r/computerviruses • • Apr 04 '26

The ultimate guide to Infostealers: Detection, Recovery, and Prevention

237 Upvotes

Today I decided to dig deep and I wrote up a report about:

  • What can infostealers steal?
  • How to spot an infostealer infection?
  • How to properly secure my accounts after an infostealer attack?
  • What do the attackers do with the info that they stole?
  • What to do after I secured my accounts?
  • Prevent malware attacks in general

I believe this is a great reference for people who are dealing with an infostealer infection and do not know what data could be stolen or how to properly secure their accounts. šŸ‘€

https://rifteyy.org/report/the-ultimate-guide-to-infostealers


r/computerviruses • • Mar 22 '26

Providing or receiving help with FRST

44 Upvotes

How do I request help with FRST

FRST

  • Please download FRSTx64 and save the file to your Desktop.
  • Right-Click FRST64.exe and select Run as Administrator
  • Click Yes to the disclaimer.
  • Ensure the Addition.txt box is checked.
  • Click the Scan button and let the program run.
  • Upon completion, click OK, then OK on the Addition.txt pop up screen.
  • Two logs (FRST.txt & Addition.txt) will now be open on your Desktop. Copy & paste the contents of each log to https://malwareanalysis.cc/upload and press "save log". The site will return a keyword for each log. Note these keywords down.

SecurityCheck

  • Download SecurityCheck from here
  • Run SecurityCheck.exe as administrator
  • Wait for the scan to finish
  • Upload the log at C:\SecurityCheck to https://malwareanalysis.cc/upload/ for further analysis. The site will provide a keyword, note that down as well.

Now create a post in the subreddit, provide all 3 log keywords (FRST.txt, Addition.txt, SecurityCheck) there.

Please provide the following information in your post:

  • what happened?
  • when did the infection occur?
  • what did you do for remediation?

If you want us to do manual removal with FRST, it is better if you do not attempt to disinfect the system on your own prior to that. This can obscure the infection and make malware removal more difficult.

Trusted Helper List

FRST can cause serious issues if used incorrectly. Only approved users should offer to create fixlists.

Message the mods if you have experience with FRST and would like to use it to help on posts.

To anyone who is receiving help, please verify that the person providing fixes with FRST is in the list below. Be aware that running Fixlists from anyone else is not recommended unless you trust the helper.

All fixes of trainees are supervised and approved by an expert.

What is FRST

Fabar Recovery Scan Tool (FRST) is a powerful tool that helps us diagnose and remove malware infections which may not have been detected by antivirus software. It is a diagnostic tool and not a malware scanner. As such it does not rely on signatures.

Should I reinstall the operating system

Reinstallation is highly recommended if you have an infection with a remote access malware or file infector.

You should also prefer it, if you can pull it off relatively easy. Depending on the case FRST removal can take a few days due to the back and forth and different time zones of the participants.

Please do NOT first ask a helper to clean your system, then reinstall the operating system. This happened a few times and wastes hours of work for the helper. If you already consider reinstallation, preferably do that immediately.

I factory reset/reinstalled my operating system and want a FRST check

Everything that FRST displays and allows us to remove is completely wiped by reinstallation and also factory reset of the operating system. Unless you got the system infected after that step, there is nothing to check on a freshly installed system.

Please note that factory reset can still leave malware on the system, but the reset will make it impossible to pin point.

Reinstallation with USB flash drive is generally safe and in 99.9% of cases won't leave any malware on the system.

What is malwareanalysis.cc ?

It's a site I created to upload analysis logs. Only people in the trusted helper list have access to these logs.

While pastebin and similar sites can be used as well, Reddit's spam detection seems to trigger if people comment paste links repeatedly such as it would be necessary during removal. So we have a keyword based system instead of links.

The site will automatically delete uploaded logs 30 days after upload.

I think my system is still infected after manual removal with FRST

Please talk to your FRST helper. Oftentimes the reasons for suspecting an ongoing infection are not justified.

Common reasons, which do not indicate infection, include:

  • There are still login attempts to stolen accounts. It is normal that attackers use the already stolen account credentials to attempt to login. If you changed your passwords from a clean machine and logged out of sessions, they will not succeed.
  • Your accounts can still get stolen, if you did not log out of all sessions, because attackers can use your stolen session tokens instead of passwords.
  • Antivirus scanners find malware in C:\FRST\Quarantine\.... This is the malware that was already removed by FRST and will be deleted completely by our cleaning tools like kprm, it is not an active infection. The quarantine only contains disabled files which cannot be executed anymore.

r/computerviruses • • 3h ago

Question Pop-up ads

3 Upvotes

Started getting pop-up ads that I can't close about a week ago. I've stried running antimalware to get it removed and tried a full system wipe reset yet nothing. They show up in the bottom right hand corner of everything. On the MSI boot up screen before the oc turns on, the restart screen even after the wipe. I don't know what else to do, please help


r/computerviruses • • 1h ago

Disinfection Help I downloaded a cookie logger and now Im screwed

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• Upvotes

r/computerviruses • • 3h ago

Question Email link

1 Upvotes

I got a link in my email that looked legit and clicked on the link. It sent me to a website but chrome said the website may be dangerous and asked if I wanted to continue or go back, I pressed go back. I look in my chrome downloads and it says nothing, just ā€œfiles you download appear hereā€ so I don’t think it downloaded anything. I don’t think I even entered the website. Do yall think I’m safe? (Just a anxiety question)


r/computerviruses • • 3h ago

Disinfection Help My room mate borrowed my pc to play CS go and I noticed he was using cheat, did my pc got hacked

0 Upvotes

I tried to use bit defender and malware bytes but I did not see anything? the provider is Kernaim


r/computerviruses • • 3h ago

Disinfection Help Ran an obfuscated CMD command from a fake ā€œkey/CAPTCHAā€ page, Instagram and Discord got hijacked. Did a full reset, how do I make sure I’m clean?

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0 Upvotes

Last night around midnight I was trying to update my Roblox launcher and got sent to a page to get a key. It had a "verify you're human" step that told me to paste a command into Run/CMD. I was sleepy and did it, three times. The command was a long obfuscated cmd /v:on string with a scrambled character table and a loop that rebuilt a hidden command and ran it. I realized it was malware after like 3 hours (I think it's the ClickFix technique).

(If you were wondering why there was a key and stuff, i was afking some random game for fun since it was so grindy that i got bored and i just wanted to script it ) this is 100% a lesson learned from me.

What happened:

- 3:56 AM: my Discord sent 2 messages with a MrBeast giveaway scam

- 4:00 AM: my Instagram posted 2 scam stories

- Facebook and others showed no activity

What I've done: - Ran Defender quick scan and Malwarebytes before the reset (both found nothing).

- Task Manager showed nothing unusual.

- Did Windows Settings > Reset this PC > Remove everything (no USB available for a clean install)

- Before the reset: Malwarebytes and Defender scans are clean

- After the Reset: I use Norton 360 and it found nothing

- Changed passwords on everything from a clean device, logged out of all sessions, turned on 2FA

Discord & Instagram Password's were not changed even after the story and the messages were sent. also i let this PC run online for like a while till i turned off the ethernet around 7:00 where i started troubleshooting it. i changed all passwords from my android, and the rest from my pc AFTER the reset.

reddit users please help me :(

(P.S i know i fell for a stupid trick, i was sleepy okay?)

ANOTHER THING TO NOTE: WHEN I MEAN RESET, I MEAN I USED THE RESET IN THE SETTINGS, I DELETED ALL FILES, SO NOTHING WAS BACKUP'D. BASICALLY A HARD RESET.


r/computerviruses • • 5h ago

File / URL Check Made a mistake! Need help!

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1 Upvotes

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r/computerviruses • • 6h ago

Disinfection Help [bedrock] Fake "Hack Client" Virus Stuck On My Minecraft Account/Computer

1 Upvotes

I recently got a minecraft hack client for a video with my friends. About to start, I realized I had not figured out how to get it to work. I tried for a while, but eventually I went back to the video I had found it on to try to find a setup guide. I had the weird feeling to check the comments, so I did, and I found like 10 different people saying that it was a virus. (the channel wasn't popular) I immediately went to go delete the file off my downloads, it was a .zip with a whole bunch of things including an exe file in there. I tried to delete the folder I had extracted but it kept saying it was in use of another program. I checked task manager and nothing suspicious was there, and minecraft was not open. I looked in the file, and it seems like when I had opened the exe before, it dissapeared, because it was not there. I imediately reset my computer, finally was able to delete the folder, searched my whole computer for the name of the file, and ran microsoft defender. I thought it was all gone, but when I went back into minecraft, my keys were either late, or not even there. I had to hold down W, wait 2 seconds, and then I would move. Something is very wrong, and I don't even know what the virus's main purpose was! I know there might have been a better place to post this in, but I couldn't find anything that helps with this stuff, and I need help fast, depending on what this will do to my computer! I can't play minecraft! What is weird, is that my keys are spot on for every other game I play or when I type, it is just minecraft that has the delayed keys! Please, I really need all the help I can get!


r/computerviruses • • 6h ago

Disinfection Help how can I completely erase potential infostealer in my pc?

1 Upvotes

Hii, I think I might have reluctantly completed a sketchy captcha through a pirate streaming website yesterday, but didn't think much of it until this morning, after being warned via email that there was some suspicious activity happening in my discord account.

Upon login, I realised it had been used to spread that Mr. Beast screenshot scam that has been happening a lot lately.

Shortly after, I was notified they got into my Epic Games account too, and later today they also got an old facebook account, all of them connected by the same email.

I disconnected my pc from internet connection as soon as I could and made sure to change passwords and log off of everything important using a safe device.

I can still run a scan using malwarebytes, however the access to windows security center has been limited "Your IT administrator has limited access to some areas"...

I'm currently backing up some documents into a USB driver in order to proceed with either a reset or whatever might be the best/only solution in this case.

Is there something else to be done to fix this? If someone could provide some guidance on what to do from now, that would be great.

Thank you so much!!


r/computerviruses • • 7h ago

Disinfection Help AMD driver official singing

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1 Upvotes

Hello everyone i bought new gaming pc i have changed it sinse 2023. So I installed amd graphics as usual and I got to check digital signature of the file just to be sure.

And from what I remember the correct digital signature is

Advanced Micro Devices. Inc

Bur the current one I have only says Advanced Micro devices. No Inc at the end and im getting worried didi they change the name ?


r/computerviruses • • 7h ago

Question question regarding fear of infostealers + microsoft "contact IT helpdesk for more information"

1 Upvotes

hello! i very recently made a post here where i asked about receiving an infostealer by simply visiting a suspicious website and possibly allowing notifications. i did not run anything and i did not download anything. i double checked my run commands and my powershell as well and nothing was there. malwarebytes standard scan caught nothing as well - all stuff i checked for paranoias sake.

this was several days ago. i was feeling fine because i did not do anything to cause incident.

however, at 1 am this morning apparently an instagram account i havent touched in ages had an attempted recovery. its not my main account and the instagram email seems very much so official, equipped with a random verification code. is this an insane coincidence of an unrelated incident of someone trying to get into my account?

i did not change the password to this instagram account in the middle of my panic a couple days ago since i had forgotten about it - if it was an infostealer, wouldnt they simply have this log in info for this account?

another thing is in my notifications i had my windows virus scan results. however, when i tried to click the notification it wouldn't let me view, stating that "your IT administrator has limited access to some areas of this app, and the item you tried to access is not available. contact IT helpdesk for more information." i am my administrator. i saw some things saying if you have a third-party antivirus, this can happen. is it because webroot is my primary antivirus?

sorry if any questions are a bit silly - this put me very on edge after i felt very assured.

thank you!


r/computerviruses • • 8h ago

Question something keeps killing task manager and regedit

1 Upvotes

whenever i open either program, it closes within a second. this does not apply within safe mode, nor have i found any other utils it affects. does anyone recognise this or have any recommendations?

EDIT: ok so i updated windows and now it seems to be working fine so idk


r/computerviruses • • 12h ago

Disinfection Help ive been hit with lummaC2 (i think idk but i know its an info stealer) malware in 2025 and still sbit gets leaked i did many full whipes and changed my passwords what now? shit still gets leaked everytime i save a new password boom leaked

2 Upvotes

r/computerviruses • • 9h ago

Disinfection Help I installed games from OptiProjects and next day got microsoft log in warnings and IG got haked am i cooked?

0 Upvotes

so uhh i instaled a bunch of games from optiprojects, opened them all, half worked half didint, i opened an installer of plague inc and it installed and didnt open the game, i got warnings from microsoft about people trying to log in from malasia usa rusia and shi, i did a bunch of security stuff to the point i think im good..?

today midnight my Instagram got hacked and some dude started promoting a Mr Beast cripto casino and a free 2500$ gift, send it to ALL the people i follow and posted it to story, i also did a bunch of security shi and activated 2 step verification with autenticator, i didnt even see from where it was cause it looked like he logged of cause there were no active sesions but mine.

i know i walked straight into that shi with the games cause defender told me it was suspicions ( i remember it said suspicius cause if it had been a strong word like defender protected your PC or malware detected i woudnt have opened it) and i still opened them. ( im doing a lot of security shit with chat gpt btw i think im doing good)

I dont even use reddit but i came for yall knowledge cause i know theres a lot over here. What can i do or what can you tell me

reposting from another r/ smt i alredy forgot


r/computerviruses • • 23h ago

Question Netshare .exe

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15 Upvotes

NetShare is an app that bypasses hotspot sharing limits from your phone by providing your laptop with a VPN connection. My laptop detects the installer from the official website as a trojan, so it seems like a huge risk, but I only see positive reviews; is the app just built that way? I need an expert opinion from people who have used it before I decide, as I have struggled to find reliable feedback.


r/computerviruses • • 10h ago

Disinfection Help Mr Beast infostealer virus (post-infection advice)

1 Upvotes

Well, as the title says, I was infected by the infamous infostealer. Here's what happened in chronological order:

  1. The infection happened after I tried downloading an honestly rather suspicious mod. I hate how I love Morrowind;
  2. I noticed things were strange when my keyboard's accents were acting weird. I couldn't use characters like '~' or 'Ā“' as they double typed themselves;
  3. I googled the issue and found some guy's video saying it was a virus. I then downloaded both Malwarebytes and Kaspersky to scan and fix it (according to the video). Both softwares did detect odd stuff;
  4. The chaos began. I started getting banned and removed from most Discord servers I used to be a part of. My account was spamming everything and everyone;
  5. Some people started sending me screenshots of weird posts on my Instagram account.
  6. I immediately unplugged my PC from the internet and began changing my passwords through my phone;
  7. Meanwhile, I knew a clean windows install would be ideal, but since I had no flash drive with me, all I could do was the other formatting/restoration method (I think it's called recovery? I did select the 'erase everything' option though);
  8. A couple days after that, I got a message from a friend saying I had send them odd links on Steam. I also remembered I didn't change my steam password with all my other accounts, so I did it right after that;

The thing is...now I don't know if those Steam spams happened because I was still infected or because I didn't change my password. Do I still need to properly format my PC? Any advice?


r/computerviruses • • 1d ago

Question are these subtle signs or malware/virus?

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60 Upvotes

im just a little worried but i jus want to be sure yk? i havent really noticed these things running before and my pc feels a little slower than usual. Im no pc expert i just want to be reassured


r/computerviruses • • 16h ago

Question Preciso de ajuda!

1 Upvotes

AlguƩm sabe por que esses emails estranhos aparecem como contatos sugeridos?


r/computerviruses • • 16h ago

Question A classmate plugged a suspicious USB device into my PC without my consent. Should I be worried?

1 Upvotes

I was at university when one of my classmates told me he wanted to experiment with something. He had a strange-looking device attached to a USB cable and wanted to plug it into my computer.

I refused because I didn't know what the device was or what it could do.

However, while I was distracted, he plugged it into my PC without my permission.

When he did, I noticed that an Instagram page opened in the browser, and he followed his own account from it.

For context, I don't have an Instagram account. The Facebook account on that computer isn't my real personal account either; it's just a test account I use for experiments.

I don't know what the device was, what exactly it did, or whether it could have accessed anything else on my computer.

My questions are:

What kind of USB device could do this?

Could it have executed commands or accessed files without me noticing?

Is there a risk to my other accounts, saved passwords, or personal data?

What should I check on my PC to make sure nothing malicious happened?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people with cybersecurity or digital forensics experience.


r/computerviruses • • 17h ago

File / URL Check GitHub - TheTiranix/rpgmaker-local-coop: Same-keyboard local co-op for RPG Maker MZ/MV games (Look Outside, Fear & Hunger): split screen, P2 light, turn-based combat for two, character picker

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1 Upvotes

Hey everyone, was wondering if anyone here wouldn't mind taking a quick look at a github project for me? It's a mod that adds online multiplayer to a game, but honestly I'm a little paranoid about what's under the hood. Apparently it was made pretty fast with the help of newer AI tools like a few other recent mods, so I'm worried there might be some hidden security risks or bad practices baked in that I wouldn't spot myself. I'm not trying to throw shade at the creator or anything, I'd just feel way better getting a second opinion from someone who actually knows how to audit this kind of code.


r/computerviruses • • 18h ago

File / URL Check TikTok ad to fishing website?

1 Upvotes

phishing**

May you please help me determine if the following encounter was malicious. im on iPhone thankfully which I know is pretty safe but it’d be great if someone could do a full breakdown of the website please.

trying to figure out what this tiktok ad has taken me to. it was a post on TikTok where you go to swipe for the next photo but instead it opens a link, usually to a company’s website.

in my case, it took me to the website below. I’ve pasted the virus total and cloud flare links below. virus total has 1 hit for phishing.

the website didn’t do anything when it loaded. I used browserling to try through a windows environment given im on iPhone and nothing happened that I could see.

was the goal perhaps to steal cookies or something which would be pretty rare from just visiting a site based on my knowledge.

chatgpt was suspicious of the payload script on the summary in cloud flare and said it redirects you to another website although it could just be hallucinating. I cant get chatgpt to confirm the website again. unfortunately I closed the first chat I had with it where it said the redirection thing.

thanks so much for your help!!

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/777beb942bbdb5db0e50e87e71873d4dee3596f21a2b2cd0af5239b28cab8ba2/detection

https://radar.cloudflare.com/scan/cb1a62ff-ce59-4f54-9d2b-1a07971cbd5b/summary

shortened link: https://asu-drop-20260929[dot]pages[dot]dev/payload

tiktok ad link: https://asu-drop-20260929[dot]pages[dot]dev/?campidrd=902&sub1=771430e7&s1=771430e7&source=771430e7&ttclid=E_C_P_CuUB37u9hC0wUivifTgh42Ih4EPIempnaeoLH1dgVRNxXNiGlZigvqhClBVXPMt7UBmYINQ71j5fAgBTnBoZOT1Mx7YDcQ3Fvleh6WNvMS4iWkY2apRkhG_cdkEZ1N3CuB9x1jMlOV2sxb3er_iuM_uU2RMIp1DOO22MzZmfshltXnfP53QNq19fNDoBa2nYIxjKpnQph9jJfGcCR5dQtu4PMJoWZSuoRvzErw5PJSo3QX_pXperhnCRr9FaA6UZOiedteBTk7GsEzEdfLP1UVvlakY_F8-wykR2vtfWmY1IcLuuGPHtWBIEdjIuMA


r/computerviruses • • 19h ago

Question Help to get rid of Trojan Virus AActools

1 Upvotes

So I got infected by a fake Windows key product but .. I didn't download it?? At all?

I deleted all files that were named or anything AActools I deleted in normal mode, safe mode and task scheduler.

I also know of AutoKMS or so but I didn't have any files named that (yes I also had show hidden files)

My windows say there's no activation key anymore and my windows security scans all came out clean (offline and quick) except I'm doing the long check rn.

I've logged out of all suspicious log ins to my accounts and changed all passwords.

I'm still paranoid and need advice.


r/computerviruses • • 20h ago

File / URL Check Found a virus site(WARNING DO NOT OPEN LINK WILL FULLSCREEN LOCK)

1 Upvotes

aeeptos{.}sbs it is a government (UAE, Dubai) because thats where im living fake ransomware gonna share ts with Trainium

VirusTotal link:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/410cce447a57c1fb809be6ac1f399b0975099f651d42abe70f6895daca8eb554


r/computerviruses • • 1d ago

Disinfection Help Downloaded the setup dot exe that renpy malware or whatever it is

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67 Upvotes

I was downloading something and i accidently downloaded this and ran it i got to know its a malware so maybe 15-20 seconds in i disconnected my internet and changed my google passwords removed/logged out my pc from the devices lists did the same with reddit spotify apple music discord steam twitter every app i could think of i didn't have my banking details on this but i dont know what to do next im really confused i need to remove this off my pc asap i have a deadline tommorow can someone please help ps - I have 2 nvme I have my windows installed on the nvme 1 and i have some important stuff on the nvme 2 they are separated as two different drives do i also need to wipe out my second nvme with my windows one