Need help. Spyware?/trojan?

Hi all. I'm looking for some help which would be very much appreciated :-)

I seem to be having problems with a dialer trojan that keeps reappearing on my system. It never runs, because fortunately my AVG antivirus software prevents it from executing.

The trojan is a file called '124782.exe' with files called 'inst.exe' and 'hooks.dll'

Every time I delete this files they reappear soon afterwards, installing themselves on the C: drive (no directory). They seem to appear whenever I load Internet Explorer or MSN Messenger (although I'm not 100%). I have tried spyware busting software and running an up-to-date anti virus but these files keep re-appearing. Has anyone else has this problem? Can anybody help, or instruct on how to prevent these files reappearing?

Thanks.

Hey HobNob

A good peice of anti spyware software is Ad-Aware

Also here is a page which might be of help.

Originally posted on forums.majorgeeks.com...

Today I even had something new when "inst.exe", "124430.exe" and "hooks.dll" were added while I was on the internet. I noticed the change and immediately ran Ad Aware again, which caught and deleted them.

Hope that's some help.

Jack

Press Control/Alt/Delete (Win2K/XP) and check out the processes that are starting automatically when you boot up. If you can;t find a good reason for having an item on the list, then terminate it.
If all else has failed go into IE and click on Settings. Click on Internet options. In the section "Temporary Internet Files" click on Delete Files and then click on Delete Cookies. This will clean out TIFs which are resident in your Documents and Settings folder; a favourite place for Trojans to hide.
Reboot. You will lose your browsing history, and you may have to log on to sites you regularly visit, but it is a small price to pay if you can dispose of these nasty "buggers".
If that doesn't work, check through your 'C' drive's root directory for entries that look suspicious; check the 'Program Files' directory as well.
And if that doesn't work, you may have to venture into the Registry - but be careful if you have to resort to this sort of action.
Hope this is of some help.

Spybot Search and Destroy

[Edited on 10-10-2004 by makeitso]

Antivirus software is not made to find exploits/trogans. It will only find trogans that are also virus (not many). Some AV are getting better. Adware is a good exploit remover along with Spybot Search and Destroy. Both are free.

However...... There are some notorious exploits that are extremely difficult to remove. They just keep coming back everytime you restart.

I use a combination of tools to find and destroy these. Hijackthis and Startup Control are both good at letting you quickly see everything that is set to run at startup, and Startup control lets you uncheck, and delete these, (so you better know what you are doing).

In addition there are some good forums on spyware/exploits. One of these mentions the posted exploit. 12345.exe but by far the best way I have found to remove these older types of exploits is CWShredder Pay close attention to the guidelines.

Another method is to search google groups for the exact name of the offending programs, along with the suggestions in the prior posts.

Thanks very much, you're all stars :-)