Has anyone else been hit by WhiteSmoke? Don't know how I got it, but was on my computer this morning when I turned it on. What a pain to get rid of.

Even Norton doesn't catch it. Takes over your home page, searches and gives pop-up adds in every new site you go to.

Did finally get rid of it for now, but they say you never get it all.

 

I'm sure "they" can fix it all up if you give them enough money, or you can install your backup copy of the operating system.

 

Is it strictly browser linked? If you're running Chrome, there are quite a few places you have to go to get everything removed. You'd have to go through your computer's "add or remove programs" section first, then go to the chrome settings, make sure you don't have any unwanted extensions or plugins, and also check that it didn't change your default search engine or homepage. If it's a rootkit, then it's a real PITA to get rid of.

I've never had WhiteSmoke, but I had one around Christmas time called "BrowseToSave". It wasn't linked directly to Chrome, so it was nearly impossible to eliminate. It had changed registry settings and everything. I eventually had to reinstall my OS, which I was not very happy about. Had to spend a fair amount on that installation, not to mention I lost everything that was on my machine.

 

I guess the WhiteSmoke is hitting all browsers. I use Firefox, but they say Chrome IE and all others can be hit. Since it is calling up Bing, maybe that is why the antivirus software misses it?

 

I thought white smoke is what you see when they choose the new pope.

 

I thought white smoke is what you see when they choose the new pope.

Maybe the computer belonging to shortbus is Catholic.

 

Maybe I need some Holy Water.

 

Maybe I need some Holy Water.

Just put some water in a pot on the stove and boil the Hell out of it.

 

I downloaded 7Zip, and while installing I saw the Whitesmoke name come up on the screen so I powered down. The worse part is I didn't pay attention to the website I got it from.
I thought it was from the source site, but apparently not. During install I unchecked all (?) the boxes for a new browser bar and default search engine. I guess I got lucky and have had no adverse effects so far.

 

Gerty, that's the thing about it, it's sneaky. Win8/Norton always asks if I want to allow changes and this did not show as a change. Who ever designed this is diabolical. When you uninstall it it takes you back to their website and re installs it's self through two other linked programs, conduit and update reloader(or something like that name). So the way out of Whitesmoke, is uninstall all three, then you have to reload your browser software.

 

Gerty, that's the thing about it, it's sneaky. Win8/Norton always asks if I want to allow changes and this did not show as a change. Who ever designed this is diabolical. When you uninstall it it takes you back to their website and re installs it's self through two other linked programs, conduit and update reloader(or something like that name). So the way out of Whitesmoke, is uninstall all three, then you have to reload your browser software.

When I powered down I disconnected the network cable before restarting, and yes it did try to go to it's website. I went to add/remove programs and that's when it tried to morph back in.

 

Download malwarebytes from malwarebytes.com it's free for a quick use like this, then uninstall it.

It will catch/stop this from infecting your system if you do buy the license for it, otherwise, it is great for post-mortem cleanup.

 

Download malwarebytes from malwarebytes.com it's free for a quick use like this, then uninstall it.

It will catch/stop this from infecting your system if you do buy the license for it, otherwise, it is great for post-mortem cleanup.

We use that here at the school, it does work . When I downloaded 7Zip I was on a different computer trying to unzip a .RAR file for radio programming .

 

Did finally get rid of it for now,

How do you actually know that?

 

Well, hasn't came back yet,(cross fingers).