• Member Since 4th Dec, 2011
  • offline last seen January 24th

AdmiralTigerclaw


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Jun
17th
2014

Little Brick Wall in writing... · 4:24pm Jun 17th, 2014

Not writer's block or plot problems but Trojan.zekos being a real pest. So I'm doing system maintenance after it kicked in... again (for the fourth time) and trying to find the root of the infection so I can be rid of it permanently. (Putting in ABP, doing some long overdue system updates, and getting ten million different scanning profile softwares to hunt for this thing and doing my research.) Naturally, the big clue to this infection is when the computer suddenly shuts itself off in the middle of my work and restarts and an svchost process starts up and starts eating ram.

I can rollback and clean to clear the 'additional' infections the virus pulls in, but I need to find its source. Already used rootkit rescue CDs and the like last night after I thought I was clear.

*Sigh*

Why's an Operating System have to be so ungodly complicated?


Anyway... Don't worry about my PC, that'll work itself out when I get done.

A question for you guys reading CiG: What country songs do you know that Toby would like?

So far, I would put these as his list and template other songs like them:
- Shut up and Hold, Toby Keith (His effective intro and title theme)
- Hard Working Man, Brooks n Dun
- Boot Scoot Boogie, Brooks n Dun
- Ghost Riders in the Sky (just about any version, though Spiderbait and Duane Eddy versions are his favorites)

Effectively upbeat country and country-western. He's going to be sensitive under his calm (if sometimes disgruntled) exterior and a bit cowardly under pressure, so he's going to have a lot of upbeat country music to keep from feeling depressed.

Report AdmiralTigerclaw · 800 views · Story: Change is Good ·
Comments ( 28 )

Have you tried Malwarebytes? It digs deeper than most of the other stuff I tried when I had a Trojan, and it seemed to work. It just sucks that eliminating a Trojan is like proving a negative - you don't really know it's gone until it never comes back, which just leaves you nervous all the time.


"I Feel Like a Woman" should pop up just once so Chrysalis can make fun of him later. :pinkiehappy: (Especially, since as a changeling, he might, might, have the ability to change into one.) :rainbowwild:

What about "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere?"

I don't listen to country so even those two are stretching my memory.

Go into the system files and delete System 32:trollestia:
If you know what programs are needed for a computer to run, delete the files that you don't recognize, that's only if you are a pro at computers though...

Why's an Operating System have to be so ungodly complicated?

Because if you're using an IBM clone, then you're supposed to be a computer genius to know all the ins and outs of the system. End users just get reamed in the rump, if you take my meaning.
As for country… Does it have to be country? Why not some J-Pop or even better, some Electro stuff. Not all Texans like country music. If you do have to go country, why not "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy," by Big & Rich.

Second on Malwarebytes. Last resort aside from wiping the system and starting over, you should try ComboFix. But only as a last resort.

Not a country listener, so no suggestions on my end.

2213972

Hah! Yes, delete system32... The entire folder that runs the OS. Brilliant idea, let's implement that immed- :ajbemused:

Don't even joke about that. I've got one piece of research I dug up last night that suggests a manual removal and repair of a system critical dll file and registry key hacks that could 'm-m-m-m-monster kill-kill-kill' the system if I decide to do it and screw up.

I'm really not into the idea of playing with Critical Files, you never know which one could flat out make the system unresponsive if you mess it up. And even worse, you never know if you can restore or fix one of those externally.

Also, I am pretty much a computer pro/expert short of being a certified Microsoft programmer. OSs are just ungodly complicated nests of programs that call files, that reference files, that call programs, that reference dlls that get their instructions from registry keys named like a 2 yr-old playing scrabble.

So far I've been using a combination of spybot, malware bytes, Rogue Killer (which is what found the zekos infection), combo fix, DCSS killer, comodo rescue CD (rootkit scan last night) and so on.

I'd say 'I know what I'm doing', but that's a trigger phrase and trouble always follows.

Right now I'm doing some 160+ system updates. Maybe one of them will overwrite the virus (if it's still there.)

the devil went down to georgia/charlie daniels band
Cotton Eye Joe/Rednex

These are some good country songs.

Maybe you can try saving all important data via live usb OS and then format hdd? Reinstalling is universal solution for everything :scootangel:

You wont lost anything important and get rid of that trojan...

2213999 Try Advast, it's the Anti-virus program that I use

I'd recommend Avast Antivirus and maybe Glary Utilities (which is good for fixing registry errors, clearing temporary files, and some other small maintenance things). I'd also say you have too many different programs that look at the same things. Pick one antivirus software that you like and stick with it. If you use 3 programs that do the same thing they have more of a chance of causing problems then fixing them.

As a fallback, you can always reformat your computer, and restore from a backup. I did it when I had this very rare issue that only occurs in a very small number of Macs (my computer being a MacBook Pro). It takes a while, a few hours if your hard drive is solid-state or if it's not you should do it overnight, but it will fix any problems you have and give you a clean computer again.

If you don't have a backup, you'll have to get a spare hard drive (or USB drive/CD/DVD) and back everything important up (Photos/Documents/Anything that is data that is not available in the cloud and not a program you can just install again).

Also, if you run Malwarebytes, Spybot, or any antivirus program (I use Avast), run them in Safe Mode. You'll catch more suspicious files that way. :twilightsmile:

2214005

I'm not usually a fan of the country or western genres, but there are always a handful of especially good songs I'll like in any genre and I do like both of those so here are a couple of other related suggestions:

First, one that's definitely upbeat and apparently qualifies as country:

Second, one for anyone who likes Ghost Riders In The Sky:

As someone who took a computer repair class in high school I would recommend restoring the entire computer from a back up (I'm assuming you keep back ups).
Since some malware can attach themselves to flash drives or transfer from one computer to another, I would recommend making a copy of your back up and restoring your computer from the copy (so it can't infect your back up). If there are any files you want to keep from your computer in its current state transfer them to as many flash drives as needed to hold your files, and use your virus scanners on the flashdrives using a different computer. (one you don't care about)

Wait for a few days.

if the different computer gets infected then you know not to plug your flashdrives into the fixed computer. if that is the case just wait until your antivirus programs eventually get updated and are able to remove it.

if having not plugged in the flash drives but the old computer is still infected than take your computer into a computer repair shop and have them clear all the ROM in the computer as the virus has probably infected it.

Hmmm...

Alan Jackson

That really is all I can say on the matter.

Maybe Where were you when the world stopped turning... as that is a rather, poignant song about a major event in his life, it affected everyone in the US

2214204

As someone who took a computer repair class in high school

Okay... I don't want to snub you. I really don't. It makes me sound conceited and arrogant but...
Well... I'm not sure if you jumped into this conversation knowing my credentials. I get you want to help, but that comment just made me :twilightsheepish:

Because I see your one high school class, and raise you the following college courses:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v430/admiraltigerclaw/Creds_zpsb3f78899.jpg

Really, what you're suggesting is the blind-technician's version of trying to sort out malware. (Segregate, clean, watch) I don't need to do that as my system is otherwise infection free.

The problem I'm dealing with here is related to dealing with a particular type of malware with a very specific vector of attack. My system is functional, and while it has this Trojan, functionality of the system is not inhibited beyond a symptom process of svchost, which I can easily suspend. And between the cleaning stints I've been having, the system runs fine until the Trojan makes its attack. I'm still not sure if its the same Trojan just restarting an infection, or repeat infections of the same virus from a fully cleaned system because I haven't found and secured the attack vector. (Trying that with ABP or Ad Blocker Plus now. Haven't had a problem with background ads for almost a decade, and now suddenly they seem to be problematic.)

The Trojan zekos as I've read up on is borderline rootkit. It's vector of attack is to infect one of the system dll files such as the rpcss.dll file. A file that is used actively by the system at all times it is fully up and running. When this is the case, you can't simply stop and delete the file or replace it because that literally crashes the system. (Or hangs it.)

Depending on the variant of the program code (a virus is still a program), it can act anywhere from a downloader for other viruses, to a backdoor for hackers. As such, the symptoms of this particular virus are actually the symptoms of the junk it brings in later. In my case, whatever secondary infection it calls in that causes an instance of svchost to start up and begin nomming RAM. In a previous instance, it was the zero.access virus playing a bunch of audio ads overlapping on me out of the blue.

Research also mentions that zekos.patcher variant is an even more tenacious bastard as it actually tries to link to exe files and spread itself around the PC, making the infection a nightmare to prove a final cleanup on.

My goal is really to hit the one thing the virus keeps attacking and secure it, or at least block the virus off. It either attacks directly as a running process, or indirectly through system registry values acting as time-delayed instructions. But I'm REAL loathe to attempt any registry value tweaks. There are thousands of them, and messing up just ONE the wrong way can break a system. I can likely fix it with rollbacks or startup recovery from my OS disk, but just one iteration of that takes over an hour.

And I don't want to do a reinstall. I've got some software on here with activation keys I can't recover and I can't afford right now to replace them. On top of taking over a week just to get my system customized back up to par for a clean install.

Really, most antivirus suggestions I ever see are more like trying to catch cancer early. Just frequent, constant testing to remove little things while hoping the latest version of your detection software can find it. Problem is, the virus types that cause the real problems get into things you can't just remove them from, and because computers operate at digital speeds, the infection has done its job by the time you react to it. Assuming you're sitting right there at the time. Imagine trying to catch cancer early when cancer goes from benign to lethal in forty-five seconds.

Pain in the arse. :rainbowdetermined2:

Dariks Boot and Nuke and start again from scratch.

2214174

It occurs to me that, even if it's not to Toby's taste, having Chrysalis hear Up! on the radio at just the right time could still be useful to the plot.

Welp. I only have a few songs that count as country that I listen to on any regular basis, but I can give you a few suggestions.

One is the Blues Brothers version of "Rawhide." I could listen to that all day.

Next is Weird Al Yankovic's "Good Enough for Now," which is actually a parody of country songs, but honestly, given the content of some country songs, it could actually pass for one played pretty straight and I love it.

There's also the Charlie Daniels' Band's "Devil Went down to Georgia," which I find really fun.

Lastly, there's "Cotton Eye Joe" by the Rednex, which is a super fun song that I listen to all the time.

That's pretty much the only country songs I listen to that I could really suggest. I'm not familiar with very many others.

2213991 If he goes with that song... SOMEPONY is going to need to cut it off like right away... Chryssy perhaps?

As someone who had to deal with a nasty trojan on his last laptop, I just switched to Linux in a dual-boot format. Granted, it's a bit extreme, and you wind up having two OSs on one comp, but all my old data's still there and just fine, so long as I don't have to open it on Windows...

A Virus!!

lanternpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/hazmat-team-980x400.jpg

I send you a team of people in Hazmat Gear. They will help.

Personally, my paranoia wouldn't let me rest without a full system reinstall.

Having CD keys you can't deauthorize and keep track of how many times they are used is just asinine however. Unless you don't have a record of the keys anymore (Which is also asinine, a friendly program would list it's authorization credentials in Help > About.)

No way of getting the keys through registry scanning?

I can't say for certain what's going on, but I did run into something similar a year or two back, though the issue might have been that the file or executable or whatever kept resurrecting itself and coming back. Think it was in the java temp folder or something of my browser, but can't remember for sure.

Anyway, if you have that happening, and can't seem to be rid of the infernal file, try what I did: I opened it up (maybe it was an executable?) in notepad and just wrote in some absolute jibberish, which rendered the file inert and no longer executable, but since the file was still there, it never tried replacing it again. And that was the end of my issues.

Can't say for sure if it's the same issue, since I don't recall having that much trouble tracking down the file despite the similarity of the situation, but it might be worth considering if this ends up sounding familiar. Hopefully it can get a more clean removal though.

Just thought of another one which qualifies as country and should be upbeat enough to qualify.

John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads

...though I'm not usually in the mood for something with such a laid-back feel to it, so I prefer the up-tempo remix of the Hermes House Band cover.

:facehoof: What is up with you people? The man says "I've got this malware thing handled, but I need help with country music," and all he gets is malware advice? And Cotton Eye Joe? We can do better than that! :pinkiecrazy:

First of all, as John Michael Montgomery said, you gotta remember that "country music is the music that loves you back." There are a lot of beloved songs that are sad, wistful, or yearning. However, you have asked for exclusively upbeat songs to avoid depression, so we'll keep those off his playlist. (Considering "Ghost Riders in the Sky" is a warning to avoid going to Hell, I would consider it too grim to include in this list no matter how awesome it is.) Now the upbeat ones are meant to be fun so they are often tongue-in-cheek. Yes, "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" and "Redneck Yacht Club" are supposed to be silly and they poke fun at themselves, but they also fun, joyful, and exuberant, just the thing for someone trying to stave off melancholy. (If you're going to do John Denver, do "Thank God I'm a Country Boy"!)

Here's a list, in alphabetical order. I've put a * in front of some of the ones that are probably very well known, and a ! in front of ones that I think are particularly fun. I'm not providing links to all of them, but if you need help finding a song, or if you want a song fitting a particular theme, let me know. (For example, as has been mentioned elsewhere, Shania Twain has a bunch of songs that might be relevant to Chrysalis.)

Chad Brock
Lightning Does the Work
Yes!

Big & Rich - Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)

Brook & Dunn
Ain't Nothing 'Bout You
* Boot Scootin' Boogie
Brand New Man
Hard Workin' Man
!* My Maria
Only in America
Red Dirt Road

Garth Brooks
* Ain't Going Down (Till The Sun Comes Up)
Callin' Baton Rouge
Friends in Low Places
Two Piña Coladas
Wrapped Up In You
! Katie Wants A Fast One (with Steve Wariner)

! Chris Cagle - Chicks Dig It

Kenny Chesney
! She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy
Summertime

The Clark Family Experience - To Quote Shakespeare

Diamond Rio
Meet in the Middle
! Unbelievable

Joe Diffie
! Good Brown Gravy
Pickup Man
Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox (If I Die)
Third Rock From the Sun

Dixie Chicks
Long Time Gone
! Some Days You Gotta Dance

Emerson Drive
! Fall Into Me
I Should Be Sleeping

Vince Gill - One More Last Chance

Jack Ingram - Love You

Alan Jackson
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere
* Chattahoochee
Little Bitty
Mercury Blues
The Talkin' Song Repair Blues
Tall, Tall Trees
Where I Come From

Buddy Jewell - Sweet Southern Comfort

Toby Keith
!* Beer For My Horses
As Good As I Once Was
Gimme 8 Seconds
How Do You Like Me Now!
I Love This Bar
Who's Your Daddy
I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight

Tracy Lawrence - If The Good Die Young

Little Texas - Kick a Little

Lonestar
Amazed
! Front Porch Looking In
Mr. Mom
What about Now
With Me

! Brian McComas - 99.9% Sure (I've Never Been Here Before)

Tim McGraw
Down on the Farm
!* I Like It, I Love It
Indian Outlaw
My Next Thirty Years
Something Like That
Unbroken

! Ken Mellons - Jukebox Junkie

Jo Dee Messina
Burn
That's the Way

Montgomery Gentry - Hillbilly Shoes

John Michael Montgomery
Life's a Dance
! Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)

Craig Morgan
International Harvester
! Redneck Yacht Club

* Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Fishing In The Dark

Jamie O'Neal - When I Think About Angels

Michael Peterson - Drink, Swear, Steal & Lie

Rascal Flatts
! Backwards
Life Is A Highway
This Everyday Love

Collin Raye
Little Red Rodeo
! That's My Story
To The Border And Beyond

SHeDAISY - I'm Taking The Wheel

Sawyer Brown - Six Days On The Road

George Strait - Lovebug

Sugarland - Speed Of Life

Tippin, Aaron - There Ain't Nothing Wrong With The Radio

The Tractors - Baby Likes To Rock It

Travis Tritt
It's A Great Day To Be Alive
Take It Easy

! Turner, Josh - Would You Go With Me

Shania Twain
Any Man Of Mine
Man! I Feel Like A Woman!
No One Needs To Know
Rock This Country
Up!
You're Still The One

Keith Urban
!* Days Go By
!* Somebody Like You
!* Where The Blacktop Ends

Phil Vassar
Just Another Day In Paradise
Carlene
Love Is A Beautiful Thing
Six Pack Summer
That's When I Love You

Clay Walker
If I Could Make A Living
Live, Laugh, Love


Lee Ann Womack & Sons Of The Desert - I Hope You Dance

Darryl Worley - Tennessee River Run

And, since I can't help myself either, as an advanced Windows user trying to remove malware, I would guess that you are familiar with the Sysinternals suite of tools, particularly AutoRuns (listing a bazillion places you can hide something to automatically launch it), ProcExp (for checking the checksums on running processes), and ProcMon (for catching which process is writing to rpcss.dll)?

2218671

:rainbowdetermined2:
You just won the awesome response award.

There are more upbeat country songs here than I know what to do with, and it's going to take me a while to go through them all. I've already gone through about six or seven on the list and I do recognize several of them though I haven't heard the titles or artists' names.

I also realize I forgot a good Alan Jackson song I already have on my list... 'Good Time' And you forgot it too. :pinkiegasp:

If I decide to pull the joke, Good Time is getting saved for a spontaneous Equestrian song routine. (Probably being belted from the truck's CD player in the middle of Canterlot while Gazer's watching the population go into full flash mob line dance to it and him being like: 'Did I die and wake up in a musical?')
*Guards all over the truck after Chrysalis tried to flee canterlot and crashed it (with little damage) in the center of town.*

Random ponies: ... Changelings... ...it's another invasion!... ...-eat us all!...

Gazer: Now you've done it...

Chrissy: I was trying to get us out of here!

Gazer: *slips and hits the CD player*

*45 seconds later*

Gazer: What... is going on?

Chrissy: Canterlot has gone insane...

Gazer: I have to be dreaming. There's no way I woke up in a musical.

Chrissy: It's not the singing that worries me, ponies do that. I've even done that. It's the fact they know the lyrics that's starting to scare me.

Pony Line Dance Crowd: I've been workin' all week an' I'm tired I don't wanna' sleep I wanna' have fun it's time for a good time!

2218749
I don't think there's any (upbeat) song that wouldn't be improved by a mob of ponies singing with wild abandon, including Everything Is Awesome. :pinkiehappy:

Ah darn it. I know not any good country songs; My mind's been dominated by Sabaton the past few months :rainbowlaugh:

I hope that pesky trojan gets eradicated, things are bleeding annoying. And potentially dangerous.

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