Rogue:W32/Renos

Summary

Dishonest antivirus software which tricks users into buying or installing it, usually by infecting a user's computer, or by pretending the computer is infected.

Disinfection & Removal

Automatic Disinfection

Allow F-Secure Anti-Virus to disinfect the relevant files.For more general information on disinfection, please see Removal Instructions.

Manual Disinfection

I certain circumstances, F-Secure Anti-Virus may not be able to automatically remove files; the user must manually select the correct disinfection action before the antivirus program will proceed.

If a file detected as not-virus:Hoax.Win32.Renos is an executable with a DLL or EXE extension, and is located in Windows, Windows System or in a root folder of C: drive, this file can be safely deleted or renamed.

Technical Details

Rogue:W32/Renos is program that displays annoying fake security warnings. The aim of this software is to trick a computer user to download third-party cleaning utilities, usually anti-spyware scanners.

Installation

The Renos executable file is usually dropped by malicious websites onto the computer system. It may also be delivered in the payload of a trojan.

Typically when a Renos' executable file is run, it drops a DLL file into Windows System folder and registers it as a system component. The DLL is the main Renos component.

Activity

When active, Renos shows a blinking icon in System Tray and periodically (actually quite often to be annoying) shows a fake security warning:

When a user clicks on this alert, his web browser is redirected to a website that offers a cleaning utility (usually anti-adware) for download.