As some of you know, I run several operating systems: OSX, Linux (Ubuntu distros, for the better part), and ...Windows XP.
On all of the former, I have never once--not on a single instance--needed to worry about viruses, malware, or other evil software. They have no incomprehensible system registry to infect, less interlinking of software, and most importantly: People don't design malware and viruses for platforms other than Windows (whatever version) with any frequency.
Over the past few days, my XP system began slowing down. Then, streaming services such as Hulu started staggering, eating up huge amounts of CPU time, and Netflix simply stalled dead. I couldn;t select a series year from the pulldown, and selecting any video to play resulted in a black screen. This is a mere few days after all Netflix playback started to de-sync and then play like a slideshow with audio problems that were as close as possible to the Invisible Man pressing the mute button for ten seconds, every ten seconds. (Ten seconds of sound, then ten seconds of silence.)
Now, I'm no fool, and I run both a variety of tools to scan for malware, and a set of services in Firefox to prevent it from affecting me. This unfortunately does not block the vulnerabilities of Silverlight, Flash and other web-services. NoScript doesn't prevent an applet designed to infiltrate a Silverlight vulnerability, as an example. I was wondering what was happening, until I saw that any website that I visited added a new entry to my NoScriopt forbid list, namely lqe.me.
If you see lqw.me in your NoScript choices, block it. I did, and that helped minimise the damage. It seems that some utility that I installed for Spyware Removal was packaged with spyware. I suppose this isn't to be unexpected, given that many of these 'free tools' need to profit somehow.
I went through my installed programmes, and found one named ScorpionSaver, which is not a programme that I elected to install. Thus, the installer wizard didn't bother to offer the option t decline it. Many of these freeware tools are packaged with spyware toolbars and other rubbish, but their installers usually have a tiny tick-box somewhere to disable the installation of said malware, or an 'advanced options' pane to do this. Whatever installed this horrible daemon that is designed as an info-miner, didn't have this option, and I always look over every dialogue twice.
My first resort was to run MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, which I have found to be reasonably reliable. It discovered a few objects and removed them, but the problems persisted. At this point, I knew I would be in for a long ride. My first task was to remove Silverlight, as I suspected that its performance problems were due to corrupted keys and DLLs, etc.. Then, I grabbed several other tools, including Spybot.
I then executed all of these, after using the Add/Remove Software programme in the system control panel to rid myself of this. It is still here, hiding, although probably disabled. I just now manually deleted all of its files, except for its uninstaller from my SSD. Despite removing it using the basic Windows SW removal tool, and running three Malware programmes, it still persisted.
I read through some documentation on removing it manually, and having spent three hours trying to Ex-ter-mi-nate it, the programme and data files were still there. I honestly do not feel like trying to go through registry keys today to scrub the rest of it by hand. No anti-Malware tool, with the latest databases, seems to want to remove it.
On the plus side, after running all of these, and re-installing Silverlight, Netflix is back to normal, and the lwq.me script requests are gone. There are likely still a few traces, and a full system backup is in my near future. I have already placed a purchase order for another SSD to use to clone this system, before my tinkering demolishes what is running at present.
My free advice, if you choose to accept it, is to beware even malware tools, and to research them in deep detail. Even tools downloaded from 'trusted sources' (whatever that means today), such as CNET, contain this kind of rubbish that is nearly impossible to eradicate.
Last, for the record, Silverlight is total rubbish, and I wish that Netflix would shift to another media platform. The performance, and reliability of Silverlight (v5.x) are horrible, and its vulnerabilities are rather too high for my liking, but sadly, Hulu still stuffs their media (with a premium, paid account) with adverts. I detest them, but could live with them if they scrapped the lead-in advert, as if the video stalls for any reason, whenever you refresh it to resume watching a film, you have to re-watch the same lead-in advert repeatedly.
To be honest, I'd rather pay £30/$50 per month for sans-advert content (I couldn't care less about their terrible 'original content', I merely want to view old films and entire television serials) than the current £5/$8 per month with the advertising. Hell, 10p/15¢ per video would also be fine by me.
Their adverts also come down to this kind of percentage base:
Credit Cards, Banks, and Loans: 60%
Automobiles: 25%
Local Grocery Markets: 14%
Technology/Other: 1%
Let me put it plainly:
I never buy new automobiles, whether in cash, lease, or whatever. I never have, and never shall buy a new auto.
I do not use credit, and do not apply for either credit, or loans. I don't believe in the concept of paying interest.
I already shop at local grocery markets, and their adverts and jingles are merely boring and tedious.
If they had more technology-related adverts, I would have less complaints. Literally 99% of the adverts have zero bearing on my life, or would motivate me in any way to buy anything they are selling. The most interesting advert is for a Fuji DSLR camera, that I find very brilliant, but 'tisn't something I would buy new.
That is why it was so critical for me to have Silverlight running properly (for Netflix, who have no adverts). The rest of the malware removal was just a perk. Again, I still haven't entirely removed ScorpionSaver. I don't even know if it is possible without spending days in the attempt.A
As I was typing this, Silverlight crashed, and I had to force-close plugin-container.exe!
I have never had any of these concerns on my Mac and Linux systems. I expect may of you have run across similar problems, so be very careful what tools you install to remedy them, and be doubly cautious as to what other 'free tools' such programmes may try to install: They can spell doom to you if you don't pay attention.
Netflix/Silverlight Bonus: If you have problems with Netflix/Silverlight, such as audio and video de-synchronising, hold Alt+Shift and then (left) click on the video. Select Stream Manager, then tick 'Manual Selection' and select the lowest option, then click apply. This resolves most of the problems, although you will need to do this every single time you start a new stream (even in the same tab/window), as there seems to be no way to make it a persistent preference setting. Thank you again, Microsoft, for making Silverlight a steaming pile of rubbish.
Edited by ZoriaRPG, 30 November 2013 - 02:52 AM.
