Hi all. I'm cleaning a relative's laptop. (I should start charging for this, it's 1:00 AM, and I have an exam at University tomorrow) So far I haven't found the infection, but it was originated from a crack. It seems to be a nasty infection: firewall disabled, security center disabled, UAC disabled, antivirus don't work, BSOD's, etc... I'm throwing all my arsenal on it, and will see if I can fix it. But the reason for this post is another, rather amusing. Searching for the original crack to track down the infection, I found one file with 13/33 VirusTotal detections, so I opened it sandboxed. I found this EULA (bold remarks are mine):
Ok I read it all, but I do not understand 100%. This is the EULA from the malware itself? If so I suggest reformatting, otherwise I fear, you may be spending all your time on trying to fix the laptop rather then doing well on your exams. Edit: Just be safe and reformat!
Why don't they just go ahead and get their point across: By installing this software, you agree to have your internet usage monitored and collected. You also agree to allow us to shove our advertising down your throat, and if you try anything cute, not only will you violate the Terms of Agreement, we'll screw your computer up so bad that a tech who otherwise would have completed University and gone on to a great job, will fail miserably and pump gasoline for 40 years because said tech had to spend so much time un-doing the damage from you violating your agreement....Continue with install? Ok/Cancel.