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Do I Really Need Sp2?

Discussion in 'Security and Privacy' started by El Camino, 2004/08/16.

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  1. 2004/08/16
    El Camino

    El Camino Inactive Thread Starter

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    History: I have just reinstalled my XP Pro with SP2 and discovered this (I didn’t have any of these BEFORE I installed this SP2):

    1 -- When I run Ad-aware I got 1 registry nasty (data miner - [HKEY current user:software-Microsoft-IE-Main- "StartPage" ( "about blank ")]. But, it can't be deleted!!!

    Every time I delete it it reinstall itself after boot. I see it was installed by Microsoft. It has to do something with IE and web page selection. I like to open my web browser on "blank" and than to go from there. I have catch 22 on my hands. Check this: If I delete nasty, my SpywareGuard warns me that "my IE homepage has been changed from blank to http://www.microsoft.com/isap/redir.dll... " and "do I want that?" If I say leave it as default (my old value - blank) this nasty stays. All subsequent Ad-aware screens find it. If I say "keep new value" it gets deleted. Than subsequent new rescans do not report it. As soon as I change my web page to "blank" it reappears like a plague. I went to registry and removed it manually. But after restart it reappeard. It reappeared everytime I changed my web page to anything other than microsoft.com.

    2 "“ More MS goodies.

    My Spybot S&D found 5 DSO Exploits!!!
    But they can not be removed either!!! They can, but, they reappear like plague after reboot. I see they, too, were inserted by good old Microsoft. Info on spybot gave this info:
    Company: Microsoft
    Threat: Security hole
    CompanyURL: microsoft.com
    Company product URL: microsoft.com/windows/ie/
    Company privacy URL: microsoft.com/privacu.htm
    Find more info: http://security.greymagic.com/adv/gm001-ie/

    This is perplexing indeed!!! I am in a quandary. What is one to do? Do I really need this SP2? I am using EZ Armor 2005, Ewido full version, IE_SPYAD, Ad-aware, Spybot S&D and few other programs. I have set up my IE as per InfiniSource’s advice on "How to surf the Internet more safely with Internet Explorerâ€. I am thinking to uninstall SP2. What say you?
     
    El Camino,
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  2. 2004/08/16
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Hi El Camino!

    1) Some nasties do change the default homepage to "about blank" and Ad-aware detects this even if You Yourself has chosen that option. When You let Ad-aware fix it to the default setting, You Yourself bring it back by reselecting "about blank ". Under these conditions: Ignore that entry in Ad-aware and don't let it fix it. (I do so myself.)

    2) This is a bug in Spybot S&D, see this thread for some information.

    I have not installed SP2 yet (not released in Swedish yet) so, Your issues have nothing to do with SP2 ...... :cool: ...... keep it!

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  4. 2004/08/16
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Concur w/Christer - about to post much the same thing. Why don't you post a HijackThis log: v1.198.2 to see if you really do have any problems.

    Regards - Charles

    EDIT: Are running the latest Ad-Aware SE version: Build 1.03?
     
    Last edited: 2004/08/16
    charlesvar,
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  5. 2004/08/16
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    What Spybot has detected does NOT mean that your system is compromised, it just means that it is detecting known "potential" liabilities in IE that could be exploited by real spyware.

    The "about:blank" is a valid Windows file as is the url that uses the MS C++ DLL file redir.dll on your system.

    If you want to set your homepage to a "real" blank page, then open Notepad and then save the blank Notepad page as blank.html to your hard drive. Open blank.html in IE and set it as your homepage.
     
    TonyT,
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