Computer Hope

Software => Computer programming => Topic started by: frostyjones13 on March 06, 2011, 07:47:45 PM

Title: hidden programs
Post by: frostyjones13 on March 06, 2011, 07:47:45 PM
is there any way to use a command prompt to show me any hidden programs that are hiding on my computer? im under the influence that my parents have installed a program on our computer and are now watching everything that i do, is there any way to prove\disprove this?
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: DaveLembke on March 06, 2011, 08:47:44 PM
sorry that I laughed when reading this... if your parents put anything on it to monitor, its probably easily seen in the task manager processes. Another sneaky device that I have seen available is a hardware keylogger that plugs between the keyboard and computer, so it is invisible. The person such as parent then can detach the ps2 port keystroke logger and then plug it into their computer to dump out all keystrokes and read whatever was typed, private info and passwords etc. The device is like $40 an I saw it on cyberguys catalog. Could be a very evil device for a rogue employee who wants to farm credentials and has access to plugging this little device in, since no network security will block this device that operates independently of the system itself and captures all keystrokes. Another hot spot for getting info is with wiresharking the network and watching traffic that is unencrypted, as well as loggers that can operate from the router and redirect all logged traffic to another device or be viewed at that device.

taskmgr can be executed from command prompt of a windows system to get to task manager or ctrl+alt+delete and then select it, then write down all processes and then check them out on google search to look up any or all that you may be unfamiliar with.
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: frostyjones13 on March 07, 2011, 07:06:31 PM
haha thank you, i posted this question i used task manager to check and nothing came up out of the ordinary. it just seemed uncanny how my parents just happened to know what i had to talked to my friends about the day before on facebook.
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: BC_Programmer on March 07, 2011, 07:29:35 PM
haha thank you, i posted this question i used task manager to check and nothing came up out of the ordinary. it just seemed uncanny how my parents just happened to know what i had to talked to my friends about the day before on facebook.

Are they on facebook as well?
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: Salmon Trout on March 08, 2011, 10:56:52 AM
Are they on facebook as well?

I laughed when I read this...
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: ericb82 on March 11, 2011, 06:20:52 AM
You could easily find your way around it by using the task manager. You can try stopping those programs there so you could do whatever you want with the computer.  Also, you could check for the installed programs list on your computer.  This way, you could further search the internet for ways on how to et past those programs.  But i bet that your parents installed those programs for your own good. So better keep up with them.  Everything will be yours for the taking, when the time is ripe.
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: BC_Programmer on March 11, 2011, 09:30:22 AM
Everything will be yours for the taking, when the time is ripe.

err...

what?
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: ultimatum on April 02, 2011, 08:57:18 PM
There are some keyloggers which are built to hide from task manager, start up, add/remove programs, and other major locations. Your best choice would be to use an application which will scan your computer for potential keyloggers.

Here is one I found: http://dewasoft.com/privacy/kldetector.htm
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: Fleexy on April 08, 2011, 12:19:10 PM
The programs that are built to disappear from the Processes list pretty much have to be services.  You can see the list of services by choosing Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services.  Click on a service to see if it is running (look at the left panel).  Clicking STOP on a running service will stop the keylogger/spy program.
Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: dastech on April 15, 2011, 10:48:20 AM
is there any way to use a command prompt to show me any hidden programs that are hiding on my computer? im under the influence that my parents have installed a program on our computer and are now watching everything that i do, is there any way to prove\disprove this?

I don't know if you're still checking this post, but I can second ultimatum's recommendation from DewaSoft.  Permit me a second on my soapbox, and I can give you a few more tips as well (and all subsequently mentioned utilities are free, most portable as well).  Firstly, if you are an avid user of Facebook, your parents should be the least of your concerns.  Facebook collects (and leaks) massive amounts of data to the public (http://lifehacker.com/#!5526429/see-what-facebook-publicly-publishes-about-you), and it collects this information even when you are browsing other sites (there are plugins for Firefox for example, for preventing this...) 

Have you considered just asking your folks how they knew?  Sometimes the best way to get a direct answer, is to ask a direct question...  Unless your parents are quite sophisticated computer users, they could have simply discovered traces left behind in your browser cache, perhaps without intending to snoop.  I don't use Facebook, but without seeking to do so learned which friends my wife had been chatting with over the period of about a month, as I had Google Picasa running and it began asking for identities on a number of faces discovered in photos of our friends I didn't recognize as part of our collection (it was grabbing them from her browser cache).  My wife's personal correspondence is her business, so I try to remind her to clear her browser cache from time to time...

You could perhaps run a portable browser, or setup your browser to automatically clear cached information, and perhaps try running some of these utilities (NIRSoft; http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/), which are generally really useful tools, to get an idea of the bits of information scattered around your system over time (there's a link somewhere in the page to get all the utilities together in one shot...).  The search utility Everything (http://www.voidtools.com/) is also a fast way to locate files cached on your system, and the utility CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner) is a great way to automatically clear them out...  I probably don't have to mention that Picasa, while not designed for the purpose, is a great "forensic" tool as well.  However, if you are convinced there is something really sneaky, you could try running HiJack This!, and submitting the report to the forums...



Title: Re: hidden programs
Post by: BC_Programmer on April 15, 2011, 11:15:59 AM
Also, to add to what might be perceived as somewhat conspirational thinking, you don't even <need> to be a member of facebook, or a previous member of facebook, in order for them to be tracking information about you; any site that links into facebook with the stuff like the "like" button has tracking; although I don't think it can figure out your name, it can still build an IP-based "profile" about your movements, particularly given the large number of sites that are connected to the facebook API; using this information it can then decide what you are interested in; much akin to google's targeted advertising concepts. Whether this is a breach of privacy is of course subjective.