A Trojan Horse is a form of malicious computer program that can be used in various kinds of cyber crimes. Unlike other common malware categories like Ransomware, Rootkits, and Spyware, the representatives of the Trojan Horse category do not have a single purpose or goal. Instead, they are versatile malware tools that can be used in a variety of ways. The common thing among most Trojans, however, is their ability to gain elevated privileges in the attacked machine. This means that the Trojan can do in your computer everything that you can do in the machine, and, in some cases, even things that you cannot. Obviously, this gives the Trojan Horses a whole world of opportunity in terms of what they can do inside an infected machine. Still, there are several commonly encountered uses of Trojan Horse infections, and we will tell you about those in the next paragraph. Note that this article has been written because of a recently released Trojan named Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a . If you are here because your system has gotten attacked by Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a , know that the guide we will give you after the article has instructions that could help you remove the virus from your system.
The abilities of the Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a Virus
Due to insufficient information about this new threat, we haven’t yet been able to determine what the end goal of the hackers behind it is. This is why we can’t really tell you what type of damage this threat would cause in your computer if it gets inside of it. However, we can still give you some of the more popular and widespread examples of what Trojans like Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a or Trojan.Win32.SEPEH.gen may be capable of:
Establishing control over the attacked computer, and using the latter for illegal activities – many Trojans form botnets, which are networks of computers infected by the Trojan. Those botnets are used for large-scale criminal tasks, such as the further distribution of the virus (or of some other form of malware) through spam emails from the infected machines, the initiation of DDoS attacks, and the illegal mining of cryptocurrencies for the benefit of the hackers.
Ransomware distribution – one of the most commonly used channels of Ransomware distribution is the use of Trojan backdoors. A Trojan that has infected your system and gained Admin privileges in it, may secretly download a Ransomware cryptovirus inside the machine without your knowledge.
Personal espionage and gathering of sensitive data – through different espionage techniques, a Trojan may be capable of learning a lot about you, and then using such sensitive information to harass you, and to blackmail you. And in case the Trojan manages to find out what your credit or debit card numbers are, the harassment stage would be skipped, and the virus would instead directly drain your banking accounts without your knowledge or permission.
How can one handle Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a ?
As mentioned earlier in this article, there is a guide on this page with detailed instructions on how you can potentially remove the malware. There are manual removal steps as well as a linked professional removal tool, both of which can aid you with the timely and effective elimination of the Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a virus.
Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a SUMMARY:
| Name | Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a |
| Type | Ransomware |
| Danger Level | High (Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a Ransomware encrypts all types of files) |
| Symptoms | Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a Ransomware is hard to detect and aside from increased use of RAM and CPU, there would barely be any other visible red flags. |
| Distribution Method | Most of the time, Trojans get distributed through spam e-mails and social network messages, malicious ads, shady and pirated downloads, questionable torrents and other similar methods. |
Remove Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a
1: Preparations
Note: Before you go any further, we advise you to bookmark this page or have it open on a separate device such as your smartphone or another PC. Some of the steps might require you to exit your browser on this PC.
2: Task Manager
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to enter the Task Manager. Go to the Tab labeled Processes (Details for Win 8/10). Carefully look through the list of processes that are currently active on you PC.
If any of them seems shady, consumes too much RAM/CPU or has some strange description or no description at all, right-click on it, select Open File Location and delete everything there.
Also, even if you do not delete the files, be sure to stop the process by right-clicking on it and selecting End Process.
3: IP related to Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a
Go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Open the hosts file with notepad.
Find where it says Localhost and take a look below that.
If you see any IP addresses there (below Localhost) send them to us here, in the comments since they might be coming from the Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a .
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4: Disable Startup programs
Re-open the Start Menu and type msconfig.
Click on the first search result. In the next window, go to the Startup tab. If you are on Win 10, it will send you to the Startup part of the task manager instead, as in the picture:
If you see any sketchy/shady looking entries in the list with an unknown manufacturer or a manufacturer name that looks suspicious as there could be a link between them and Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a , disable those programs and select OK.
5: Registry Editor
Press Windows key + R and in the resulting window type regedit.
Now, press Ctrl + F and type the name of the virus.
Delete everything that gets found. If you are not sure about whether to delete something, do not hesitate to ask us in the comments. Keep in mind that if you delete the wrong thing, you might cause all sorts of issues to your PC.
6: Deleting potentially malicious data – Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a
Type each of the following locations in the Windows search box and hit enter to open the locations:
%AppData%
%LocalAppData%
%ProgramData%
%WinDir%
%Temp%
Delete everything you see in Temp linked to Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a Ransomware. About the other folders, sort their contents by date and delete only the most recent entries. As always, if you are not sure about something, write to us in the comment section.
7: Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a Decryption
The previous steps were all aimed at removing the Trojan.Multi.GenAutorunTask.a Ransomware from your PC. However, in order to regain access to your files, you will also need to decrypt them or restore them. For that, we have a separate article with detailed instructions on what you have to do in order to unlock your data. Here is a link to that guide.