How to fix an unhandled execution in script on PC startup

Question

Whenever I start up my computer, two windows pop up saying

Unhandled execution in script
Failed to execute in script " due to unhandled exception:
Utility.IsInStartup() takes 0 positional arguments but 1 was given

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "loader-o.py", line 22, in <module>

File "<frozen zipimport>", line 243, in load_module

File "stub-o.py", line 5, in <module>

File "<string>", line 1, in <module>

File "<string>", line 1757, in <module>

TypeError: Utility.IsInStartup() takes 0 positional arguments but 1 was given

I think it might be malware, but MalwareBytes Premium is not detecting it, so I don't know what to do.

Answer 1

That is Python running. Who started it up or why is beyond me. Nevertheless you can hunt down what is running and determine if you need it or not.

1. Download Autoruns from Microsoft and run it as an admin.
2. Review all the processes on the Logon tab that it lists and determine if they make sense. If they are apps you don't use then uninstall them. If you're not sure you need them then you can uncheck the box to "disable" them. But some apps (looking at you Microsoft) tend to enable them on reboot anyway.
3. Go to the scheduled tasks tab (or use Task Scheduler directly) and look for any tasks that start up when you boot, log in, etc. Anything not related to MS or a product you installed could be a potential issue.

Hopefully that will find things. It picks off things that might have been set up to run when you log in by malicious software. If you are on a network then there also might be network logon scripts that run. You should talk to your IT team about that.

You can also search your machine for stub-o.py to find it. Most likely the app that is using it contains the files (assuming you don't have dev tools set up). If you don't need the program then remove it.

After you reboot, if the file comes back, then it could be malicious. I assume when you ran your AV scan you did a full scan of the system. You might consider starting in safe mode and running a full scan as well.