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General discussion

suspicious "player" looking icon in my systray during boot

Oct 4, 2008 5:47AM PDT

I have a suspicious "player" looking icon in my systray during boot up.
It's always the very first thing to launch into the systray, while it's active th ehour glass is on and you can do ANYthing like left or right click it, or mouse over it to try and see what it is, you can't launch process list or anything ales until it disappears after about 20 seconds, then it's either terminated or hidden itself and it don't show up int the process list.

then very next thing Zonealarm pops a msg that says "svchost.exe would like to act as a server" at a time when nothing is supposed to be trying to act as a server. But it won't tell me Who or What is trying to use scvhost to launch a server.

svchost is an important part of the system that hosts lots of vital services on the machine so I can't just blanket block it or else a lot fo things would stop working.

Zone alarm and AVG can't find any virii or trojan & I tried 3 different rootkit detectors with no success.

Does anyone know *** this is?

Discussion is locked

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Give the following a try.......
Oct 4, 2008 6:00AM PDT

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware or alternate download link

* Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
* Double-click on Download_mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
* When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
* When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
* - Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
* - Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
* Then click Finish.
* MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan. If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue.
* If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install.

* On the Scanner tab:
* - Make sure the "Perform Quick Acan" option is selected.
* - Then click on the Scan button.
* The next screen will ask you to select the drives to scan. Leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
* The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
* When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
* Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.
* Back at the main Scanner screen, click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
* Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
* When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad and you may be prompted to restart your computer. (see Note below)
* The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.

* -- Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be presented with 1 of 2 prompts. Click OK to either and let MBAM proceed with the disinfection process. If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware.

**If you encounter this message:"c:\program files\malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamext.dll Unable to register the dll/ocx: RegSvr32 failed with exit code 0x5" Click on ignore mbamext.dll

Download and scan with SUPERAntiSpyware Free for Home Users

* Double-click SUPERAntiSpyware.exe and use the default settings for installation.
* An icon will be created on your desktop. Double-click that icon to launch the program.
* If asked to update the program definitions, click "Yes". If not, update the definitions before scanning by selecting "Check for Updates". (If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download and unzip them from here.)
* Under "Configuration and Preferences", click the Preferences button.
* Click the Scanning Control tab.
* Under Scanner Options make sure the following are checked (leave all others unchecked):

Close browsers before scanning.
Scan for tracking cookies.
Terminate memory threats before quarantining.

* Click the "Close" button to leave the control center screen.
* Back on the main screen, under "Scan for Harmful Software" click Scan your computer.
* On the left, make sure you check C:\Fixed Drive.
* On the right, under "Complete Scan", choose Perform Complete Scan.
* Click "Next" to start the scan. Please be patient while it scans your computer.
* After the scan is complete, a Scan Summary box will appear with potentially harmful items that were detected. Click "OK".
* Make sure everything has a checkmark next to it and click "Next".
* A notification will appear that "Quarantine and Removal is Complete". Click "OK" and then click the "Finish" button to return to the main menu.
* If asked if you want to reboot, click "Yes".

Did the above scanners find anything?

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In regard to ZA *svchost.exe would like to act as a server*"
Oct 6, 2008 12:28AM PDT

Joey..

Read through the below threads, paying special attention to posts by "Old Sod". It may help explain what you're experiencing with ZoneAlarm.

'Endless "Generic Host Process" attempts to act as server'

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=win_za_msgs&message.id=19270

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=win_za_msgs&message.id=19256

Svchost: Internet request from loopback???

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=win_za_msgs&message.id=19257

Carol

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I have this player doing the same thing and its...
Oct 15, 2008 9:23AM PDT

Its the Itunes player. you can set it to drop in your system tray when you minimize it, but have not been able to get it to work. it only flashes at startup. I'll see what I can do now and i'll get back to you