unknown program and memory leak

[Indolent]

A friend of mine is having a problem with an unknown exe file showing up in the task manager. The program is sbas.exe. A search on google turns up exactly 0 results for this program. It's there on startup if I end it, it seems to open itself up. Does anyone know what it is? It seems to just suck up all the memory within 10 seconds of it being open, completly slowing the computer down to a crawl. I ran adaware and avg virus scan with no results. This is really starting to annoy me. Any ideas?

 

[mechBgon]

Do you have the computer available to work on first-hand today? What version of Windows does the computer have?

 

[Indolent]

No, I was just looking at it while I was home for thanksgiving break. I won't be home again for three weeks.

It's windows XP. They've had the computer for a couple years and I was thinking it was probably time for a format and reinstall of windows anyway.

I didn't mention that I searched the computer for that file and the only reference I find to it is in c:\windows\prefetch with a file name something like "sbas.exe - 4213585.pf"

 

[mechBgon]

My hunch is it's spyware. Unless they're computer-savvy, it's probably not going to be too easy to get them through an advanced spyware-removal session over the phone (Hijack This and Safe Mode and all). You might have them run some other free online antivirus scans...

• Panda
• TrendMicro Housecall
• Symantec

If stuff is detected, they will probably need to disable System Restore. Is the computer protected by a firewall, is its Windows patching up-to-date (now, at least), and are they running the new version of Grisoft Free, version 7 that they just put out? Did you notice any weird toolbars on Internet Exploder or any strange stuff in the system tray?