Win32:MalOb [Cryp]

Updated: October 11, 2011 Trojan 3 Comments

Win32:MalOb [Cryp] is a Trojan that was intentionally obfuscated to hide itself from antivirus detection. Win32:MalOb [Cryp] possess huge payloads that includes dropping of fake antivirus programs, installing fake multimedia CoDec (coder/decoder) and utilizing infected computers as an SMTP server for sending spam email messages. Addionally, this Trojan can allow a remote attacker to gain access on compromised system with backdoor capability.

Damage Level: Medium

Systems Affected: Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Windows Vista

Characteristics

This Trojan is specifically created for Windows 32-bit platform.

Content of this Trojan is modified using a tool not ordinarily used in legitimate applications. The objective is to hide bad codes and bypass antivirus applications.

It has a tendency to sneak into the computer and ends any running process that belongs to antivirus and firewall software.

Distribution
Win32:MalOb [Cryp] primarily spread through spam operation. It is either in the form of email or Internet campaign. To be specific, Win32:MalOb [Cryp] role is to fetch other malware that cannot be distributed over the said campaign. Being small in size and able to escape antivirus detection, Win32:MalOb [Cryp] can easily fit email attachment. Authors of this Trojan also embed the code into downloadable executable files that are mostly hosted on unsecured peer-to-peer connection.

How to Remove Win32:MalOb [Cryp]

1. Temporarily Disable System Restore (Windows Me/XP). [how to]
2. To be able to identify even the most recent variant of Win32:MalOb [Cryp], 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 Win32:MalOb [Cryp] 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 Win32:MalOb [Cryp]

Option 1 : Use Windows System Restore to return Windows to previous state

If Win32:MalOb [Cryp] 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 Win32:MalOb [Cryp] 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.