NT Service Manager – SVC.EXE

Svc.exe is a simple Windows NT command-line program to manage NT services. Services can be listed, and individual services can be displayed, installed, modified or removed. It includes facilities to define service dependencies. More info is available at http://www.nick.rozanski.com/software.htm.

This file is used as part of another program called "Wallwatcher", a logger for Linksys Routers. Info on that program can be found at http://computertips.toups.info/WWService/WWService.html.

While the Wallwatcher program described above is safe, it is possible that svc.exe could be used to install hostile code as an NT service.

Finally, a file called svc.exe installs with the "madfind" variant of the Clientman adware program. This program attempts to hijack web searches to its controlling server. Symantec classifies this as a backdoor virus because it opens a port on your system that a remote user could use to access your system. It may also attempt to download other adware programs such as browserhelper.dll.

We'd recommend removing this instance of svc.exe using WinPatrol. First, go to your Active Tasks tabs and kill the files there. Next, disable them under your Startup Programs tab. Finally, look for browserhelper.dll under your IE Helpers tab and remove it if present.

Background info on backdoor.madfind can be found at http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.madfind.html.

Safe

Nick Rozanski