Trojan.Spamnost
Trojan.Spamnost is made to send bulk spam emails. The Trojan will sneak and collect email addresses to become a recipient of the same infection.
Trojan.Spamnost has the specific purpose of infecting a computer to gather email address and mass-send a spam email messages. This Trojan attempts to deceive target user with an email containing a subject about Christmas sale of medicines from an online pharmacy. Typically, an email message that originates from this Trojan contains offers for prohibited drugs. Initial attack may store dozens of email templates on the computer and downloads succeeding pattern from a remote server.
Alias: Troj/Nost-A
Damage Level: Low
Systems Affected: Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Characteristics
When executed, Trojan.Spamnost will drop a file under “/[Username]/Application Data”. It will also create a registry that makes itself run when Windows starts. Additional registry entries are also created to disable Firewall restrictions and allow the Trojan to communicate with a remote server. It downloads a configuration file that is essential to perform email spamming. Message of the spam email will contain the following:
Hello darling
next he disarm sharply chilly
your ereEctiOon under the influence of V
Dasia Blakemore
Trojan.Spamnost may recurrently connect to a remote computer to download more contents of spam emails. It stores these messages on victim’s computer and will be used to send group of emails to gathered addresses. The Trojan can utilize the compromised PC as SMTP server.
Distribution
Common to any other Trojans, Trojan.Spamnost can be acquired by visiting compromised web sites. The Trojan will utilize the infected PC to send bulk email messages of marketing campaign for a prescription drugs.
How to Remove Trojan.Spamnost
1.Temporarily Disable System Restore if you are using Windows XP. For Windows Vista/7 users, you may use System Restore to return Windows to a previous clean state. However, you must have a saved restore points to accomplish this. Otherwise, proceed with the removal process.
2. To be able to identify even the most recent variant of Trojan.Spamnost, 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 Trojan.Spamnost 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.
Alternative Removal Method for Trojan.Spamnost
Option 1 : Use Windows System Restore to return Windows to previous state
If Trojan.Spamnost enters the computer, there is a big chance that Windows files, registry entries and other essential components are also infected. System Restore can reinstate clean system files by restoring the configuration to an earlier date. The method also replaces compromised files with a clean version. If you have a saved restore point before Trojan.Spamnost infiltrates the PC, we highly encourage you to execute this procedure if none of the above works. You may proceed with Windows System Restore, click here to see the full procedure.
Option 2 : Trojan.Spamnost manual uninstall guide
IMPORTANT! Manual removal of Trojan.Spamnost requires technical skills. Deleting system files and registry entries by mistake may result to total disability of Windows system. We advise you to perform a backup of registry before proceeding with this guide.
1. Kill any running process that belongs to Trojan.Spamnost.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Del on your keyboard.
- When Windows Task Manager appears, look for Trojan.Spamnost files (refer to Technical Reference) and click End Process.
2. Delete all registry entries that belong to this malware.
- Press [Windows Key]+R on your keyboard.
- In the 'Open' dialog box, type regedit and press Enter. This will open registry editor.
- Find and delete registry entries as mentioned in Technical Reference section below.
- Close registry editor. Changes made will be save automatically.
3. Scan the computer with antivirus program.
- Connect to Internet and open your antivirus software. Please update to obtain the latest database and necessary files.
- Restart the computer in Safe Mode.
- Just before Windows logo begins to load press F8 on your keyboard.
- On Windows Advanced Boot Options, select Safe Mode and press Enter.
4. Delete all files dropped by Trojan.Spamnost.
- While still in Safe Mode, search and delete malicious files. Please refer to 'Technical Reference'. Make sure that you execute 'End Task' first before deleting the file. Otherwise, the system will not let you perform this action.