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VSCodec PRO

Posted: May 28, 2009

VSCodec PRO is a fake video codec that promises to "increase the quality of audio and video up to 60%" (www.VSCodec-Pro.com). Once VSCodec PRO is active on your machine, your sound settings become infected, and you'll get a system tray alert that may read, "Fatal error. Media system on your computer is corrupt. Update your sound and video codec immediately to resolve this issue." If you follow this VSCodec PRO popup's prompts, you're taken to VSCodec-Pro.com/purchase.html to waste money on the scamware. Outside of that fun, VSCodec PRO may also hijack your browser and launch loads of other VSCodec PRO popups.

File System Modifications

  • The following files were created in the system:
    # File Name
    1 %UserProfile%\Application Data\VSCodecPRO
    2 %UserProfile%\Application Data\VSCodecPRO\Autorun.ico
    3 %UserProfile%\Application Data\VSCodecPRO\Process.ico
    4 %UserProfile%\Application Data\VSCodecPRO\Service.ico
    5 %UserProfile%\Application Data\VSCodecPRO\settings.ini
    6 %UserProfile%\Application Data\VSCodecPRO\uill.ini
    7 C:\WINDOWS\system32\wextract.exe
    8 VSCodecPRO

Registry Modifications

  • The following newly produced Registry Values are:
    HKEY..\..\..\..{Subkeys}HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "VSCodecPRO"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\taskmgr.exe
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