I had a virus infection on my Windows XP Pro SP2 installation a month
ago. I have successfully removed the infection, but I have noticed
some strange behaviour on my system ever since.

Upon startup, maybe 25% of the time, services.exe will die, causing my
system to shutdown after a 1 minute timeout.

Also, if my wireless network connection is enabled, services.exe will
enumerate every single file on my hard drive, in alphabetical, depth
first order. This can take upwards of 1 hour, and is only noticable
because I was using sysinternals filemon utility to trace another
problem. About every 30 minutes, the services.exe will hit 100% CPU
usage for about 15-30 seconds. Interestingly, if I am connected to a
network with the wired network adapter, or if I am not connected to any
network, services.exe does not enumerate the files or takeu up the CPU
time.

There are no suspect ports open on my machine. I have verified that
the services.exe file is the same (with a file compare) as the one
provided with SP2, and that the services.exe that is running is indeed
running out of the c:\windows\system32 directory and not some rogue
directory.

I have only minimal services running on this machine. The only two
running services listed to run under the services.exe are Event Log and
Universal Plug and Play.

It seems to me that this is not appropriate behaviour. My question,
then, is: should I expect this behaviour from services.exe? How can I
troubleshoot further to determine if this is a problem or not?

Thanks,
Sam

RE: Services.exe strange behaviour by Pandaman

Pandaman
Mon Mar 20 12:02:06 CST 2006

My reply is at the bottom of your message :

"samelmore@yahoo.com" wrote:

> I had a virus infection on my Windows XP Pro SP2 installation a month
> ago. I have successfully removed the infection, but I have noticed
> some strange behaviour on my system ever since.
>
> Upon startup, maybe 25% of the time, services.exe will die, causing my
> system to shutdown after a 1 minute timeout.
>
> Also, if my wireless network connection is enabled, services.exe will
> enumerate every single file on my hard drive, in alphabetical, depth
> first order. This can take upwards of 1 hour, and is only noticable
> because I was using sysinternals filemon utility to trace another
> problem. About every 30 minutes, the services.exe will hit 100% CPU
> usage for about 15-30 seconds. Interestingly, if I am connected to a
> network with the wired network adapter, or if I am not connected to any
> network, services.exe does not enumerate the files or takeu up the CPU
> time.
>
> There are no suspect ports open on my machine. I have verified that
> the services.exe file is the same (with a file compare) as the one
> provided with SP2, and that the services.exe that is running is indeed
> running out of the c:\windows\system32 directory and not some rogue
> directory.
>
> I have only minimal services running on this machine. The only two
> running services listed to run under the services.exe are Event Log and
> Universal Plug and Play.
>
> It seems to me that this is not appropriate behaviour. My question,
> then, is: should I expect this behaviour from services.exe? How can I
> troubleshoot further to determine if this is a problem or not?
>
> Thanks,
> Sam
>

Open Start->Search and then search using advanced options for all files
that have the name services.exe

Then submit them to Virul Total
http://www.virustotal.com/flash/index_en.html

Send a suspicious file for analyze to VirusTotal
They will scan it for malware with almost all antivirus softwares with the
latest definitions
and then will send you the report.The service is FREE .
If something is suspicious they will send the file to all antivirus
companies so that
they will establish signatures for disinfecting the malware.
If a malware is found , you can post back telling use what is the malware
found and exactly which scanner finds it.

Then , perform the *fast* malware removal instructions in my web-site to
make sure you are really clean of all kind of threats.
http://pandaman.my.contact.bg

Now , make sure you are 100 % clean of all kind of threats (you really
should be now if you have strictly done my suggestions ;) ) .
Do a repair install of Windows .

Running the System File Checker (sfc.exe),
this will scan all protected Windows files to verify their versions have not
been overwritten or damaged,
and if so will replace the compromised version with a fresh copy.

To run it, click Start->Run and type
sfc.exe /scannow

Make sure you keep handy your Windows CD/Recovery CD which you received when
you bought your
Windows / computer because you'll need it to do the repair !!! Do the repair
if necessary .


Feel free to contact the Community again ! :-)

Panda_man
--
Prevention is always better than cure !
--
My web page:
http://pandaman.my.contact.bg
Learn how to protect your computer:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
Please , rate posts

Re: Services.exe strange behaviour by Roger

Roger
Mon Mar 20 23:27:51 CST 2006

Your machine likely is not clean.
Services.exe does not do what you have mentioned, which sounds
like what a process looking for juicy, identity theft style juice, info
would look like.
The general rule in today's world is that the only certain recovery
from a system compromise begins with a format and reinstall.

<samelmore@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1142864393.677553.115650@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>I had a virus infection on my Windows XP Pro SP2 installation a month
> ago. I have successfully removed the infection, but I have noticed
> some strange behaviour on my system ever since.
>
> Upon startup, maybe 25% of the time, services.exe will die, causing my
> system to shutdown after a 1 minute timeout.
>
> Also, if my wireless network connection is enabled, services.exe will
> enumerate every single file on my hard drive, in alphabetical, depth
> first order. This can take upwards of 1 hour, and is only noticable
> because I was using sysinternals filemon utility to trace another
> problem. About every 30 minutes, the services.exe will hit 100% CPU
> usage for about 15-30 seconds. Interestingly, if I am connected to a
> network with the wired network adapter, or if I am not connected to any
> network, services.exe does not enumerate the files or takeu up the CPU
> time.
>
> There are no suspect ports open on my machine. I have verified that
> the services.exe file is the same (with a file compare) as the one
> provided with SP2, and that the services.exe that is running is indeed
> running out of the c:\windows\system32 directory and not some rogue
> directory.
>
> I have only minimal services running on this machine. The only two
> running services listed to run under the services.exe are Event Log and
> Universal Plug and Play.
>
> It seems to me that this is not appropriate behaviour. My question,
> then, is: should I expect this behaviour from services.exe? How can I
> troubleshoot further to determine if this is a problem or not?
>
> Thanks,
> Sam
>



Re: Services.exe strange behaviour by samelmore

samelmore
Tue Mar 21 12:40:57 CST 2006

So I guess my question, then, is how do I continue to track this down?
Because no virus scanning software I have tried (Trend Micro, McAfee,
Ad Aware, and a couple other) have been able to detect anything. I
don't want to just throw the possibility of signaturing a new virus,
what would my next steps be to continue investigation?

Thanks,
Sam


Re: Services.exe strange behaviour by Malke

Malke
Tue Mar 21 12:59:38 CST 2006

samelmore@yahoo.com wrote:

> So I guess my question, then, is how do I continue to track this down?
> Because no virus scanning software I have tried (Trend Micro, McAfee,
> Ad Aware, and a couple other) have been able to detect anything. I
> don't want to just throw the possibility of signaturing a new virus,
> what would my next steps be to continue investigation?
>
> Thanks,
> Sam

Go through the malware removal steps here:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Include Ewido and you may also want to run HijackThis and post to one of
the forums links above (not here, please).

Another thing you can do in the meantime is send a copy of services.exe
to VirusTotal: http://www.virustotal.com/flash/index_en.html

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Re: Services.exe strange behaviour by Pandaman

Pandaman
Tue Mar 21 13:52:19 CST 2006

My reply is at the bottom of your message :

"samelmore@yahoo.com" wrote:

> So I guess my question, then, is how do I continue to track this down?
> Because no virus scanning software I have tried (Trend Micro, McAfee,
> Ad Aware, and a couple other) have been able to detect anything. I
> don't want to just throw the possibility of signaturing a new virus,
> what would my next steps be to continue investigation?
>
> Thanks,
> Sam
>

Read my first post and submit the files to Virus Total .
<If you haven't tried , use Nod32 or Panda Titanium 2006 to check your PC ,
they are the best that have really advanced protection against new unknown
malware >


Panda_man
--
Prevention is always better than cure !
--
My web page:
http://pandaman.my.contact.bg
Learn how to protect your computer:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
Please , rate posts

Re: Services.exe strange behaviour by Scherbina

Scherbina
Tue Mar 28 11:16:18 CST 2006

Another issue is to find "cleaned" version of windows and compare MD5 (or
CRC) of both files (yours and from "cleaned" OS), you can also contact MS to
ask them send you crc32/md5 of necessary system component ...

--
Vladimir
http://spaces.msn.com/vladimir-scherbina/

"Panda_man" <Pandaman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4F051BF6-D500-41D9-AD8F-C7974E7DDA95@microsoft.com...
> My reply is at the bottom of your message :
>
> "samelmore@yahoo.com" wrote:
>
>> So I guess my question, then, is how do I continue to track this down?
>> Because no virus scanning software I have tried (Trend Micro, McAfee,
>> Ad Aware, and a couple other) have been able to detect anything. I
>> don't want to just throw the possibility of signaturing a new virus,
>> what would my next steps be to continue investigation?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sam
>>
>
> Read my first post and submit the files to Virus Total .
> <If you haven't tried , use Nod32 or Panda Titanium 2006 to check your PC
> ,
> they are the best that have really advanced protection against new unknown
> malware >
>
>
> Panda_man
> --
> Prevention is always better than cure !
> --
> My web page:
> http://pandaman.my.contact.bg
> Learn how to protect your computer:
> http://www.microsoft.com/protect
> Please , rate posts