MaCatte threat description - Microsoft Security Intelligence

Summary

MaCatte is a variant of Win32/FakeXPA - a family of programs that claims to scan for malware and displays fake warnings of “malicious programs and viruses”. They then inform the user that they need to pay money to register the software in order to remove these non-existent threats. Some members of the Win32/FakeXPA family may also download additional malware and have been observed in the wild downloading variants of Win32/Alureon.

Special Note:
Reports of Rogue Antivirus programs have been more prevalent as of late. These are programs that generate misleading alerts and false detections in order to convince users to purchase illegitimate security software. Some of these programs, such as Trojan:Win32/Antivirusxp and Program:Win32/FakeRednefed may display product names or logos in an apparently unlawful attempt to impersonate Microsoft products. These products may represent themselves as “Antivirus XP”, “AntivirusXP 2008”, “WinDefender 2008”, “XP Antivirus”, or similar.

Use Microsoft Windows Defender, Microsoft Security Essentials, the Microsoft Safety Scanner, or another up-to-date scanning and removal tool to detect and remove this threat and other unwanted software from your computer. For more information on Microsoft security products, see http://www.microsoft.com/protect/products/computer/default.mspx.

Additional remediation instructions for MaCatte

This threat may make lasting changes to an affected system’s configuration that will NOT be restored by detecting and removing this threat. For more information on returning an affected system to its pre-infected state, please see the following article/s: