Win32 Virus Removal

Security Master AV is a malicious software that is disguised as an anti-virus application and it uses misleading techniques to get into your computer. It enters in your system with help from various trojans that are acting as normal applications and after that the Security Master AV infects your system by making you believe that your system contains viruses.

Security Master AV will scan your system and the scanning results provided by it are fake, and another misleading technique is that it will tell you to purchase the complete application, because the scanning process was free and it cannot remove the ‘infected’ files. You might not get fooled by it, but also it can’t be removed from your system so easily, because all its processes will be running automatically when you log into Windows and it will kill all your current security applications, which means that you are powerless against it.

You will know that you’re infected with the Security Master AV malware, if you encounter the following false virus infections alerts :

• Warning ! Identity theft attempt detected. Hidden Connection IP. Security Risk : High. Target: Microsoft Corporation Keys.
• System Alert. Suspicious software which may be malicious has been detected on your PC. Click here to remove this threat immediately using Security Master AV.
• Warning! Virus detected. Threat Detected : Trojan-Spy.HTML.Citifraud

Security Master AV

Also, it will mess your Internet Explorer browser by changing the default search engine to Findgala.com. Also, another way that you should try to see if you’re system is infected with Security Master AV is to download the HijackThis software and use it to scan your registries. Get HijackThis from HERE. If the log file of HijackThis contains the line below it means it is infected :

• O4 – HKCU\..\Run: [Security Master AV] “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\345d567\SM345d.exe” /s /d

So, the main purpose of Security Master AV virus is to make believe your system is infected and you need to buy the full version of to clean it, but as i told you : All these are fake messages and the Security Master AV is in fact the virus and you need to get rid of it. To completely delete the Security Master AV virus take the steps below and your computer will be clean again :

1. The first thing you need to do, is to print all the instructions or you can save as a text file and transfer it to a nearby computer or on your mobile phone. This action is required because at some point you will need to close all the windows and applications.
2. Until you start the cleansing operation, you need to stop all the running processes of Security Master SV, by doing this you’ll make sure that it won’t hinder the virus removal. So, to stop the running processes of Security Master AV you need the Rkill.com application, which can be downloaded from HERE.
3. After you downloaded the Rkill.com you need to start it and you will be ready to stop all the malicious processes from running. It will search for all malware processes, please be aware that it might take some time before it finds and ends all the infected processes. After the scanning process is completed, Rkill.’s black window will close and you will be able to get to the next step. Also, you should know that you might gets a virus alert regarding Rkill.com being an infected application, but these alerts are all fake and you should leave them open and every time a similar message appears start Rkill.com again until it will end all the Security Master AV’s processes. If rkill.com has trouble terminating processes you can download the iExplore.exe or the eXplorer.exe, these two applications are similar to Rkill.com. Please, DO NOT REBOOT your system after Rkill.com is done with its work, because if you this you have to start all over again with the steps as the processes of the Security Master AV will be re-enabled.
4. Now you have to download the Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware application from HERE and you should put it onto your PC’s desktop.
5. After you downloaded Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, aka MBAM, please close all the opened windows, programs and this current browser also.
6. Start MBAM by double-clicking the mbam-setup.exe, which is on your desktop, this is the installer of MBAM.
7. When the installer will displays various prompts and you simply hit continue without the changing any default settings. When MBAM installer has completed the installation process please make sure that the Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and the Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware boxes are both checked. After that you can hit the Finish button and also if it ask you to reboot your system, please DO NOT REBOOT.
8. Now the MBAM will start and it will ask you if you want to update it before you start the scanning process, but MBAM is updated and you simply have to click OK for the window to close and so you will be taken to the main window of the application. It should look like in the picture below..


Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

9. Now, in the Scanner window you have to check the Perform Full Scan box and press the Scan button for the MBAM to start searching the malicious files. When the scanning process is in progress it should look like in the screenshot below. You should know that It might take a while until scanning is complete.


MBAM Scanning Process

10. After the scanning process is completed, the below image will be displays and you simply need to press OK and you can go on with removing the Security Master AV virus from your computer. It should look like in the image below. PUNE POZA SUB ASTA.


MBAM Scanning Process Completed

11. Now, you’re back at the default Scanner window. Now you have to hit the Show results button and it will show you all the detected malware files.
12. You need to press the Remove Selected button and it will start removing all the infected files and registry entries . See below a picture of how it should look like. Also, MBAM might request you to restart your system in order to remove various files, now you can let it reboot and and after it enters the desktop you can move to the next steps.


MBAM Search Results

13. After Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware completes the removal process, it opens a log of the scanning process which you can check to see what kind of actions it did, after that you can close Notepad and also now you are free to close MBAM.
14. The Security Master AV virus will modify the Windows HOSTS files and you need to restore the original version for your current OS. So, to restore HOSTS files you need to download the Hostsperm.bat which is a batch file that can be downloaded from HERE.
15. After you finish downloading it, you have to double-click it and click Yes if Windows asks if you want to open it. After Hostsperm.bat start you will notice that a small black windows appeared and disappeared in under a second, if this happens it means that you are now free to open and work with Windows HOSTS files. You should know that if you previously edited or added entries to HOSTS file you will have to re-add all of those again after you restored the original HOSTS file.
16. Now you have to remove the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\HOSTS file and after that you need to download the correct HOSTS file that works with your Windows OS, you have to save the HOSTS file in the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc folder. If the HOSTS file contents are automatically shown in your web browser when you cklick the download link, you have to right-click the correct link and select Save Target As, if you use the IE or the Save Link As, if you work with Mozilla firefox, all these are necessary if you want to download HOSTS files. After you restore all the original HOSTS files you have to reboot your PC. See below the download links of HOSTS file for all Windows operating systems.

• for Windows 2003 Server HOSTS File click HERE
• for Windows 2008 Server HOSTS File click HERE
• for Windows Vista HOSTS File click HERE
• for Windows 7 Hosts File click HERE
• for Windows XP HOSTS File click HERE

After you go through all these steps, there shouldn’t exist any traces of the Security Master AV virus. I hope you managed to get rid of that malicious software and if something didn’t work please feel free to ask for help in our forums, here.