Windows 7 - consent.exe -- suspect, not flagged by NIS or MBAM

marco75 · 02-05-2012

My new i5 Windows 7 system was assembled in November 2011 and has been stable since then.
Windows Security Essentials was installed and worked normally.
It has two identical HDD in RAID 0 mirror volume (intel RST systray applet), cached onto 120 GB SSD using Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT)

A few days ago, my system started having intermittent lockups and freezes.
Most commonly, the Start menu would become unresponsive – the buttons would no longer highlight under the mouse pointer, clicking produces ‘ding!’ sound.
Windows + E would produce an RPC error message
Task Manager shows multiple consent.exe threads, no accompanying confirmation dialog
When the system locks up, only a hardware reset would enable a restart.
On reset, the cache rebuilds and the system halts after the RAID BIOS screen. After a second reset, Windows loads and on login, intel RST verifies RAID data integrity. Both cache rebuild and RAID verification are successful.

I have scanned the system with Malwarebytes Anti-malware (1 trojan found and removed) and Norton Internet Security (100 tracking cookies, threat assessment: “mild”, removed). I have also run sfc /scannow in a cmd.exe window with admin privileges.

I suspect that C:\Windows\system32\consent.exe (112,000 bytes) on my system is malware: For instance, Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt (right-click) Run as administrator will start another consent.exe, the start menu stops working, and the command prompt window does not appear.

I think the genuine consent.exe is more like ~87,000 bytes, can’t remember exactly.

Any advice on how to fix this without wiping everything and starting from scratch would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You for reading! ^_^

dreamer · 02-05-2012

You can try Boot CD anti virus.Download and burn anti virus on a CD.Pop the CD into DVD drive,choose boot from CD/DVD drive in BIOS and let the anti virus scan you system.Here in this thread are listed few Boot CD anti viruses Best Boot CD Antivirus?.

Jacee · 02-05-2012

Read this article, but don't download the registry tweaker What is Consent.exe and how to fix Consent.exe error?_Windows Error Help

Upload C:\Windows\system32\consent.exe to Jotti's malware scan and have the file scanned for malware.

BTW... I had two identical (500 gb) HDD in RAID 0 mirror volume, same as you, but found it gave me more trouble than it was worth!!

jcgriff2 · 02-05-2012

consent.exe = UI for admin apps (UAC)

Windows 7 x64 SP1 -

Code:

 Directory of C:\Windows\system32

11/20/2010  08:32           112,000 consent.exe
               1 File(s)        112,000 bytes

Windows 7 - consent.exe -- suspect, not flagged by NIS or MBAM

consent.exe -- suspect, not flagged by NIS or MBAM problems?