MiniSP32.dll

aco

Hi everybody!

 

I was helping my mother how to use a computer and skype on sunday and when training the steps suddenly FS Safe stepped in and told that malware minisp32.dll was a risk and wanted to quarantine it. Well after many happy skype startings skype no longer started and we had to quit the training. We tried to find out about this minisp32, but couldn't find any good advice if it was a terrible malware or a "just a safety warning" that could be allowed.

 

After first quarantine a new minisp32.dll appeared at next skype start and this was stopped again.

 

Any advice what to do about this minisp32? Friend or foul?

 

Asus, Windows 8.1 (in "classic Win7 view"), f-secure safe 5d2y

[Deleted User]

Hello Aco,

 

To confirm the nature of a file you can always submit it to our lab.

aco

I will do this, unfortenately the computer is in an other town so I have to get it first. This will take a little time. Stupid me didn't understand to take it with me on sunday.

 

Thanks!

Simon

Ignore the ads to 'Remove Malware', etc, but this would appear to indicate that minisp32.dll is adware, possibly bundled in with the Skype application?

 

http://www.herdprotect.com/minisp32.dll-5d4436ad13bc94c6f55d284b1dd8a352eebcc71c.aspx

 

Did you download the Skype application from the official vendor's website?

aco

I think Skype was preinstalled with windows 8. At least I had it on my ROG Asus without doing anything. But I got the problem "little" Asus now, so that I will just in a second download the file.

aco

Ok, found Mindspark and Conduit on the laptop. And some other funny toolsets. Tried first to submit the minisp32.dll, but system told me that I didn't have the rights. Checked and tried changing the rights but system refused to let me copy the file. And then by mistake I chose remove instead of quarantine and the file was gone. I did find some copies  later on but by then I knew it wasn't wanted and had a major cleaning of the laptop going on and just deleted them also. As a special bonus in the end FS found a real virus that it removed. And the laptop seems to respond much better now!

 

So thanks for helping me, it was a foul!

Simon

Glad it's sorted.

It might be an idea to install Malwarebytes, which would offer some future protection against this sort of thing, and runs happily alongside F-Secure.

www.malwarebytes.org

Ursa

Hello. Sorry for the necro, but I'm getting desperate.

 

Maybe about a week ago, my Norton started giving me popup alerts about quarantining minisp32.dll, which Norton called "Search Protect". I've been running endless scans throughout the week trying to get rid of it--quick scans, full system scans, Norton Power Eraser scans; I just tried Norton Power Eraser's "Unwanted Applicated Scan" which is supposed to remove any unwanted browser plugins--but nothing has worked. I've even manually gone through my \appdata folders several times to remove anything with minisp or searchprotect in the name.

 

Today, I decided to reinstall Chrome because I'd read that this virus can come from a Conduit search engine (which I couldn't find in my Search Engines section of the settings for my browser). I made sure to check the little "Clear Browsing Data" box too. As soon as it had reinstalled, I checked the search engine settings and actually did find "Sweet Search" by Conduit (something like that) and deleted it. Then I checked my appdata folders again and I actually found the minisp32.dll file. For the first time, I could actually see it. Of course, I tried to delete it but an error message from Chrome popped up telling me there was something preventing me from deleting it. I kept trying but the error message stopped. When I refreshed the page, the file had disappeared. It's not in my recycling bin so I'm going to assume it's still in my computer.

 

Seriously, this is getting really annoying. As far as I can tell, the file hasn't actually harmed anything on my computer yet, but I'm afraid that it's going to. I know this was really long, but I'm out of options and I got a little glimmer of hope when I saw that this thread was only three weeks old.

 

Please, any help at all would be appreciated.

Simon

I don't know much about Norton, not having used it for years, but as above, I would recommend trying https://www.malwarebytes.org/ and http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/, both of which should help to remove these items from your machine.

You can also find more info in the link marked 'Solution' above.

[Deleted User]

Hello Ursa,

 

As your problem is happening with third-party software, you might have better luck finding a solution by posting directly in this third-party forum.