VCatch

Overview

Summary

Installs CommonSearch, UCMore, Bargain Buddy, and who knows what else. Claims to be an anti-virus product. from the doc: 'We record and analyze the use of the service and software in order to get general, aggregate compilations of users' characteristics and uses of the Internet to potential users and commercial partners. We may use the information that we gather for statistical purposes in aggregate, anonymous form and for advertising, marketing, and other commercial activities.'

Alias

Trojan Horse [Panda],

Category

Spyware: Any product that employs a user's Internet connection in the background without their knowledge, and gathers/transmits info on the user or their behavior. Many spyware products will collect referrer info (information from your web browser which reveals what URL you linked from), your IP address (a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer), system information (such as time of visit, type of browser used, the operating system and platform, and CPU speed.) Spyware products sometimes wrap other commercial products, and are introduced to machines when those commercial products are installed. See also Adware.

Trojan: Any program with a hidden intent. Trojans are one of the leading causes of breaking into machines. If you pull down a program from a chat room, new group, or even from unsolicited e-mail, then the program is likely trojaned with some subversive purpose. The word Trojan can be used as a verb: To trojan a program is to add subversive functionality to an existing program. For example, a trojaned login program might be programmed to accept a certain password for any user's account that the hacker can use to log back into the system at any time. Rootkits often contain a suite of such trojaned programs.

Variants

VCatch 3.0 ·

Origins

Group

CommonSearch Inc

Others By This Group

VCatch 3.0·

Mailing Address

MinuteGroup Ltd., LeventsteinTower, 20th Floor, Menachem Begin Rd., Tel-Aviv, Israel 66184

Phone:

+972-3-560 4751 Fax: +972-3-560 4737

Email

info@minutegroup.com

URL

http://www.minutegroup.com/

Date of Origin

Variants from November, 2001 to March, 2005

Place of Origin

Israel

Detection and Removal

Manual Removal

Follow these steps to remove VCatch from your machine. Begin by backing up your registry and your system, and/or setting a Restore Point, to prevent trouble if you make a mistake.

Stop Running Processes:

Kill these running processes with Task Manager:

Remove Autorun Reference:

Go To the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

If you find the value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\vcatch, delete it and reboot the machine immediately.

Unregister DLLs:

Unregister these DLLs with Regsvr32, then reboot:

Clean Registry:

Remove these registry items (if present) with RegEdit:

Remove Files:

Remove these files (if present) with Windows Explorer:

Remove Directories:

Remove these directories (if present) with Windows Explorer:

VBSWormGenerator2.b VBTroyen VBouncer VBoxCleaner VCU VCatch VCatch3.0 VIPNetLink VLAD.Antipode.802 VLAD.Systa.231