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Old 22nd Jun 2006, 12:21 pm
petruc petruc is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Default Adware in miniCD bundled with iPod fake

Now, that's a bad new thing in mp4 players.

All excited that I was to check out the contents of the miniCD that came with my mp4 ipod fake, I've noticed that, besides MP3 tools, there was an optional "Ringz Studios Storm Codec", a very nice set of numerous codecs for windows media player, which allowed playback of most videos avaiable on the net. I've installed it.

Afterwards, during a routine system check with Netscape 8.1, it found Meplex Adware and another spyware (that I can't recall right now) on my pc. I've also noticed a new option, Ò×Ȥ¹ºÎï (which characters in simplified chinese encoding translate to "easy interest shopping") in the Tools menu of Internet Explorer, that linked to a Chinese or so eBay page selling mp3/mp4 players.

I've searched the web and found a HijackThis log file of another guy, showing the presence of that Ò×Ȥ¹ºÎï menu item as well as Storm Codec in his system. So I went to Ringz Studios Storm Codec's folder in Program Files and, voilà, "ebay.ico" file in there.

With that info, made another search and found this page in Symantec's site with registry removal instructions and a list of envolved files, if anyone wants.

So, there's my advice not to install the codecs pack in the cd bundled with iPod fake mp4 player unless your computer has no secrets and is just for amusement.

If you installed the pack, and have Netscape 8.1, please run a full scan with its anti-spyware function, and post the name of the problems found, because I really can't remember the name of the other problem it found besides Meplex and I wanted to check if that other problem came from the mp4's miniCD as well or not. Oh, instructions on how to find the misteriously hidden (or maybe inexistent) log file of netscape's spyware scan are welcome too.

Just to make it clear, I'm talking about the WMP codecs pack that came in the miniCD in the mp4 player box, NOT the MP3 Tools programs (AMV player, firmware upgrade, etc.) that came in the same CD.
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