A quick Googling of the file reveals only 4 matches, with the first being this one.
This page belongs to TrendMicro, more specifically its Prevx malware remover. Despite how suspicious I thought it was that the only people on the planet to have ever heard of this exploit happen to have the cure for it, I downloaded the trial version of Prevx 2... and lo and behold, it did indeed detect SOMETHING that somehow got through AVG, Windows Defender, Spybot S&D, HouseCall, CCleaner and AdAware (I believe in being thorough)... but no matter how many clean-ups I do, it comes back on boot-up. Prevx then detects it again, and recommends another cleaning & reboot. Ad infinitum. I've been through 3 consecutive clean-up/boot-ups, and no progress is being made. The damn thing just keeps re-appearing under new, random 3-digit numerical filenames.
Since I have a Startup Monitor that warns me of registry changes, I can see it warn me of 3 separate attempts to modify my startup and/or registry each time I reboot. The ### is never the same, but the rest of the filename always is.
I went through all my msconfig startup options and services and disabled anything suspect. Still, on each bootup, this exploit retries whatever it is it's trying to do. And even though I select NO when my Startup Monitor prompts me to accept or refuse the change it's trying to make, it somehow finds its way into my running processes, as ###.exe:h1dd3n.exe (ie, 414.exe:h1dd3n.exe, or 447.exe:h1dd3n.exe, etc.)
Naturally, "h1dd3n" is code for "hidden" (seems obvious now, but I actually didn't catch on to this for several minutes - don't laugh.)
Here's my HijackThis log :
Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.0 (BETA)
Scan saved at 3:37:37 PM, on 29/08/2007
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
Boot mode: Normal
Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MsMpEng.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgamsvr.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgupsvc.exe
C:\Program Files\Memeo\AutoBackup\MemeoService.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\EY\Desktop\dsynchronize\DSynchronize.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe
C:\Program Files\Prevx2\PXAgent.exe
C:\Program Files\UPHClean\uphclean.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\SearchIndexer.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\ASUSTek\ASUSDVD\PDVDServ.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgcc.exe
C:\SCANJET\PrecisionScanPro\HPLamp.exe
C:\WINDOWS\StartupMonitor.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\RUNDLL32.EXE
C:\Program Files\Prevx2\PXConsole.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe
C:\Program Files\PowerMenu\PowerMenu.exe
C:\Program Files\MessengerDiscovery\MessengerDiscovery Live.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\taskmgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\EY\Desktop\HiJackThis_v2.exe
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.newsarama.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyOverride = *.local
O2 - BHO: Malicious Scripts Scanner - {55EA1964-F5E4-4D6A-B9B2-125B37655FCB} - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Prevx\pxbho.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [RemoteControl] "C:\Program Files\ASUSTek\ASUSDVD\PDVDServ.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG7_CC] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgcc.exe /STARTUP
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HP Lamp] C:\SCANJET\PrecisionScanPro\HPLamp.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nwiz] nwiz.exe /install
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Run StartupMonitor] StartupMonitor.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Windows Defender] "C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe" -hide
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvMcTray.dll,NvTaskbarInit
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PrevxOne] "C:\Program Files\Prevx2\PXConsole.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [Microsoft Update Machine] 447.exe:h1dd3n.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [CTFMON.EXE] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [msnmsgr] "C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe" /background
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [CTFMON.EXE] C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTFMON.EXE (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [AVG7_Run] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgw.exe /RUNONCE (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [CTFMON.EXE] C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTFMON.EXE (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-18\..\Run: [CTFMON.EXE] C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTFMON.EXE (User 'SYSTEM')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-18\..\RunOnce: [RunNarrator] Narrator.exe (User 'SYSTEM')
O4 - HKUS\.DEFAULT\..\Run: [CTFMON.EXE] C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTFMON.EXE (User 'Default user')
O4 - HKUS\.DEFAULT\..\RunOnce: [RunNarrator] Narrator.exe (User 'Default user')
O4 - Startup: Adobe Gamma.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
O4 - Global Startup: PowerMenu.lnk = C:\Program Files\PowerMenu\PowerMenu.exe
O16 - DPF: {00B71CFB-6864-4346-A978-C0A14556272C} - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/ms ... b31267.cab
O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool) - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=39204
O16 - DPF: {215B8138-A3CF-44C5-803F-8226143CFC0A} (Trend Micro ActiveX Scan Agent 6.6) - http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/house ... hcImpl.cab
O16 - DPF: {4F1E5B1A-2A80-42CA-8532-2D05CB959537} (MSN Photo Upload Tool) - http://gfx1.mail.live.com/mail/w1/resou ... NPUpld.cab
O16 - DPF: {5F8469B4-B055-49DD-83F7-62B522420ECC} (Facebook Photo Uploader Control) - http://upload.facebook.com/controls/Fac ... loader.cab
O16 - DPF: {6E32070A-766D-4EE6-879C-DC1FA91D2FC3} (MUWebControl Class) - http://www.update.microsoft.com/microso ... 6698854718
O16 - DPF: {8E0D4DE5-3180-4024-A327-4DFAD1796A8D} - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/Me ... b31267.cab
O16 - DPF: {B8BE5E93-A60C-4D26-A2DC-220313175592} - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/ZI ... b56649.cab
O16 - DPF: {C3F79A2B-B9B4-4A66-B012-3EE46475B072} - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/Me ... b56907.cab
O16 - DPF: {F5A7706B-B9C0-4C89-A715-7A0C6B05DD48} - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/Mi ... b56986.cab
O18 - Protocol: grooveLocalGWS - {88FED34C-F0CA-4636-A375-3CB6248B04CD} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\GR99D3~1.DLL
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Browseui preloader - {438755C2-A8BA-11D1-B96B-00A0C90312E1} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\browseui.dll
O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: Component Categories cache daemon - {8C7461EF-2B13-11d2-BE35-3078302C2030} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\browseui.dll
O23 - Service: Adobe LM Service - Adobe Systems - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe Systems Shared\Service\Adobelmsvc.exe
O23 - Service: AVG7 Alert Manager Server (Avg7Alrt) - GRISOFT, s.r.o. - C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgamsvr.exe
O23 - Service: AVG7 Update Service (Avg7UpdSvc) - GRISOFT, s.r.o. - C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgupsvc.exe
O23 - Service: AutoBackup (BMUService) - Memeo - C:\Program Files\Memeo\AutoBackup\MemeoService.exe
O23 - Service: DSynchronize Service (DSynchronizeSrv) - ND - C:\Documents and Settings\EAshley\Desktop\dsynchronize\DSynchronize.exe
O23 - Service: FLEXnet Licensing Service - Macrovision Europe Ltd. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (NVSvc) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe
O23 - Service: PREVXAgent - Prevx - C:\Program Files\Prevx2\PXAgent.exe
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