Hi MajorFoley,
I have to agree with MoxieMomma. I do believe that if 1 file is infected with Ramnit, I am pretty sure all the files are tainted and of no use and the external should be destroyed. If you must, some idea on how to approach how I would go about testing the external for the infection are following the low down a colleague of mine once posted to another Ramnit victim.
Win32/Ramnit.A is a
file infector with
IRCBot functionality which
infects .exe, and
.HTML/
HTM files, and
opens a back door that
compromises your computer. Using this backdoor, a remote attacker can access and instruct the infected computer to download and execute more malicious files. The infected .HTML or .HTM files may be detected as
Virus:VBS/Ramnit.A.
Win32/Ramnit.A!dll is a related
file infector often seen with this infection. It too has
IRCBot functionality which
infects .exe, .dll and
.HTML/
HTM files and
opens a back door that
compromises your computer. This component is injected into the default web browser by
Worm:Win32/Ramnit.A which is dropped by a Ramnit infected executable file.
-- Note: As with most malware infections, the threat name may be different depending on the anti-virus or anti-malware program which detected it. Each security vendor uses their own naming conventions to identify various types of malware.
With this particular infection the safest solution and only sure way to remove it effectively is to reformat and reinstall the OS.
Why? The malware injects code in legitimate files similar to the
Virut virus and in many cases the infected files (which could number in the thousands)
cannot be disinfected properly by your anti-virus. When disinfection is attempted, the files often become corrupted and the system may become unstable or
irreparable. The longer Ramnit.A remains on a computer, the more files it infects and corrupts so the degree of infection can vary.
Ramnit is
commonly spread via a
flash drive (usb, pen, thumb, jump)
infection where it copies Worm:Win32/Ramnit.A with a random file name. The infection is often
contracted by visiting remote,
crack and
keygen sites. These type of sites are
infested with a smörgåsbord of malware and a major source of system infection.
In my opinion,
Ramnit.A is not effectively disinfectable, so your best option is to perform a full reformat as there is
no guarantee this infection can be completely removed. In most instances it may have caused so much damage to your system files that it cannot be completely cleaned or repaired. Further, your
machine has likely been compromised by the
backdoor Trojan and there is no way to be sure the computer can ever be trusted again.
It is dangerous and incorrect to assume the computer is secure even if your anti-virus reports that the malware appears to have been removed.
Many experts in the security community believe that once infected with this type of malware, the best course of action is to wipe the drive clean,
reformat and reinstall the OS. Please read:
Whenever a system has been compromised by a backdoor payload, it is impossible to know if or how much the backdoor has been used to affect your system...There are only a few ways to return a compromised system to a confident security configuration. These include:
• Reimaging the system
• Restoring the entire system using a full system backup from before the backdoor infection
• Reformatting and reinstalling the system
Backdoors and What They Mean to You
This is what Jesper M. Johansson at Microsoft TechNet has to say:
Help: I Got Hacked. Now What Do I Do?.
The
only way to clean a compromised system is to
flatten and rebuild. That’s right. If you have a system that has been completely compromised, the only thing you can do is to flatten the system (reformat the system disk) and rebuild it from scratch (reinstall Windows and your applications).
Possible ways to test the External and stay safe doing so:
Only way I can think of to check the files on the external and stay safe doing so is to install a VM and open the external within. That way if Ramnit is present, it is contained in a secure environment and the VM can be nuked.
If that is not a possibility and you insist on continuing with checking the external for Ramnit without installing a VM, I recommend that you follow Brinks tutorial to
Disable AutoPlay, though I can not guarantee your safety. You can then manually access the external, right click and run MalwarebytesAntimalware on the device to see if anything is found, and if anything is found in any of the files on the external, you will be provided with the path to the file(s) which are infected.
Personally, I would kiss the external goodbye and toss it in the incinerator.
If you use removal USB devices on a regular basis, might I suggest that you install
McShield2.
Using a VM would be ideal if there was freeare around, i do have a win 7 installation disk i can use. How would i make sure it doesnt open on my main system and straight to the VM though?
