Virus.Neshta

ThreatDown is now the name of the Malwarebytes line of business products. References to Malwarebytes below reflect the amazing technology used to first identify the threat.

Short bio

Virus.Neshta is Malwarebytes’ detection name for the Neshta family of viruses which has been around since at least 2010, targeting Windows systems.

Type of infection

Virus.Neshta spreads by adding the virus code to other executable files.

Malicious behavior

To gain persistence, Virus.Neshta changes the default value for the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTexefileshellopencommand, to “%SystemRoot%svchost.com “%1″ %*”.

Aftermath

After removal of the infected files the system may be missing vital files for programs to run. Depending on the duration of the infection and the removed files, the system may even be inoperable.

Protection

Malwarebytes blocks Virus.Neshta

Home remediation

You can use the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Nebula console to scan endpoints.

Nebula endpoint tasks menu

Choose the Scan + Quarantine option. Afterwards you can check the Detections pageto see which threats were found.

On the Quarantine pageyou can see which threats were quarantined and restore them if necessary.