AOSS is absolutely worthless

[gringopig]

I had the opportunity recently to try out AOSS on a computer badly affected with Trojan.Vundo (AKA Winfixer) - the first time I've used it on a computer other than my own, which is clean.

Oh dear.

The scan took (I kid you not) 6 HOURS to complete and it found 1 instance of 'malware', an instance which had no relation to the rather obvious problem the PC had. I thought a scan with AOSS would be worthwhile as Windows files and registry would be laid bare for full inspection and this would be a sure fire start.

Big mistake. It put me back half a day waiting for that interminable scan to finish. It found NOTHING to boot!!!

Very poor.

[AChen]

Hi gringopig,

Please note that AOSS is not a replacement for Spyware Doctor. It is designed as a last resort tool that is to be used if a system that is heavily infected with malware that the computer can not boot to a state where Spyware Doctor can run.

In this case, if you were not able to remove Trojan.Vundo, it may be possible that this is a new variant and a signature is yet to be created. What you can do is run the Malware Detective tool and I can investigate this further.

[gringopig]

Hi gringopig,

Please note that AOSS is not a replacement for Spyware Doctor. It is designed as a last resort tool that is to be used if a system that is heavily infected with malware that the computer can not boot to a state where Spyware Doctor can run.

In this case, if you were not able to remove Trojan.Vundo, it may be possible that this is a new variant and a signature is yet to be created. What you can do is run the Malware Detective tool and I can investigate this further.

I know it's not a replacement. Spyware Doctor actually WORKS! LOL!
I used the latest refdb.dat file you posted and had high hopes that the reputation of SD would also be reflected in the performance of this tool.

The scan took 6 HOURS! for heaven's sake. It scanned many jpeg thumbs.db files for a good 20 minutes EACH!
The computer booted (mostly), fair enough, but I was confident that it would be a good first step to combating the infection.

I wouldn't pursue this particular avenue - that's my opinion. It may tarnish the reputation of PCTools. One of my work colleagues who took an interest in my attempts to rescue this computer SCOFFED openly at it.
Despite myself, I have to agree.

I'm a customer for life for SD tho' :D

BTW, the problem has been fixed. Cheers, Paul

[tom.tdw]

hi

vundo is one of the nastiest Trojans out there, it has always been hard to remove with conventional tools

spyware doctor cannot remove the latest versions so neither can AOSS

to remove it you need to use various combinations of hijackthis, combofix and vundofix

i personally think that AOSS has great potential but if it opened the door to some 3rd party addons and the license was relaxed so that it could be included in toolkits such as Ultimate Boot CD it would be a lot more useful (why have 10 separate utilities on different CDs when you could have them all on one?)

[gringopig]

hi

vundo is one of the nastiest Trojans out there, it has always been hard to remove with conventional tools

spyware doctor cannot remove the latest versions so neither can AOSS

to remove it you need to use various combinations of hijackthis, combofix and vundofix

i personally think that AOSS has great potential but if it opened the door to some 3rd party addons and the license was relaxed so that it could be included in toolkits such as Ultimate Boot CD it would be a lot more useful (why have 10 separate utilities on different CDs when you could have them all on one?)

Nah, it was EASY! FixVundo/Vundofix and SD did it. Norton AV did the rest.

AOSS had NO worthwhile input to the recovery and did NOUGHT! in 6 hours ( yes 6 HOURS!)

It is literally WORTHLESS.

[tom.tdw]

do you have a SCSI hard drive?

that might have messed with it

vundofix is a very complex tool and as it's creators are focused on the vundo trojan they can update it more regularly than AOSS (which was probably using an old database anyway)

[gringopig]

No SCSI drive. The computer in question was a Dell Dimension 9100 with a 250GB SATA 2 driven via AHCI drivers on XP Home.

Maybe the best solution for a scan outside the OS is to repartition the drive with Gparted and install a temporary Windows OS. The suspect System files can then be scanned using yr favoured tools as they lie dormant. AOSS is just plain flawed.
The given raison d'etre for this freebie is in cases where the OS cannot be booted to. However, if it returns results as feeble as I have experienced then it is a waste of time. In the case I was solving, no advantage would have been gained from using AOSS and 6 hours of valuable fault-finding time was lost.

Cheers anyway!

[mjq424]

Hi
To be honest, needing to scan with the OS in "hibernation" is a rare thing and shouldn't be needed now-a-days. It would require a very heavily infested machine to need that. If necessary you could try Sunbelt's CounterSpy 15-day trial as it comes with scan-on-boot technology.

[Kable]

ESET Smart Security has a great rescue disc for this very same thing, only it's an anit-virus not anti-spyware...I have used it and it works much faster than 6 HOURS!!!! geez...I think it's a much more thourough scan (and more importantly, I feel ALOT better) if ALL my files are scanned not just the available ones while the system is booted...PLUS it updates either through an online update OR from the database for ESET that is ALREADY on your system...Hella Efficient!!! LOL...I'm starting to feel that MAYBE S.D. is doing the ALA-MCAFEE & NORTON where it USED to be the sh** but somehow ends up becoming sh**...just my 99 cents! Take it how you want it...:cool:

-Kable

[tip-top]

ESET Smart Security has a great rescue disc for this very same thing, only it's an anit-virus not anti-spyware...I have used it and it works much faster than 6 HOURS!!!! geez...I think it's a much more thourough scan (and more importantly, I feel ALOT better) if ALL my files are scanned not just the available ones while the system is booted...PLUS it updates either through an online update OR from the database for ESET that is ALREADY on your system...Hella Efficient!!! LOL...I'm starting to feel that MAYBE S.D. is doing the ALA-MCAFEE & NORTON where it USED to be the sh** but somehow ends up becoming sh**...just my 99 cents! Take it how you want it...:cool:

-Kable

This is an old school thread ;)
I've tested AOSS 2 and it takes nowhere near 6 hours. Does quite a good job!!