FIXING THE .LNK/.INK VIRUS IN VISTA / WINDOWS 7

The first most common windows shell vulnerability I have found in the latest Microsoft Windows releases is Ink/Lnk icon association, which make common icons and programs into some unknown program .Ink/Lnk.

First, some information as released by Microsoft.

The vulnerability exists because Windows incorrectly parses shortcuts in such a way that malicious code may be executed when the icon of a specially crafted shortcut is displayed. This vulnerability can be exploited locally through a malicious USB drive, or remotely via network shares and WebDAV. An exploit can also be included in specific document types that support embedded shortcuts.

Here’s a description of the vulnerability

What causes this threat?
When attempting to load the icon of a shortcut, the Windows Shell does not correctly validate specific parameters of the shortcut.

In other words, a design flaw.

This vulnerability is present in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, Windows 7 (including beta Service Pack 1) and Server 2008 R2 (including beta Service Pack 1).

Microsoft furthermore recommends to block the download of lnk and pif files, but does not go into detail on how to do that. Visit the updated security advisory for additional information.

Solutions:

To get rid to it follow the given tricks, but before trying these tricks Windows Restore Option can do best for you, so try to restore your Windows OS it will solve your problem, if not then follow:

Option 1

– Go to Start -> “Control Panel” -> Click on Porgrams
– Click on “Default Programs”
– Click on “Associate a file type or protocol with a program.” to open the “Set Associations” menu.
– Scroll through the list of extensions to locate the .lnk file extension. The listing will show the description and the current default program associated with it.
– Click on the extension (to select it) and then click on “Change Program.”
– Select the program you would like to open *.lnk file types.
– Click on OK.

Option 2

1. Click Start, click Run, type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\IconHandler
3. Click the File menu and select Export.
4. In the Export Registry File dialog box, enter LNK_Icon_Backup.reg and click Save.
Note This will create a backup of this registry key in the My Documents folder by default
5. Select the value (Default) on the right hand window in the Registy Editor. Press Enter to edit the value of the key. Remove the value, so that the value is blank, and press Enter.
6. Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile\shellex\IconHandler
7. Click the File menu and select Export.
8. In the Export Registry File dialog box, enter PIF_Icon_Backup.reg and click Save.
Note This will create a backup of this registry key in the My Documents folder by default.
9. Select the value (Default) on the right hand window in the Registy Editor. Press Enter to edit the value of the key. Remove the value, so that the value is blank, and press Enter.
10. Log all users off and on again, or restart the computer.

Option 3 (Very Simple):

Simply download following file, unzip it, and run it. It will make necessary changes to the registry. Restart the computer and it should be fine.

http://www.winhelponline.com/fileasso/lnkfix_vista.zip