Is "The_World.exe" familiar to anyone?

[kmplsv]

Is anyone familiar with this file? It hasn't been on my system long, I've just noticed it within the past couple of days in my Task Manager but I cannot pinpoint what program it is associated with even after doing a mental rundown of any recently installed software. Could it be associated with a windows update? WSE, Malwarebytes, Jotti, and VirusTotal all show it as non-threatening, but it seems to be leaching quite a bit of RAM for no good reason at all. The file resides in my "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates" directory and if I delete it, it simply comes back. I've done some googling but that hasn't turned up much useful information, just people with the same questions as I have. It just seems sketchy to me. I've attached a screenshot of the Task Manager window.

 

[Hopalong X]

Google search results.
the world browser - Google Search

It is a browser. It was probably installed with another software you downloaded.

Go into Control Panel then Programs and Features and uninstall it if you want.
Probably listed as "The World Browser" or similar.

 

[StalkeR]

Will be good to remove it with Revo Uninstaller. It will delete all data from the browser in your pc.

 

[kmplsv]

It is attached to a piece of malicious software. The software in question is "npkusvc.exe" and yes, I'm certain that the two are linked. This information really should be updated in databases like Jotti and VirusTotal. I finally got rid of the sucker by doing some manual deletion, but only after I got rid of "npkusvc.exe" and manually stopped the service that was associated.

 

[hax]

had the same virus, not really sure what it did, I stopped the service, removed it with hijackthis and manually deleted the files (there were quite a lot of them), thankfully avast didn't do a thing to prevent it ... yehaaaw.

 

[SledgeDG]

You might want to do a full run with this

Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a free download that removes viruses and malware from your computer

 

[willabovebeyond]

kmplsv, I have exactly the same thing as you do, but I don't know how to get rid of it. It is using 73,168k when i check the processes tab on Task Manager. It is really annoying e as I don't know what file/installation it came with. I don't have "npkusvc.exe" , at least it doesn't appear on Task Manager..

What steps did you take to delete this piece of dog poo?

Cheers

 

[osijek1289]

What a crazy POS this is. Somehow got this running on a brand new XP64 install. Can't help but think it has something to do with inserting the National Geographic Challenge CD into my drive, and not properly cancelling out of the install. This install is work/production, so I don't know where this came from, unless, it somehow got migrated from another visible OS partition.

Regardless, using Iarsn Taskinfo, was able to see that c:<wininstalldirectory>\sysWOW64\kscpsvc.exe started this POS, residing in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.<machine name>\Templates\The_World.exe

Killing kscpsvc.exe and deleting the file doesn't do it - something recreates it.

It and/or the_world.exe Brower seems to be started by sdupsvc.exe which is a service. head into your control panel and set it to stop. Then, killing it from my tasklist, killed the_world.exe and kscpsvc.exe. Am deleting those files too, but not sure if that will take care of it for good, and, don't stil know what sdupsvc.exe is - bleepingcomputer.com says I need it. Guess I will see what happens on a reboot.

 

[osijek1289]

This the_world.exe cancer has not been stopped. What a pain in the arse. I can usually shut it down with the above method, but every so often it comes to life, in different ways ... need to keep searching. So many viruses, so little time ...

Update: Found it living here - deleted and let's see if it gets recreated. Also, renamed all the registry entries (as opposed to deleting them just to be safer) Path = C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.<machine name>\Templates\The_World.exe