I have now had one of my new (6mo+) WinXP machines do something very
strange and scary (well to me anyway). Yes, I am freaked out ATM!
Late last night I went to this machine to flush and shutdown the Dnetc
application "rc5-72."
I did this, no problem. Then I chose to update both my MalwareBytes and
SpybotS&D signature files. This machine has ESET a/v installed and is on my
lan behind a NAT router.
Post the updates, the default screen background (Bliss-the meadow scene)
kind of like un-scrolled, erased, leaving me with a plain black
background! This was followed by the appearance of a very official looking
MS "Genuine Advantage" window in the lower right corner telling me that my
WinXP installed OS now appears to be suspect! It wanted me to go get some
file and run it. I did not!!!!!
Is this real? Is this a worm/virus/trojan I now need to go find?
I rebooted to SafeMode and hard scanned the machine with ESET. I found
nothing.
No, I did NOT try to run MWBytes or SpybotS&D in SafeMode......dumb me!!!!
I may try this later this afternoon off the lan!
I believe that I fully backed up this machine this past December; so if I
have to kill/rebuild it I should loose very little. The system is ~6mo old.
The machine is now OFF (psu=0) and disconnected from the lan.
Thanks,
Duncan