MSN virus?
 

Just wondering, has anybody recently gotten a virus with a link given through MSN? What it does is it randomly sends messages to contacts with a link to the virus, blocks you from sending messages and my brother says it's also a keystoke logger. (Records whatever you type) It seems the process is called hidden.exe because when he closed it, it let me send messages.

It's been going on around my friends and it's really becoming annoying. The download file is called DSC0008214-JPG.EXE . The website you download it from has your email adress somewhere in the URL code.

Again, any help?

did you download it? if so i would suggest either reinstalling windows or using a good antivirus and spyware to try and get rid of it, preferably the former

Reinstalling Windows is going a bit overboard for a minor-damage virus. Use your virus scanner, do perhaps an online scan too (a second scan with the latest virus definitions).

Then decide to NEVER click a random EXE link again if any random person sends you only that and won't say anything else or explain what it is (some viruses would add a simple "this is funny" message, don't fall for it, explicitly ask for a reply). Even if you know the person well, don't do it. Also, the -JPG.EXE in the name makes it only more suspicious. ;)

Whoa, I never take emails from people I don't know about, so I may be safe. So there's a virus? Maybe it's just you, are there more people who caught it?

There's not just a virus, this happens all the time over MSN, with different kinds of viruses which all have similar effects. It only ever infests if you actually OPEN the file, though, so you're safe.

I take it this is from MSN Messenger. In emails it should already be common sense not to just open anything that looks like it could be harmful. :P

I never open files, I get those "quick please responds email", all the time, I just ignore it, you never want to open emails or anything in your junk folder, I once got an email from myself that I didn't send, I reported it, never trust unknown emails, that's how you'll be safe.

one such virus which my friend had wouldn't be removed by a few anti-viruses , and hence a reinstall was necessary, if a system gets compromised i don't feel safe using it with even the slight possibility of a virus remaining.

^ Still shouldn't need to re-install. When AV programs fail at deleting a virus, you can always go in and take it out manually. It usually takes nothing more than rebooting, immediately opening the task manager, killing any unnecessary processes before they can load up, and deleting the virus from wherever it's located. (Usually System32) There are exceptions, but they are exceedingly rare.

Of course, if you're more comfortable with a full re-install, go for it. Just pointing out an alternative.

^I've only had to do that once, it scarred my computer for life, it behaves slowly now but it runs fast, it's harder to open files though, Virus Free though!

Something else that usually helps is starting in Safe Mode, when most of these types of viruses simply do not get the chance to start up. You can then usually scan and remove them completely.

There are also some malware removal tools out there that are REALLY forceful, I forgot the name of the one that used to remove my USB modem's software three years ago though. :p

The joy of having English as a second language: almost all my messenger contacts use French. If I get something in English with a link from them I know they caught a virus!

I'm sorry that I wasn't clearer, but what I meant is it pretends to be you and sends links to it. I got it from someone who I've known for most of my life.
Anyway, I deleted hidden.exe, (it probably wasn't as complicated as I thought) and now everything's normal again. Hooray!

Can't be THAT easy, even for a simple messenger virus. Virus scan for any remains (it's likely that there's still a startup entry lying about, too, even if it's now an invalid startup entry).

hi...
 

I've been using msn messenger but I have not heard of that virus news. Now I'm surfing the net and looking forward to find relevant news about it. Now it's another reminder that we have to install clean msn messenger virus tool, to avoid it from harming our computers. Thanks for reminding.!

Nope, I don't open any random files people send me via MSN without asking first what is it.

In fact once when I got such link from a friend, I informed him that there's virus in his computer. I speak Finnish in MSN with my friends, so it really was an alarm sign that there was short message in English and link to some weird file.