Manual Removal Guide for Win32.Ramnit.E

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "Win32.Ramnit.E" 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
• rootkit

Description:

Win32.Ramnit.E installs itself into a restore directory. This Trojan horse collects information about the computer and network configuration. It starts itself in winlogon, installs an invisible executable file (randomly named, e.g. pfygfjgm.exe) in the autostart directory. It also closes and suppresses Spybot - Search & Destroy and other security software. Win32.Ramnit.E disables safe mode by resetting the computer if the user tries to enter the safe mode. The Trojan horse also starts the Internet Explorer several times in the background and sends accumulated information to its servers.

Removal Instructions:

Files:

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

• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\<$ENV(Ramnit_dir)>\<$ENV(Ramnit_file)>.exe".
• The file at "<$STARTUP>\<$ENV(Ramnit_file)>.exe".
• The file at "<$WINDIR>\Explorermgr.exe".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Win32.Ramnit.E uses rootkit technologies, use the rootkit scanner integrated into Spybot-S&D 2.x 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 "<$PROGRAMFILES>\<$ENV(Ramnit_dir)>".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Win32.Ramnit.E 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.

• Remove "<regexpr>[,]<$PROGRAMFILES>\\([a-z]{8})\\([a-z]{8})\.exe" from registry value "Userinit" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\".

If Win32.Ramnit.E 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.