Solved Browsers stopped working

[ValterZZ]

Dear MalwareTips Team,
Several days ago I noticed being redirected to various advertisement sites (games, flash update, etc) every now and then. Today morning I ran a malwarebytes scan, which found and supposedly fixed some threats. After that all browsers (Firefox and IE) stopped working (the browsers themselves start, but cannot get to any pages). Internet connection is present, Skype works.
I ran a number of programs today, including hitman (found and fixed one threat, supposedly) and zemana, reset the browsers to default settings, uninstalled and reinstalled firefox, but the problem persists.
I am attaching the FRST logs (produced after hitman and zemana scans) ...
I will be very thankful for any assistance.
With best regards,
Valter.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Welcome,

Fix with Farbar Recovery Scan Tool

This fix was created for this user for use on that particular machine.

Running it on another one may cause damage and render the system unstable.

​

Download attached fixlist.txt file and save it to the Desktop:

Both files, FRST and fixlist.txt have to be in the same location or the fix will not work!

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
  (XP users click run after receipt of Windows Security Warning - Open File).
• Press the Fix button just once and wait.
• If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run.
• When finishes FRST will generate a log on the Desktop, called Fixlog.txt.

Please attach it to your reply.


How is your computer behaving now?

 

[ValterZZ]

Dear TwinHeadedEagle,
Thank you for your response,
Sorry, but the problem persists. The fix log is attached.
It ran without complaining, told me to reboot the computer in the end and that it will not do anything else after the reboot.
Couple more questions and observations:
Tried to restore windows to some point couple of weeks ago. The restore did not work due to "unspecified error".
Some of the antimalware programs I ran yesterday asked me to disable on-access scan in Sophos. It was already disables and the button grayed out, so I could not modify it even if I wished.
When turning the computer off, it complains something about the BitDefender, tells me that some log file was created and encourages me to send this log file to the developers.
Should I take any action with respect to other computers on my home network?
Should I take any action with respect to a work computer that was used to download and upload the files related to fixing the infected one? (The browsers do not work, so I have to shuttle the files between the computers with a USB stick.
With best regards,
Valter.

 

[ValterZZ]

Some additional symptoms:
Firefox crashed now (after me testing if it works). The crash notice suggested me to restart Firefox. I tried to do that and it said that some Firefox is already running, than said it cannot access profile because it is corrupt or missing.
This made me remember that yesterday there was a moment when I was seeing some Firefox in the Task Manager, without Firefox being "officially" on, and I could not kill that instance of the Firefox...
With best regards,
Valter.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Scan with Farbar Recovery Scan Tool

Please re-run Farbar Recovery Scan Tool to give me a fresh look at your system.

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
  (XP users click run after receipt of Windows Security Warning - Open File).
• Make sure that Addition.txt option is checked.
  
  
  
  
  
• Press Scan button and wait.
• The tool will produce two logfiles on your desktop: FRST.txt and Addition.txt.

Please attach report into your next reply.

 

[ValterZZ]

Dear TwinHeadedEagle,
thank you!
Please find attached the new scan logs.
With best regards,
Valter.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Let's perform a check disk:

Check Disk

• Press the
  
  on your keyboard. Type cmd and right click >> Run as Administrator.
• Copy/Enter the command below and press Enter:
  

  chkdsk C: /r

• You should get a message to schedule Check Disk at next system restart. Please type Y and press Enter.
• All you should do now is to restart your PC and let the Check Disk process finish uninterrupted.

Check Disk report:

• Press the
  
  + R on your keyboard at the same time. Type powershell.exe and click OK.
• Copy and paste the following command inside powershell window and press Enter:
  

  get-winevent -FilterHashTable @{logname="Application"; id="1001"}| ?{$_.providername –match "wininit"} | fl timecreated, message | out-file Desktop\CHKDSKResults.txt

• Paste the contents into your next reply.

 

[ValterZZ]

Sorry, when I press that windows I get to the screen with multiple tiles for multiple apps... There is no Run as Administrator to rightclick on.
When I am using windows - r, I do get to command prompt, but it complains that I need administrator privileges...
Regards,
Valter.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Yes, when you press Windows button, immediately type CMD.

 

[ValterZZ]

Thanks, it did not occur to me to type it into search window... Restarting the computer...

 

[ValterZZ]

Dear TwinHeadedEagle.
Sorry for being impatient, but I would like to verify if what I am seeing is normal/expected. The disk scan reached 14% relatively quickly and is sitting at 14% for the last 2 hours...
With best regards,
Valter

 

[ValterZZ]

DearTwinHeadedEagle,
Please find below the results of chkdsk:
Regards,
Valter.



TimeCreated : 2017-10-12 1:35:54 PM
Message :

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is TI80138100D.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x8c72.
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x83640.
916480 file records processed.
File verification completed.
10164 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
1143904 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 3333 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 3333 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 3333 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
Security descriptor verification completed.
113713 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
916464 files processed.
File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
56812520 free clusters processed.
Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

721508351 KB total disk space.
492882752 KB in 705857 files.
368456 KB in 113716 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
1007059 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
227250084 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
180377087 total allocation units on disk.
56812521 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 fc 0d 00 2e 81 0c 00 a6 22 16 00 00 00 00 00 ........."......
bb 57 00 00 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .W..3...........

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[ValterZZ]

Dear TwinHeadedEagle,

Latest update: after reading several topics at MalwareBytes user forum on compatibility issues between MalwareBytes and Firefox, I just tried uninstalling the Malwarebytes... (Deleted everything in quarantine before that, just in case). Browsers are definitely unfrozen. It is still somewhat strange that in my case the problems affected Internet Explorer as well...
So far no redirects either. However, if you see anything suspicious in my log files, please let me know.

With best regards,

Valter.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Your computer seems clean. How is it behaving now?

 

[ValterZZ]

Dear TwinHeadedEagle,
thank you very much. So far it is behaving properly.
I will watch it closely for any signs of redirects returning.
Thank you once again,
Valter.

 

[ValterZZ]

Dear TwinHeadedEagle,
One last question so far: should I watch closely for any sign of trouble
a) computers on my home network? (No known file exchange occurred between those and my laptop recently)
b) work computer that shared the USB stick with the infected PC?
Of course they all have some anti-virus programs, but so did my laptop...
Regards,
Valter.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

I don't think so, I haven't seen signs of some infection that could spread via removable driver or through network. But anyway it is always a good idea to scan them all with some anti malware software like MalwareBytes.