DVD Flick and Strongvault

[DeeEss]

I have been using DVD Flick off and on for a couple of years on my desktop computer. Since I was using my desktop for other CPU intensive jobs, I installed DVD Flick on my laptop a few days ago. But, when I started DVD Flick up, it started installing a program call Strongvault, which is an evil little program. Once installed, it is really hard to get rid of. And it installs a bunch of crap like programs that take over your browser. Nasty. Moving quickly, I was able to cancel the install before it had accomplished its goal. However, every time I start DVD Flick, the same s*** happens, Strongvault tries to install. The DVD Flick install file I used was downloaded from your site a few days ago. I have since uninstalled DVD Flick and used an older archived install file from several months back. But apparently Strongvault has dug itself in deep and still pops up with the older install version. So... 1) You need to check your files you are sending out and get rid of this monstrosity. 2) Any advice on how to get rid of this thing on my laptop would be appreciated. Some months back, I got my desktop infected with Strongvault and it took days to get it and all its buddies off my system. I do not want it on any of my computers.

[admin]

DVD Shrink has been discontinued for many years (and thus unlikely to work with most newer DVDs anyway), and the download you got was most likely infected with malware (probably intentionally by whatever download site trying to make money off the downloads). This includes a so called "official site", which ripped off content from the original official site and appears to now package the download with some kind of downloader/malware (at least according to Norton, also see the footnote on the DVD Shrink Wikipedia entry for this so called "homepage").

There are also software that plays on the name (like DVD Shrink Gold 2013), but may feature something that's totally unrelated and/or malicious.

The original DVD Shrink never included any adware or malware.

[DeeEss]

Er...um...I was talking about DVD Flick, not DVD Shrink.

[admin]

Oops, sorry. Was late at night, didn't read the post properly!

Did you download DVD Flick 1.3.0.7 or 1.3.0.9 (which is a different project - although both are open source).

I've matched checksums with the files on our server to the files from the SourceForge official downloads (here and here), so either it's something that the author has put in, or there's some other program on your computer that is launching the malware installer. I've tried installing and running both the older 1.3.0.7 and the 1.3.0.9 versions, and nothing pops up for me at all.

I did a Google search on DVD Flick and Strongvault, and the only post I found was this one, which does sound like the exact problem you're experiencing:

ImgBurn Question

But here's another post which seem to indicate that other programs, such as the open-source VLC Media Player (possibly the most popular open source media player in the world), also seems to cause the Strongvault installer to launch:

What program is Strong Vault connected to? - Microsoft Community

I suspect Strongvault was not completely removed from your system (as is often the case with adware), and DVD Flick, when it launches, activates something that causes the Strongvault to try and reinstall itself (just like with VLC).

Here's what you can do to clean your system:

1. Run HijackThis and look for any suspicious start-up and registry entries related to Strongvault.

2. Download, update and run a full scan with MBAM

3. Then do a full scan with your anti-virus software.

This will usually clean up most, if not all, adware/malware from your system. If you have trouble running any of these programs (which indicates a much more serious infection), then try running these in Windows safe mode, or even create a new Windows user account and run these tools from there.

If the above doesn't work, then you can use a trial version of Revo Uninstaller to try and weed out any leftover files.

Hope this help!

[DeeEss]

Thanx for the response. I haven't had time yet to implement your suggests, but will do so shortly and will let you know the result. It is quite possible that the Strongvault is from an older install and DVD Flick is just activating the installer. However, I don't have this problem with any other program.