Virus help

[shadow grinder]

hey guys,

my sister in law got a virus on her laptop. her norton anti virus picked it up...but everytime she starts her compputer a box pops up from norton anti vir saying

"virus detected- system32/clusc32.dll
downloader virus
action taken: access to the file denied"

I went into system 32 folder and found the file "clusc32.dll" I wsnt sure if i should delete it or not. I checked on google and there are no searches found with clusc32.dll or any other varition of the word/file.

It causes the laptop to freeze sometimes...but the box that pops up saying it has detected it wont go away...you keep clikcing ok or the red x to close the box but it keeps appearing.

i ran the virus scan in safe mode and it picked up the virus....but when i went to delelte it said "delete failed".

I then scanned in normal mode and it didnt pick it up at all....

so i bascially want to know ...should i remove this clusc32.dll file from the system32 file or not? i checked my computer and i dont have it...so im not sure if it is a needed file that has been infected or if it is the virus that has added the file. and will removing the file get rid of the virus?

 

[[furrycat]]

You've got a virus that has been running around lately- VERY hard to remove.

Problem is, deleting the file won't do much- no doubt it has other strings and will just regenerate.

Backup and do a format of the drive. Safest and easiest way- there is a way to get rid of it without formatting but involves a lot of registry editing and complete BS. Formatting would be fater.

 

[shadow grinder]

ahh your kidding.

I dont know (and i dobut my sis in law does either) how to back up or format the drive.

Doesnt that mean everything is wiped off?

 

[[furrycat]]

Backing it up means putting things onto CD's and so forth to save your needed data, then using your XP (assuming) CD to format and reinstall- very easy to do these days.

Let me have a look around and see what I find- my ex had this virus and took me a long time to get rid of it as she didn't have any way to back her stuff up at the time. But in my experience, easiest thing to do is to format.

Furthermore, what was the exact name of the virus? Was it a worm or spyware, just so I know it is the same? If you are using Norton, there could easily just be a removal tool for it.

 

[shadow grinder]

Ummm...when i had the laptop it didnt have a internet connection so i wsnt able to find out the name of it through the description link provided by norton. But i will find out and get back to you.

And i would appreciate it if you could get me info on removing it the hard way as we know nothing about backing up or reformatting. Cheers.

 

[RK]

One thing I wouldnt be doing is backing up. The only reason I say that is because if you back up your keeping files on a disk. Which means that if that virus has infected one of your files your carrying the virus on the disk which can be 10x worse.

Furry is a whiz and he knows what he is talking about. But because he is currently not online I thought I would get some assistance from my sister who works in IT help desk and she has advised me that that file is not required and suggests that you delete it and run the virus scan again. If anything else happens let us know.

 

[shadow grinder]

Ill give it a try ...i will let you know how it goes.

 

[[furrycat]]

A virus cannot infect your files unless you are saving system files for some unknown reason.

A virus cannot embed itself in word documents If you don't believe me, scan the files you are backing up.

 

[shadow grinder]

hey furry...i now have the link to the description etc...it seems its a "low risk" but still a very annoying one:

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2002-101518-4323-99