IRC Virus

Well, right now I am just sitting at my computer, chillin, trying to pry a virus off of my computer that someone apparently gave me when I was on IRC. Seeing as there are two channels I use on IRC, #TNP and #LWU, I have a fairly limited selection of suspects, don't I? Evil/Blue Wolf, Limitless, Asta or anyone from #TNP are the possible suspects.

I'm not asking for anyone to come forward and commit sepuku but this is a little ridiculous. I could lose an entire year of my school work (homeschooled) because some jackass doesn't like "Scardino" or doesn't agree with duality.

Well, right now I am just sitting at my computer, chillin, trying to pry a virus off of my computer that someone apparently gave me when I was on IRC. Seeing as there are two channels I use on IRC, #TNP and #LWU, I have a fairly limited selection of suspects, don't I? Evil/Blue Wolf, Limitless, Asta or anyone from #TNP are the possible suspects.

I'm not asking for anyone to come forward and commit sepuku but this is a little ridiculous. I could lose an entire year of my school work (homeschooled) because some jackass doesn't like "Scardino" or doesn't agree with duality.

This post has been edited by Fedele on Jul 9 2006, 06:18 PM

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Fedele, you have my sympathy if you have been infected with a virus, but could you give us a few more details of the virus, just in case it has infected others of us who use IRC?

Apparently it doesn't have a name but it isn't hard to know you have it. When you sign on (using windows XP) your desktop will come up only without any of the programs or shortcuts you normally have on your desktop and without the start menu. I've apparently figured out how to get around it. You can work around this by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and clicking on File > New Task (Run...) > Browse > The program you want to run. I've only been working with it for a few hours so I don't know if there are any side effects from doing this. So far it looks like it was made up by a real amateur. The first thing you should do if you find this is just delete MIRC (or whatever you have) because the files that are making your computer slow and somewhat jumpy are imbedded all in it.* After that, though, I haven't figured out how to actually get my desktop and menu back.


*None of the antivirus programs I ran (Norton, AVG, Stop Sign) were able to get rid of them but I deleted them manually and it seems to have been fairly effective at making my computer a bit less irritable.

not made by an ametuer its very good if it does that and hides itself from antivirus programs

if your using mIRC you can't get any files unless you choose to accept them. I've used it for over 1400 hours now without an issue

Interesting.

Are you sure this is a mIRC virus? I've never heard of one so complex before.

I've heard of other viruses with similar symptoms, but never associated with mIRC.

That is where all of the virus is coming from.

Also, does anyone know how I can access my recycle bin without the desktop or Start menu?

Can you get to the C drive at all?

I don't use mIRC, but IRC programs in general are not in the habit of giving you random things without your approval. Is it possible that the virus is simply hiding in the mIRC folder, but didn't arrive from IRC?

And, since you named me in the first post, I didn't do it.

Yea, I can get to the C drive but I can't seem to find the recycle bin. That's what I need to get to.

It's possible that it is just hiding in the IRC file.

Isn't it in Documents and Settings?

I can't see it there. Could you be more specific?

I assume you can get to a basic folder view; so...

1. Get open any folder, shouldn't matter which.

2. Near the top, there should be a bar that says "FOLDERS". Click it once.

3. A side bar should appear. Recycle Bin should be accesible from that side-bar.

If this doesn't work, tell and I'll try and come up with another solution.

Question for you - have you run a scandisk? Sometimes in all Windows OSs, a fault occurs when free space on the hard drive is reported incorrectly, and 'missing DLL' messages when you try to click on an icon. Usually it is an inability to access icons/links to files/programs, the infamous 'blue screen of death', total lock up of the system, etc., etc.

I don't think that you have a virus, but rather a glitch in the OS that reports free space incorrectly, and possibly a fault or two in the file allocation tables.

What you want to do is to run a 'scandisk' to find and correct any errors, if the scandisk takes too long to do, create a 'bootable' disc and start your computer from there. If it doesn't clear up the problem, it might be a trojan or a worm. The easiest way to find a trojan or a worm is to run a real firewall that gives you access to logs so you can see which programs are connecting to the web.

Also, try Panda Platinum or Panda Titanium AV software - it finds stuff that Norton misses and doesn't have the nasty security holes that Norton/Symantic is famous for.

I'll log onto mIRC and see if I can trap a copy of any virus floating around there.

R

Thanks, Roman. I'm using Panda now and it seems to be doing its job.