Podmena
Podmena is a Trojan that spreads manually on computer through unsecured network drives and removable drives. Once executed, Podmena will drop multiple malicious files like podmena.exe, podmena.dll, podmena.bat and podmena.sys. It will also modify Windows registry to add an entry for itself that will load the malware when Windows starts.
An observation reveals that Podmena is causing a Google search redirect. When infected users do a Google search, it will display modified results showing malicious link that will point users to unwanted web sites.
Damage Level: Medium
Systems Affected: Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Windows Vista
Characteristics
Distribution
Podmena is a Trojan. It does not self-reproduce once executed on the computer. Trojans used to spread manually in several ways. Most often, they may arrive as an attached file to spam email messages pretending as a beneficial program. It also gets inside the computer through security and software exploitation. Other delivery method includes file-sharing networks, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), compromised legitimate web sites and malicious links from Instant messaging applications.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SvcHost podmena = "podmena" HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\podmena\Parameters] ServiceDll = "%ProgramFiles%\podmena\podmena.dll" HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\podmenadrv] ImagePath = "\??\%ProgramFiles%\podmena\podmena.sys"Associated Files and Folders:
%ProgramFiles%\podmena %ProgramFiles%\podmena\podmena.dll %ProgramFiles%\podmena\podmena.sys %Temp%\podmena.bat
How to Remove Podmena
1. Temporarily Disable System Restore (Windows Me/XP). [how to]
2. To be able to identify even the most recent variant of Podmena, open your antivirus application and update the virus definition file.
3. Start Windows in Safe Mode with Networking.
- From a power-off state, turn on the computer and press F8 on your keyboard repeatedly.
- Your computer will display Windows Advanced Boot Options menu. Please select Safe Mode with Networking.
- The system will now boot Windows and loads only necessary drivers and files.
4. Open your antivirus program and run a full system scan. After the scan, delete all infected items. If unable to delete, better place them in quarantine. Once the scan is complete, please proceed with the next step.
Scan with Norton Power Eraser:
Additional virus removal tool like Norton Power Eraser provides deep scanning technology to eliminate other threats not detected by a normal virus scan. Use this tool with extra caution.
5. Go to this link and download Norton Power Eraser.
6. Once the download completes, double click on the file NPE.exe to run the program.
7. It will prompt for End User License Agreement, click on Accept to continue.
8. On NPE main window, click on Scan. Then select Exclude Rootkit Scan. Click on Continue to proceed.
9. Virus scanning may take some time. After running the scan, NPE will display the scan result.
Important! If there are any detected threats under Suspicious, remove the check mark. Only threats in Detected category are necessary to remove at this point. Make sure that you mark the Create System Restore Point before proceeding with the fix.
10. Now click on Fix to start removing the threats including Podmena remnants if there are any.
11. When done, Norton Power Eraser will restart the computer. Then after a reboot, it will initialize and display the eliminated threats.
12. You may now close Norton Power Eraser.