Andromeda Stardust Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Just wanted to know if it's just me or did Albert install some new ad server on AtariAge... Very recently (as of yesterday or so) I started getting random ads appearing on AtariAge including embedded text links and such. I checked all my firefox addons and extensions and there were none I didn't recognize or installed myself. Earlier I clicked submit when posting comments to a thread and I was asked to fill out a survey. I declined and my post was submitted as usual. I've never seen this stuff before, least not on this site. I just want to know if the ads are actually on AtariAge or if I've inadvertantly installed some type of adware junk on my PC. Avast Antivirus says my system is clean, though I did need to disable it momentarily last week for about an hour or so because it kept false-positive flagging a self-exctractly RAR archive I was trying to run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 It's not AtariAge. ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Looks like you have the "myradioplayer" virus/malware: http://malwaretips.com/blogs/ads-by-myradioplayer-removal/ ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 Looks like you have the "myradioplayer" virus/malware: http://malwaretips.com/blogs/ads-by-myradioplayer-removal/ ..Al Yeah I just figured that out. I found it and uninstalled it from Programs. I'm also doing a Malwarebytes scan as well. Sorry bout that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSchoolRetroGamer Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Yeah that looks pretty familiar, a while back I somehow ended up with a little malicious Adware on my PC, that looks just like it, sadly I do not recall the specific name, it targets using keywords (hence the ATARI MERCH ) so it appears to be a part of whatever site you are on, I know it was particular nasty, I suggest you run Malewarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware and delete any findings. Might even be a browser plugin that installed itself, while Avast is a good free antivirus it is not that great detecting Adware or malware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Yeah I just figured that out. I found it and uninstalled it from Programs. I'm also doing a Malwarebytes scan as well. Sorry bout that... No problem. ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSchoolRetroGamer Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Looks like you have the "myradioplayer" virus/malware: http://malwaretips.com/blogs/ads-by-myradioplayer-removal/ ..Al Ah you posted JUST before me and YEP pretty sure that was the little devil that caused my issue (I just restored from an Acronis image) but that link is excellent by the way Al, great programs they suggest. Anyway, likely it WAS bundled with something else I had downloaded, I am usually more thorough then most about reading the terms and unchecking bundled options but just goes to show they CAN sneak in and usually it is because we inadvertently gave them permission to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 I think I know where this came from. It wasn't from the self-extracting RAR archive that Avast kept flagging but what I did afterwords. The self-extractor was for the installation files for an outdated Hauppauge CD that I needed because I misplaced the original installation media and the software update won't run without an original CD. Anyway, Avast kept flagging the self-extractor so I disabled Avast for one hour. I extracted the installation files to a directory on my harddrive but I needed to burn them to ISO so I could mount it as a CD drive. IMGburn prompted me to update the software so I went online to download the latest IMGburn release. Unless you download it from the official website, it sometimes come bundled with "junk". I selected the first mirror, downloaded the EXE, installed it, and got the AVG crap in my Firefox and IE add-ons. Avast auto-removed the AVG toolbar so I thought all was well. I created the ISO image and mounted it as "F:\" on my PC so I successfully ran the Hauppauge WinTV7 update. Earlier tonight I noticed the ads on AtariAge and inquired about them. Then I noticed a myradioplayer icon on my desktop and opened the programs dialog in control panel to remove it. Sort by date and got rid of it. It had the same install timestamp as IMGburn. I'm currently scanning with the latest build of Malwarebytes; found 6 infected objects so far... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 I am so glad I am not running Windows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 (edited) I am so glad I am not running Windows... No kidding. I'm a power user and got duped. Imagine those casual users that don't know what they're doing. I've cleaned PCs for free owned by friends of ours who are a lot less adept at computers. Sometimes it gets so bad the PC won't even boot without using safe mode. You won't believe the type of garbage malware apps you'll find on other people's systems... 15 objects detected so far. Half of them are PUP.OpenCandy related, which I recently learned is a tool often used to piggyback malware on top of otherwise legitimate installers. Edited November 20, 2014 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Just curious, what version of Windows are you using? ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 (edited) Just curious, what version of Windows are you using? ..Al 8.1 on my laptop (which is the PC I'm using right now, that got infected with adware), 7 on my desktop, both 64-bits. IMO 8.1 sucks donkey but I really didn't have a choice since I needed a new laptop in October 2012 and Windows 8 came preinstalled on it. Whitebox laptops are practically non-existent anymore so not really any other options. Windows 8 isn't too bad once you replace the Start menu with Classic Shell, disable the hot corners, and train Windows to use desktop software by manually changing the default program for every single file type over to the equivalent desktop apps. Now I rarely see the "Metro" interface at all anymore... What OS do you use on your PC? Linux or Mac? Edited November 20, 2014 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Newbies and seasoned experts alike get duped. Newbies due to inexperience. Experts because they click too fast and blow right past the opt-out dialog. Some of these dialogs are full of vague almost double-negative-like wording, too. Like, "click on decline to exit install, or click on ok to continue." Except that decline means exit the full installer of the intended app you want to install. Clicking on ok makes you think you'll install the unwanted toolbar. But no one noticed the faded grey check box that says, "uncheck this box to not install toolbar." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 At least it wasn't some of the really really nasties, like real viruses, or trojans or keyloggers or shit that hijacks urls and disables system restore. I've even encountered malware that blocks windows from reading flash drives preventing you from loading anti-malware tools from a thumb drive. A few years back I also had a particular nasty virus that used a url redirect to trick Norton Antivirus into downloading a "dummy" update with bogus definitions so it looked like it was scanning when it wasn't. Norton did a full system scan that came up clean even though I knew 100% it was infected. And Norton wouldn't run in safe mode; what a useless bloated piece of junk. I deleted that shit faster than Oskar the Grouch having a bad case of diarrhea. Been using Avast ever since. People can still get their systems compromised by "day zero" attacks, where the malware gets distributed prior to the antivirus software being able to provide updates, which take time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icemanxp300 Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 I just recently had to reformat. I consider myself quite good w/computers and this is the first virus I had gotten in years and I mean years. Not sure what exactly I did but somehow I got this com surrogate virus that even loaded in safe mode. Avast keep going off on photobucket every time I used it, now I'm afraid to go back lol. I didn't think avast was working very good as it did not detect this virus so I am now trying avg. I know my wife had been using my pc quite a bit but I'll take blame for this one Regardless I'm running smooth now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 When I was running windows 8 I was getting this kinda junk now and then. Ever since I switched to ubuntu this past spring - nothing. Not once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhomaios Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Avast has been second tier for years now. AVG seems to be the leader, or maybe Panda, though the latter will spam you with ads for installing the full version! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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