Trojan.Win32.Qhost.kx

Technical Details

This Trojan is a modified Windows %System%\drivers\etc\hosts file, which is used to translate domain names (DNS) to IP addresses. The modified file is 910 bytes in size. The file is modified in such a way as to prevent the user from viewing the sites listed below.

The following strings are added to the hosts file :

66.235.180.115 google.com 
66.235.180.115 google.ca   
66.235.180.115 google.de   
66.235.180.115 live.com   
66.235.180.115 live.ca   
66.235.180.115 live.de   
66.235.180.115 msn.com   
66.235.180.115 msn.ca   
66.235.180.115 msn.de   
66.235.180.115 yahoo.com   
66.235.180.115 yahoo.ca   
66.235.180.115 yahoo.de   
66.235.180.115 altavista.com   
66.235.180.115 altavista.ca   
66.235.180.115 altavista.de
66.235.180.115 www.google.com 
66.235.180.115 www.google.ca   
66.235.180.115 www.google.de   
66.235.180.115 www.live.com   
66.235.180.115 www.live.ca   
66.235.180.115 www.live.de   
66.235.180.115 www.msn.com   
66.235.180.115 www.msn.ca   
66.235.180.115 www.msn.de   
66.235.180.115 www.yahoo.com   
66.235.180.115 www.yahoo.ca   
66.235.180.115 www.yahoo.de   
66.235.180.115 www.altavista.com   
66.235.180.115 www.altavista.ca   
66.235.180.115 www.altavista.de

This means that all attempts to contact the servers listed above will be redirected to 66.235.180.115.

This is the result of the activity of another malicious program.

Removal instructions

If your computer does not have an up-to-date antivirus, or does not have an antivirus solution at all, follow the instructions below to delete the malicious program:

1. Modify the %System%\drivers\etc\hosts file using any standard application (e.g. Notepad). Delete the strings added by the Trojan. The original hosts file has the following contents:
   # Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
   #
   # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
   #
   # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
   # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
   # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
   # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
   # space.
   #
   # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
   # lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
   #
   # For example:
   #
   #      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
   #       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host
   

   127.0.0.1       localhost

2. Update your antivirus databases and perform a full scan of the computer (download a trial version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus).