11 Replies Latest reply: Jul 30, 2012 7:33 PM by Runelaron

Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

John4852 Jul 28, 2012 9:32 AM

Hi, in the past two weeks three of my netbooks/laptops have become infected. I got the popup on my Acer netbook telling me to update Flash Player and it was all downhill from there. I uninstalled Flash Player but was still getting the update popup. Thus far I have run: Malwarebytes, Windows Defender, Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, Microsoft Security Essentials and Norton Anti-Virus. The only things found were a couple of tracking cookies and a new Task added to run the Flash Player update prompt every hour. When I deleted that I stopped receiving the popups.

After several (many) attempts I finally installed AVG. It did find a Trojan and removed it. I thought that had resolved the problem but now when my netbook times out I get a blue screen prompting me to upgrade to the latest version of...you guesssed it....Flash Player.

Does anyone have a solution or suggestions for this problem. Is this the same problem that was around in 2010?

Thanks,

John

1. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

Runelaron Jul 28, 2012 10:45 AM (in response to John4852)

That is not flash asking you, Flash will never ask you to update the player unless you go to a website and then it will state its not installed. Always go to the main website to update the flash player.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3897092?start=0&tstart=0

here is a artical refering to that tojan
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2. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

John4852 Jul 28, 2012 11:50 AM (in response to Runelaron)

Hi, yes I understand that this malware is just using the Flash name and that it has nothing to do with Flash or Adobe. However, I cannot find anything that tells me how to remove it and how to confirm that it's removed. The fact that I'm still getting a blue screen (PC) tells me that I haven't eliminated the problem completely.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I need some tech help. Your link will certainly help with the Macbook.

Thanks,
John
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3. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

pwillener Jul 28, 2012 8:09 PM (in response to John4852)

John4852 wrote:

The fact that I'm still getting a blue screen (PC) tells me that I haven't eliminated the problem completely.
Can you post a screenshot of that "blue screen"? (It is not a BSOD, I hope.)
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4. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

Runelaron Jul 28, 2012 8:37 PM (in response to pwillener)

he two best free virus producs are

http://www.avg.com/us-en/homepage

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

use the AVG first to remove or quarantine any viruses, then CC cleaner to remove the items from internet browsers and cache.

You may have to go back to a previous restore point on your windows BEFORE the installation of the virus but AFTER you remove it. Most viruses are immune to restore points as they mark themselved as Read Only files.

This can be done in safe mode if you can not boot windows normally.
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5. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

John4852 Jul 29, 2012 10:26 AM (in response to Runelaron)

I have been running AVG and CC Cleaner and a number of other programs (please see first post). Today's scan showed no virus or malware. I am getting messages from AVG that Internet Exprorer is using a large amount of resources. I am running Firefox, not IE.

I did go back to a previous restore point after running all of the programs but I haven't eliminated the malware so that won't be effective.

I took a screenshot of the blue screen but unfortunately I wasn't able to upload it. I pasted it into a word doc. Please tell me how to post it here and I'll put it right up. Thanks!!
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6. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

pwillener Jul 29, 2012 6:34 PM (in response to John4852)

You cannot upload Word docs, just plain images (jpg, png, gif, etc.) using the camera icon in the forum editor. On Windows you can paste it into Paint, or any other imaging software.
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7. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

Runelaron Jul 29, 2012 8:00 PM (in response to pwillener)

If thoes programs are not detecting anything than most likely the virus and malware has been removed.

The error your getting is most likely a file that has been damaged, if it still happens after a restore than its a file that is probably not a windows system file but can still effect windows.

At this point you have to get the code fromt the blue screen and track what is broken. Most Blue screen codes are driver error codes.

11xx serial port

9xx parallel port

7xx math coprocessor

601 floppy

501 video

4xx monitor

301 keyboard

2xx RAM
5. 1xx motherboard

17xx hard disk

here is a list of codes, you will see a long number usaly 17xx000000000000 this would meen the hardrive has a problem.. ext.. plug these into google to track down your info.

Hope this helps.
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8. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

John4852 Jul 29, 2012 8:09 PM (in response to pwillener)

Thanks. Here is the screenshot.
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9. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

Runelaron Jul 29, 2012 9:13 PM (in response to John4852)

what happens when you click ok? if nothing then just go to www.adobe.com and download the latest version of flash.

That looks like some ACER update checker. Most likely that can be turned off by going to

Start>Run>Msconfig>start up (tab)> then find the Acer updater.
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10. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

John4852 Jul 30, 2012 3:38 PM (in response to Runelaron)

That seems to have taken care of it. I disabled the Acer updater in msconfig and was then able to install Flash Player. So far I haven't seen anything unusual going on so it looks like it's fixed.

Thanks so much for everyone's help. I really appreciate it.
Now on to the laptop!!!

John
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11. Re: Does anyone have a fix to the Flash Player Trojan problem?

Runelaron Jul 30, 2012 7:33 PM (in response to John4852)

Glad to have helped. Enjoy.
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