Finding the Malware Killer

I generally keep my internet security pretty tight, taking advantage of tools like Avast Antivirus Software, Spybot: Search & Destroy, Windows Defender, CCleaner and others to form a well-rounded sort of drag net that captures the great majority of malicious software including trojan horses, rootkits and a lot more. Despite the fact that I keep everything as clean as possible, some nefarious programs do get through.

Most recently, I had the distinct displeasure of meeting the Alureon rootkit. For two straight weeks I ran scans, deleted via my antivirus software, deleted manually, did everything in my power to get that piece of garbage off of my system. Avast was happy to show me every single time tdlcmd.dll appeared, but moving it to the chest or straight up deleting it just didn’t do the job.

The last time I went through a removal process as arduous, painstaking and frustrating as this was about four years ago. I had stumbled across the Bleeping Computer forum and got my hands dirty in their tutorials section. It took about four days playing with more hands-on programs like HijackThis, but I was able to get everything removed. Should I be so lucky to get my issue resolved with Bleeping Computer a few short years later?

This is where my worlds collide, and one more reason why Twitter is your friend. I was bitching about the fact that my computer was infected and I couldn’t get it removed when I saw one of my followers had the same issue. He was a few days ahead of me, however, and found ComboFix at Bleeping Computer. It worked for him, so I figured I’d try it out for me.

I have to say. ComboFix removed my issue in about 35 minutes. It’s a very aesthetically basic program and all of the functionality seems to be devoted to removing malicious software from your computer. Everything is pretty much run in the windows command prompt and although your computer will chirp loudly and/or restart a couple of times, you should come out the other side with a computer that is free of any malicious software.

See you later, Alureon! ComboFix is totally free, completely effective and quickly rose to the top of my security arsenal.