Ever Heard of ByteFence?

[roger_m]

Delete ByteFence to all who have it using the steps provided by 'jlsilicon' because more often than not, ByteFence is most likely up to no good. I'm no administrator, but I'd consider this thread closed.

It would be much better to remove it with Add/Remove Programs, and then if you really want, to follow the removal instructions.

ByteFence is safe, as it a rebrand of a legitmate anti-malware software, Reason Core Security. Out of the two products, Reason is a much better choice, as it is the original product, offers a 30 trial of the paid version, versus 14 days with ByteFence, and is cheaper to buy. Both programs can be used as free version without realtime protection once the trial had expired, but ByteFance nags you to buy the full version.

 

[cturney]

Actually, it is MALICIOUS. Suggest removing it Immediately.

Apparently, I found it Installed with a Download of a Video Compression Utility that I downloaded (AnyVideo - I believe) a few weeks ago.
I started looking when I saw that FireFox was running at about 250M instead of the normal 130M Task RAM - (dropped to 130M again after removal). It was also executing ConHost.exe every second or 2 repeatedly - apparently it spies on You and your Pc / Internet etc.
No Program should be doing this. Don't know why anybody would advise anything else.
(I have done past AntiVirus work.)

Simple Removal :
1) Kill ByteFence.exe in TaskManager.
2) Delete ALL files (that you can) in the C:\Program Files\ByteFence\ directory.
3) Rename remaining few files with .dead on ending (file.dead , etc).
4) Restart Computer.
5) Delete C:\Program Files\ByteFence\ directory now.

I agree completely. Yesterday, I was prompted to update the "freemake Video Converter". My AV app quarantined several files; nevertheless, ByteFence was installed and added a service. I found that several other folks had run into the same file quarantining issue and resolved it by downloading freemake directly from its website. This time the AV app had no complaints but the Trojan had already infected the system. The CPU and Disk IO (internal drive) usage kept spiking to 100%, which virtually never happens, and the PC became very slow. It also consumed a good chunk of memory but since I have 16GB of RAM, it had little affect on performance .

I tried to uninstall it but three processes continued to run: ByteFence.exe and two others whose names began with "rtop." After they were killed the PC's performance immediately returned to normal and I was able to delete the ByteFence folder.

 

[Dylan Wedman]

Well to be honest, I don't trust ByteFence because when I run a scan for Malware using Malware Bytes Anti-Malware Premium, there are many different detections of PUP's from the ByteFence installation directory. I deleted it so I won't have to worry about it.

 

[jamescv7]

Here in the Philippines, ByteFence is very common likely because of bundled programs.

Not malicious but something the detection rate may be mediocre; better go to the known security products instead.

 

[Oliver Todd-Davis]

So, I had this "Antivirus" put on my PC in a bundle download of something (don't know) and I removed it today after what has been commented. (I didn't remove it before as I was scared it would give me a virus upon removal) and turns out BAM TROJAN!! So when removing this make sure you have antivirus at the ready! P.S windows defender found this first??? Wtf aha

 

[roger_m]

So, I had this "Antivirus" put on my PC in a bundle download of something (don't know) and I removed it today after what has been commented. (I didn't remove it before as I was scared it would give me a virus upon removal) and turns out BAM TROJAN!! So when removing this make sure you have antivirus at the ready! P.S windows defender found this first??? Wtf aha

Bytefence is not a trojan. At worst it can be considered unwanted.

 

[Oliver Todd-Davis]

So how come it dropped a Trojan?

 

[AniAwa]

hxxps://xxx.bytefence.com/

Just ran across it on a computer I was repairing, I took it off without even question. Just wandering if you guys have heard of it.??

ByteFence is malicious, Period! It is a Trojan carrier and will bombard you with malware and pop ups and slow your system down to a crawl - keep ignoring it and you'll get blue screened. I am a writer and these thugs are stealing my time especially when I am on a deadline. I finally got rid of it permanently by going to c:\programfiles\x64\bytefence and looking for “uninstall”. It is the next to the last entry. DON”T STOP THERE! The uninstall program leaves 6 programs. Delete these also. These steps should free you from their crutches. You can’t send them an Email, nor do the answer snail mail and there is no phone number. Somebody, please, send these guys the worst virus you can come up with. How about it, you guys on the dark web?

 

[roger_m]

@AniAwa It is not a trojan, it is a licensed rebrand of Reason Core Ssecurity which is a legitimate antimalware program, and can easiy be uninstalled. It will not leave behind "6 programs." They will be just be leftover traces. As you should know, just about any program you unistall will leave behind some files and registry keys.

Some antiviruses classify it as a PUP, because I believe it comes bundled with some other software. Some dubious malware removal guides on the internet label it as a trojan in order to scare you into buying antimalware software (such as SpyHunter) to remove it, as they will make money from the sale as an affiliate.

 

[Squid]

For me it just slowed my PC to almost a halt.