concept of actually operating a computer.

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setup their accounts properly from the get-go

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Please elaborate.

I would guess that he's referring to user permissions. You can configure Windows so that it mimics the behavior of Linux or Mac OS. Just create an account with minimal permissions that you use for most things. Sign in as admin when you want to install something, or make significant changes to anything, the register etc.. Also configuring one's browser so that is not a sitting duck.

This is really odd
C:\Windows\System32\catroot
Holds encryption stuff, update stuff, etc. If the cryptsvc service is running, then there are files there.

sha1 hashes are stored there as *.cat files, I guess you could open them and see account and password info.

I'm not aware of any spyware that utilizes that directory???

OP Can you give more info, like even a hijack this log?

What made you look at that dir?

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I'm not aware of any spyware that utilizes that directory???

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Same here............mostly to do with Windows Update AFAIK?

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setup their accounts properly from the get-go

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Still waiting on the elaboration ...

you arent using any software that you can safely put your username / passwords / account info in the program and then secures a file with this in?

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You can configure Windows so that it mimics the behavior of Linux or Mac OS.

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Mimics wha-?? Huh? Its not an emulator.

Nobody allows you to edit text and ini files and in some rare cases... setup crone jobs. Meanwhile, guests would never allow something like that. Most flavors of linux still have an admin account while Vista and OSX have it completely disabled on install.