Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Removing Burstabit Spyware?

Posted by Cliff on from the getting-rid-of-pesky-programs dept.

Webbsurfer asks: "I recently returned home from school from winter break, and discovered a good chunk of spyware on my parent's computer. I've ran ad-aware and cleared out the obvious P2P programs, but there's one I can't seem to get rid of. It generates pop-up ads, which come from the burstabit.com domain. Any ideas who these guys are and how to get rid of their junk?"

3 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. Browser Help Object by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 5, Informative

    Aside from the program folder, a lot of spyware hides in the list of Browser Help Objects. Do a net search for "BHO Cop". (That utility, by PC Magazine, was withdrawn from general distribution, but can be found here and there, and there are other utilities that do the same thing.)

    1. Re:Browser Help Object by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here's a page at spywareinfo.com with a number of utilities for cleaning up Browser Help Objects and other forms of spyware. I recommend it.

  2. Re:What OS? by GimmeFuel · · Score: 5, Informative
    Given that the question talks about parents who don't sound very computer literate and P2P programs, I'd assume it's some flavor of Windows. Try to find a "hosts" file (no extension) in C:\WINDOWS\ or a subdirectory (I also found it in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc). Open it with notepad and add on a new line:

    127.0.0.1 burstabit.com

    This means that whenever the system tries to connect to burstabit.com, it'll skip the DNS lookup and connect to 127.0.0.1, which is your computer. This'll hopefully stop the spyware.

    --
    live(free) || die;