Manual Removal Guide for Synatix.Peppi

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "Synatix.Peppi" manually.
Use this guide at your own risk; software should usually be better suited to remove malware, since it is able to look deeper.

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Threat Details:

Categories:

• trojan

Description:

The actual content may be available in some cases. Synatix Peppi installs a host.exe in background which listens to incoming tcp connections. It gets started on system start as 'vhost'. There is also a local proxy installed which will monitor connections to various websites. This affects both Internet Explorer and Firefox. License shown during installation is an actual license for the affiliate to distribute the software and not for the enduser. License details make the license invalid in Germany where the vendor is located.

Supposed Functionality:

supposed to provide users with content free of charge

Privacy Statement:

It must be pointed out to the user that upon activation of the Synatix GmbH advertising software a range of alterations are made to the user’s system:

- Ad banners and pop-ups may appear on the user’s computer display
- Our own advertising or that of a third party could be mediated
- The internet browser’s homepage could be altered
- URLs could be diverted
- Search queries by the user could be analysed could be furnished with advertisements


The advertising software installs a browser extension.

The user gives his or her consent to the advertising software’s installation through activation of the
activation confirmation button. With the aid of the software various data are prompted off the user
and a personalised advertisement set is created based on the user’s personal interests and needs.
In order to benefit from our software’s features, the user herewith permits usage of his or her
computer’s processor and bandwidth by the advertising software. Personal data, such as name,
address, and other data that would allow personal identification, will not be compiled, stored, used,
or transmitted in any case, not even for Synatix GmbH’s use itself.

We cannot be made reliable for any kind of communication that is established by third parties via
the advertising software.

Removal Instructions:

Autorun:

Please use Spybot-S&D, RunAlyzer or msconfig.exe to remove the following autorun entries.

• Entries named "vhost" and pointing to "<$WINDIR>\system\host.exe".
• Entries named "vhost" and pointing to "<$WINDIR>\system\host.exe".

Installed Software List:

You can try to uninstall products with the names listed below; for items identified by other properties or to avoid malware getting active again on uninstallation, use Spybot-S&D or RunAlyzer to locate and get rid of these entries.

• Products with a key that includes "peppi_" in its name or properties.

Files:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these files.

• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\<$REGMATCH1>\lisys.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\<$REGMATCH1>\lisys.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\<$REGMATCH1>\license.txt".
• The file at "<$APPDATA>\syslog2.dll".
• The file at "<$WINDIR>\system\host.exe".
• The file at "<$WINDIR>\system\host.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\<$REGMATCH1>\<$REGMATCH1>.lnk".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Synatix.Peppi uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify files!

Important: There are more files that cannot be safely described in simple words. Please use Spybot-S&D to remove them.

Folders:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these folders.

• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\<$REGMATCH1>".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMS>\peppi_<$REGMATCH1>".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Synatix.Peppi uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify folders!

Registry:

You can use regedit.exe (included in Windows) to locate and delete these registry entries.

• Delete the registry value "AutoConfigURL" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\".

If Synatix.Peppi uses rootkit technologies, use our RegAlyzer, RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.

Final Words:

If neither Spybot-S&D nor self help did resolve the issue or you would prefer one on one help,

1. Please read these instructions before requesting assistance,
2. Then start your own thread in the Malware Removal Forum where a volunteer analyst will advise you as soon as available.

There are more files or system entries belonging to this product that <$SPYBOTSD> can remove, but that cannot be easily described in text. Please use <$SPYBOTSD> to make sure <$PRODUCTNAME> gets completely removed.