Manual Removal Guide for AproposMedia

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "AproposMedia" 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:

• malware

Description:

AproposMedia downloads several pieces of malware from the internet, creates autorun entries and starts on each Windows startup without user awareness. It also creates several files in the system folder and installs to c:\Program Files\AutoUpdate\ without asking the user for permission or him taking note of it.

Supposed Functionality:

This is a sidebar for InternetExplorer that claims to display a list of other users on the site currently visited.

Removal Instructions:

Autorun:

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

• Entries named "AutoLoaderAproposClient".
• Entries named "AutoUpdater" and pointing to "<$DIR_PROG>\AutoUpdate\AutoUpdate.exe".
• Entries pointing to "synole32.exe".
• Entries named "qs7U37e" and pointing to "tapidc32.exe".
• Entries named "AutoLoaderAproposClient".
• Entries pointing to "APROPOS_CLIENT_LOADER.EXE".
• Entries named "AutoLoaderAproposClient" and pointing to "BROWSE.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 that have a key or property named "AproposClient".

Files:

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

• The file at "<$SYSDIR>\sav2.exe".
• The file at "<$WINDIR>\pqJ4Z".
• The file at "<$SYSDIR>\auto_update_uninstall.exe".
• The file at "<$SYSDIR>\synole32.exe".
• The file at "<$SYSDIR>\tapidc32.exe".
• A file with an unknown location named "synole32.exe".
• A file with an unknown location named "cxtpls_loader.sfx.exe".
• A file with an unknown location named "cxtpls_loader.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\AproposClient\AproposPlugin.dll".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\AproposClient\apropos_client_loader.exe".
• A file with an unknown location named "browse.exe".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If AproposMedia 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!

Folders:

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

• The directory at "c:\Program Files\AutoUpdate".
• The directory at "<$LOCALSETTINGS>\Temp\AutoUpdate0".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\CxtPls".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If AproposMedia 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 key "Apropos" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".
• Delete the registry key "{01C5BF6C-E699-4CD7-BEA1-786FA05C83AB}" at "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\".
• Delete the registry key "{A1558B18-F76C-40FE-B358-9E47449F3CFE}" at "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\".
• Delete the registry key "{A1558B18-F76C-40FE-B358-9E47449F3CFE}" at "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\".
• Delete the registry key "{A7D0472E-C1FC-4D8F-ABA1-98A7692561BF}" at "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\".
• Delete the registry key "Apropos" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\".
• Delete the registry key "{01C5BF6C-E699-4CD7-BEA1-786FA05C83AB}" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\".
• Delete the registry key "AproposClient" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\AutoLoader\".

If AproposMedia 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.