Windows Secure Workshop

Posted: August 14, 2012

Threat Metric

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The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	7,163
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	5,553

First Seen:	August 14, 2012
Last Seen:	October 14, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Windows Secure Workshop is a spinoff of a family of rogue anti-malware products that has have been spawning scamware all around the world. Although much of Windows Secure Workshop's appearance borrows from the looks of previous Microsoft anti-malware utilities, Windows Secure Workshop isn't able to detect PC threats or remove harmful software from your hard drive. SpywareRemove.com malware experts note that any PC playing host to Windows Secure Workshop is most likely to suffer from blocked access to necessary security programs – in-between Windows Secure Workshop's own predilections for displaying fake security warnings and system scans with inaccurate infection listings. Like all similar examples of scamware, Windows Secure Workshop should be deleted with a genuine anti-malware tool as a basic matter of sorting fraudulent PC security displays from the real thing.

Windows Secure Workshop's Hoax from pop-up to Pop-up

Although Windows Secure Workshop might not be able to root out legitimate infections, exploits or other PC threats, Windows Secure Workshop still attempts to convince you that Windows Secure Workshop has such capabilities through a combination of fake pop-up warnings and security scans. Although many PC threats are identified by their technical names and include high-level dangers such as rootkits and specialized forms of spyware, Windows Secure Workshop's pop-ups and scans are predestined to display such negative results even if your computer is almost completely clean. Alerts from Windows Secure Workshop also may imitate the appearance of Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Security Center and other Microsoft applications, besides reporting false attacks on Windows components like the Registry. Among the many clones of Windows Secure Workshop are Privacy Guard Pro, PrivacyGuard Pro 2.0, Extra Antivirus, Fast Antivirus 2009, Presto TuneUp, Windows Security Suite, Smart Virus Eliminator, Packed.Generic.245, Volcano Security Suite, Windows Enterprise Suite, Enterprise Suite, Additional Guard, Live PC Care, PC Live Guard, Live Enterprise Suite, Security Antivirus, My Security Wall, CleanUp Antivirus and Smart Security.

In reality, each detected infection, attack or other PC threat is merely Windows Secure Workshop's way of convincing you that you require its purchasable services to remove these dangers and protect your computer. As a member of the FakeVimes family of rogue antispyware scanners that are nearly identical to each other, Windows Secure Workshop has absolutely no real functions for removing malicious software from your PC. As SpywareRemove.com malware researchers have noted in past incidents with companies promoting scamware like Windows Secure Workshop, spending money on Windows Secure Workshop may reduce the incidence of fake warnings from Windows Secure Workshop, but will not make Windows Secure Workshop any more capable of protecting your PC than usual.

What Windows Secure Workshop's Security Really is Protecting

While identifying Windows Secure Workshop as fake anti-malware software should alleviate the danger of following its poor security advice, any Windows Secure Workshop infection may also damage your PC's security in ways that are more real than its scanner results. While active (which Windows Secure Workshop will be, under most circumstances, due to starting up automatically with Windows), Windows Secure Workshop may attempt to block unrelated applications. SpywareRemove.com malware research team has found the most common targets of such blockades to include:

Firewall utilities that block malicious network traffic, such as the Windows Firewall.
Memory-monitoring utilities, such as Windows Task Manager.
Popular brands of anti-virus, anti-spyware and general anti-malware scanners. SpywareRemove.com malware experts note that this may force you to disable Windows Secure Workshop (via a Safe Mode boot or USB drive-based boot) before you can launch software that's capable of deleting Windows Secure Workshop safely.
Competing brands of rogue anti-malware products, such as PC Antispyware 2010.

Besides disabling Windows Secure Workshop, faking Windows Secure Workshop's registration with a freely-distributed key may also be helpful for making removing Windows Secure Workshop slightly easier than usual, although this step shouldn't be considered mandatory.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

%AppData%\Inspector-[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe

File name: %AppData%\Inspector-[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

%AppData%\npswf32.dll

File name: %AppData%\npswf32.dll
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file

%AppData%\Protector-[RANDOM 3 CHARACTERS].exe

File name: %AppData%\Protector-[RANDOM 3 CHARACTERS].exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

%CommonPrograms%\Windows Secure Workshop.lnk

File name: %CommonPrograms%\Windows Secure Workshop.lnk
File type: Shortcut
Mime Type: unknown/lnk
Group: Malware file

%DesktopDir%\Windows Secure Workshop.lnk

File name: %DesktopDir%\Windows Secure Workshop.lnk
File type: Shortcut
Mime Type: unknown/lnk
Group: Malware file

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

HKEY..\..\{Value}HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings "WarnOnHTTPSToHTTPRedirect" = 0HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System "DisableRegistryTools" = 0HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System "DisableTaskMgr" = 0HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Settings "UID" = mksu7xhdyqHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Settings "net" = u_2012-08-12_1HKEY..\..\..\..{Subkeys}HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Inspector"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

http://search.multisearch.livehttps://gfd.opraajf.xyz/