Mouse is chasing icons around on desktop 1

[prew]

this is a first for me!...when i boot up all is well, but once i go to the net and come out, my mouse is chasing desktop icons. i can't click on anything. after reboot, all is well again.....bumfuzzled...got an answer?

ohoh...this is probably important too, was on with isp earlier, and they were attempting the live tech support, which never worked, but this problem started right after.

thanksabunch

prew

 

[MattWray]

What exactly do you mean by "Live Tech Support"? Matt Wray
CCNA, MCP
mwray77518@yahoo.com

 

[prew]

i am with roadrunner, was having problems with master account password. they could login, i couldn't. so they transferred me to chatlink thing with tech support. he was trying to do the thing where they can take control of desktop. he never could make the connection, so couldn't help. oh..online support possibly better term? clearer anyway i hope. however, have also found it's not just after exiting the net...just decides to do so as it pleases..thx...prew

 

[jaeddy]

Can you say "VIRUS?" Sure you can! I don't remember the name but there is one that does exactly what you describe. You ARE running an up-to-date AV proggy, yes? Run a full system scan, and if your particular AV product offers this, try using a boot disk to do the scan from a command prompt. I'm virtually certain that's what's plaguing you.

Good luck!

John

 

[prew]

shoot...zactly what i was thinking, but sure didn't see how. and yes ran the av, maybe will double check the updates. but thanks, off on a virus hunt!

will check back...

prew

 

[prew]

that was it john....ran mcafee update again..then scanned again, and voila the virus!....my very first one........(she hangs head in shame). now i guess im off to alert the cox/rr folks. that's exactly when it started.

thanks again, i just love this place!

prew

 

[jaeddy]

Glad to be of assistance

Did the tech support folks send you a file to run to let them access your machine? If they did, well, that's the obvious vector for infection, though it is *possible* that the timing was purely coincidental.

Also, are you running a firewall such as Zone Alarm or Black Ice Defender? If not you may want to download and install Zone Alarm (

http://www.zonelabs.com

it's free), just to make sure no other back-door things have slipped by the AV.

 

[prew]

zone alarm...yes. have all the stuff, which is why i kept thinking/hoping not virus. but but...after thinking about it, remembered i disabled at one point, to see if it was causing the original (password) problem. and yes, did have to dl a file. even tho they never managed to grab my desktop, the file...the dl...yup yup...i did. lessons learned huh?

thankyaeversokindly, for confirming my worst fears (grinz).

 

[Yohee]

Hmmm - Hybris is the name of the virus which does that (although there are others..). It only normally kicks in after 30 days of infection, so it may well be a conicidence...

 

[aspectz]

What was the name of your virus Prew?

 

[prew]

i'm at work now and the virus was on home computer, will have to check when i get there on the name. but was attached to a number of the system32 files, which i guess is the nature of most viruses. will get back with the name later. but was an interesting little monster.

and yohee, i'd like to think coincidence, however, almost the instant the tech guy released the chatlink i saw icons fly around the desktop. even mentioned to the other tech support person i was on the phone with at the time.

but what the hey....livened up my weekend!

 

[prew]

http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=PE_MAGISTR.A

this is the one i had, the description doesn't match the behavior i was seeing, but i sure remember the name.

 

[prew]

http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=PE_MAGISTR.A

this is the one i had and apparantly is one of the ones that attaches to ur address book, i got mail from my cable account (outlook) to my hotmail address. the body of the the mail was dealing with paper textures for psp....and the attachment showed as paper.pif, and if not already weird enough...i never opened or saw the mail at the cable address...and...just now got it at the hotmail account. gonna doubledouble checkcheck this evening tho. good ole hotmail ...caught it, blocked it and put it in the junk folder.......seems i should have checked for a virus forum, sorry to take up so much time here.

 

[Yohee]

Magistar is a virus which automatically emails out random office doc's to the general public, courtesy of your address book. Its also smart enough to send them to some email addresses that it see's in other emails/web pages. Pretty scare stuff eh?

Its quite similair to its newer nastier brother, SirCam. I have a client on a DSL plan who had the virus for three weeks and used 6.8GB's worth of traffic in that time. thats a LOT of word documents being sent out...

 

[prew]

geez yohee....so i've emailed the folks i had in my address book and warned them, which fortunately im not a huge emailer so wasnt very many...but do you recommend anything else?....am just gonna hate passing this on! did you read the link on it?...also says it seeks out zonealarm and shuts it down....pretty dadgum scarey too.

 

[Yohee]

Mate, Don't bother. Zone alarms not any good anyway as the virus uses your own MAPI spooler, and you've probably infected so many people I'd hide under a rock instead of admitting to it. Any sort of virus protection detects and repairs the attachments though, so most people should be safe!

 

[prew]

well bummer!...ok...all further posts should be sent to the second to the last rock on the left....rite next to the fire hydrant!

thanks all
prew