FakeDef

Posted: January 16, 2013

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

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.

Threat Level:	10/10
Infected PCs:	47

First Seen:	January 16, 2013
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

FakeDef is a general family of rogue anti-malware scanners known for their program-blocking attacks and provision of inaccurate threat alerts. Like FakePAV, FakeRean and other scamware families, FakeDef is a direct threat to your PC's safety, but pretends to be a security-enhancing product that should be purchased. Far from recommended its purchase, malware researchers find deleting FakeDef programs to be a non-negotiable part of keeping your PC secure, and recommend the use of real anti-malware products for fulfilling the role that FakeDef's members pretend to satisfy.

The Fake Defense Software that Turns Off Real Programs

While the threat industry has its innovations, criminals are all too happy to reuse a working hoax, and the regular reappearance of new members of FakeDef stands in testament to the effectiveness of rogue security programs. Win 7 Defender and other members of the FakeDef family are designed with the appearances of basic anti-malware scanners, but are incapable of scanning files, blocking threats or providing any real security functions.

As a stand-in for these functions, FakeDef variants will display fake alerts about the nonexistent attacks FakeDef supposedly blocks from PC threats including JavaScript-based Trojans, adware and Trojan downloaders. Malware experts stress that all pop-ups, scans and other information delivered by FakeDef programs are fraudulent. You should be especially careful to identify fake firewall alerts and other pop-ups from FakeDef that may try to pass themselves off as warnings from other programs.

Regardless of the nature of their content, these pop-ups may persuade you to buy a premium version of the same FakeDef software, thereby giving criminals money along with access to your financial information. There aren't any advantages into buying FakeDef clones and malware experts always discourage it, along with any behavior that treats FakeDef as anything less than the threat FakeDef is.

Having Real Defenses Against FakeDef and Its Friends

FakeDef often is installed by variants of Fareit, a particularly flexible Trojan that may create backdoor connections, link your PC to a botnet or steal privileged information. This complication is made even more onerous than usual by FakeDef's ability to block other programs, which may extend to virtually any EXE file. Using Safe Mode and other security techniques that can disable threats is advised for preemptively dealing with these extra barriers to FakeDef's removal.

After you've verified that FakeDef has been disabled, along with all other threat tied to FakeDef, you should make use of real brands of anti-malware software for disinfecting your PC, and deleting FakeDef. A complete deletion will let you access all previously-blocked programs and should resolve the majority of security issues. However, information stolen through FakeDef, Fareit or other threat will not be returned, and this caveat should be kept in mind after the fact.

Aliases

Trj/OCJ.A [Panda]Dropper.Generic6.CNVC [AVG]W32/Injector.BNS!tr [Fortinet]Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Injector [Ikarus]TR/Dldr.Injector.I [AntiVir]TrojWare.Win32.Trojan.Agent.Gen [Comodo]Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Injector.fzuj [Kaspersky]Win32:Trojan-gen [Avast]Suspicious.Cloud.5 [Symantec]Riskware [K7AntiVirus]Generic.tfr!cq [McAfee]TrojanDropper.Injector.fzuj [CAT-QuickHeal]Generic30.CCAB [AVG]W32/Duhsad.ASD!tr [Fortinet]Win32.Kryptik [Ikarus]
More aliases (68)

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:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\pcdfdata\~!#B52A.tmp

File name: ~!#B52A.tmp
Size: 95.6 KB (95608 bytes)
MD5: 2d8989cc253f3a1d92c2b7da1908d600
Detection count: 37
File type: Temporary File
Mime Type: unknown/tmp
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\pcdfdata
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: January 28, 2013

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\pcdfdata\antivirus-install.exe

File name: antivirus-install.exe
Size: 77.17 KB (77176 bytes)
MD5: b8622bd2428618367f1ca5aef29c86dd
Detection count: 9
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\pcdfdata
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: January 16, 2013