Clampi Virus

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Clampi

Clampi is a Trojan Horse malware program that has been around for many years and has several versions that operate in different ways. Clampi is mainly known as a banking Trojan, and most of its versions are designed to perform banking theft.

The Clampi Trojan was first discovered back in the mid-2000s and has been around ever since. It first started as a banking Trojan that stays hidden in the system and secretly records the user’s banking numbers whenever the latter would enter them on their computer. This allowed the hackers who used Clampi to gain access to their victims’ banking accounts and make withdrawals without the victim’s knowledge. A common tactic was to make small withdrawals over time in hopes that the user wouldn’t notice the missing money, allowing the hackers to leech off of the user’s banking account for longer.

In 2009, the Clampi virus became a serious threat that was present in many computers without the users being aware of it. To this day, the threat is still present in many systems despite improved antivirus security.

The Clampi Virus

The Clampi Virus is a dangerous banking Trojan with multiple versions that use different vectors of attack to infiltrate your system. Later Clampi Virus versions can integrate with the user’s browser and manipulate its behavior, causing it to automatically page-redirect the user to harmful sites.

This virus typically spread via fake/spam emails and online ads, as well as through the help of pirated software and freeware that users would willingly download onto their computers. If the Trojan has infiltrated your browser, it could collect different sorts of data about your browsing habits and preferences, and it may even be able to steal your usernames and passwords and send them to its creators, who can then use the collected information for a wide variety of cybercrimes.

Cleaning the browser from Clampi, however, would typically not remove the threat in its entirety. A meticulous and thorough system clean-up is required to ensure that the Trojan is gone and that nothing from it is left in the system.

To evade removal, this Trojan makes changes in various system settings, including the Hosts file, the list of Startup items, and the System Registry. If those changes are not reversed, there’s a chance that the virus may return even after you’ve seemingly managed to delete it.

What is Clampi Virus?

The Clampi Virus is a malware program of the Trojan Horse category, and it’s mostly used for banking theft, although some of its versions could perform additional harmful actions. One later Clampi Virus version is also known for scamming the user through scare tactics.

This version of the virus disguises itself as a security tool and then tries to scare the targeted victim into thinking there’s an infection inside the computer that can only be removed if the fake security tool is downloaded and paid for. More gullible users are likely to fall for this and download and pay for the disguised Clampi Virus, which is how the hackers behind it are able to extract money from their victims. If you ever get a notification from a website that malware has been detected on your computer, and you need to download something from that site in order to clean your system, simply close that site and don’t trust anything it has told you. The same applies to any sketchy-looking free programs on your computer that claim to be security tools and constantly nag you to purchase their paid version so that you can remove a supposed infection from your computer that they have detected. In such instances, it’s best to download a legitimate antivirus tool and scan the sketchy free program and delete it if it gets recognized as a threat.

SUMMARY:

NameClampi
TypeTrojan
Detection Tool

*Source of claim SH can remove it.

Clampi Virus Removal

The Clampi Virus removal process involves deleting any rogue programs that may be linked to the Trojan, stopping the Trojan processes, and then cleaning the system from rogue data and settings.

  1. Start the removal by checking the Uninstall a Program section in the Control Panel for potentially rogue programs, and uninstall what you find.
  2. Check for Clampi processes in the Task Manager and end the ones you think are related to the Trojan.
  3. Reverse changes made by the Trojan to the Hosts file of the computer, the DNS settings of your main network, and the Startup items list.
  4. Go to the Registry Editor, search the Registry for malware items, and delete anything rogue that may be there.

The next lines will give you more details about those four steps, as well as some extra tips that will help you manually delete the Trojan.

Detailed Clampi Virus Removal Steps

Step 1

Type Control Panel in the search bar below the Start Menu, click the Control Panel icon and then select the Uninstall a Program section. In the list of programs installed on your PC, you must carefully search for any recently-added program that may have carried the malicious Trojan into your PC. It’s even possible that the rogue program may have gotten installed on your PC without your informed permission, so look for unfamiliar entries and/or ones that you don’t remember installing yourself.

If you find a program or an app in the list that seems suspicious and potentially related to the Clampi virus, select it and then click the Uninstall option that’s above the list to launch the uninstallation wizard for that program. Complete the uninstallation steps, but be careful to not let anything related to that program be left behind on the computer. For instance, if you see an option to not delete settings for that program or some temporary files related to it, be sure to disable that option, so everything would be deleted after the uninstallation.

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Step 2

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

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Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Esc], then, in the Task Manager window that opens, select Processes. In the list of currently running processes, you must try to find ones that may be related to the Clampi Trojan. It’s unlikely that the Trojan’s process would be named Clampi or anything similar to it, so look for other questionable names and/or ones that are unfamiliar to you. Also, pay attention to the amount of CPU and memory that the different processes are consuming. If any of them is using very high amounts of either resource, this could be a potential red flag that indicates that the process is a threat.

If one or more of the processes there look questionable, there are two things you should do to find out if it’s really a threat:

  • First, you should search for the name of that process on the Internet, using Google, Bing, or another reliable search engine. Look through the search results – if you find posts about this process on reputable security forums where users or researchers say it is a threat, then this is a pretty strong indication that the process may indeed be a threat.
  • The other thing you should do is right-click the process, go to the File Location folder, and, with the help of our free online malware scanner, scan all files in that folder for malicious code. If one or more of the files get flagged by the scanner, this means that the suspected process that’s related to those files is also harmful.
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    Naturally, if you determine that there is a rogue process that’s currently running on your PC, you must quit it, but another thing you must also do is delete its File Location folder. If you can’t delete that folder because you are not allowed to delete one or more of the files that are in it, then delete the rest of the files, complete the remainder of the guide, and try to delete the folder again.

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    Step 3

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    For this step, you must put your computer in Safe Mode, which will hopefully block any future attempts made by the Clampi Trojan to re-start its rogue processes and interfere with the completion of the remaining removal steps. After you complete the guide, you can boot back into the regular mode.

    Step 4

    Open the Start Menu, use its search bar to search for the next items, open each of them and complete the instructions shown below:

    Ncpa.cpl – Once you type this in the Start Menu and hit Enter, you will see a page with one or more networks shown in it. You must right-click the network that you normally connect to, then you must go to Properties, and double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4. In the following window, click the Obtain an IP address automatically option to enable it if it isn’t already, and do the same with the Obtain DNS server address automatically option. Then click on the Advanced button, go to the tab labeled DNS, delete anything that may be shown in the DNS server addresses list, and click OK on all open windows so that the changes you’ve made would be saved.

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    Msconfig – Once you open msconfig, you will be brought to the System Configuration window, in which you must click the Startup tab and search the list shown there for unfamiliar or suspicious items or ones that are listed with unknown developers. Deselect any such items that are in that list and click OK.

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    notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts – This will take you to a notepad file named Hosts – you must check the text towards the bottom of this file and see if there are any suspicious-looking IP addresses. If there are any questionable IPs shown there, copy them, paste them down below in the comments, and we will soon reply to you, telling you if those IPs must be deleted from the file.

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    Step 5

    Warning: Before you start completing this step, bear in mind that you must be very careful and make sure you don’t delete any Registry items that aren’t from the virus. Deleting the wrong item could have severe consequences for the system, so it is strongly advised to contact us through the comments if you are uncertain about anything.

    You can go to the Registry Editor tool by typing regedit in the Start Menu and then open the regedit.exe icon that will show up. When you try to open it, you will first be asked for Admin approval in order to continue – click Yes in that window.

    In the window of the Registry Editor, select Edit from the top, then click Find and type Clampi in the search box. Then click on Find Next and delete whatever gets found. There will probably be more than one rogue item in the Registry, so search again, delete the next thing, and by repeating this process, make sure that no more Clampi entries are left in the Registry.

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    Finally, expand the folders to the left to navigate to these three Registry locations:

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main

    In them, look for items that seem to have unusual names that seem out of place. For example, an item that has a name that seems randomly generated (something like “903u98dj984tyr938jd985yr2ud9j843”) counts as suspicious and should probably be deleted. However, instead of directly deleting such items, you should first tell us about them in the comments, and we will inform you if they indeed need to be removed.

    If Clampi hasn’t been removed yet

    If even after finishing the guide the Trojan still seems to be in your computer, you may need the help of a professional tool for deleting malware as it’s likely that the Trojan has infiltrated your system too deeply, and eradicating it manually may not be feasible. The good news is that the powerful anti-malware tool that you will find on this page has been tested against threats like this one and has proven to be highly effective at deleting all kinds of malware, including Trojans. Therefore, if you are still struggling with the Clampi Virus and think you may need some extra help, consider giving this tool a try.


    About the author

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    Lidia Howler

    Lidia is a web content creator with years of experience in the cyber-security sector. She helps readers with articles on malware removal and online security. Her strive for simplicity and well-researched information provides users with easy-to-follow It-related tips and step-by-step tutorials.

    3 Comments

      • They probably need to be removed but we cannot tell you for sure until you send them to us in the comments so that we can verify that the IPs you see are indeed not supposed to be in your Hosts file.

    • Thanks for the detailed guide on removing the Clampi virus! I followed your steps, and I finally got rid of it from my system. Your tips were super helpful!

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