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Home › How to › What is Malwarebytes Chameleon Technology? How it Runs MBAM on an Infected Computer

What is Malwarebytes Chameleon Technology? How it Runs MBAM on an Infected Computer

December 28, 2011 by Venkat Eswarlu

We’ve covered that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.60 Beta has been released, in fact, MBAM 1.60 stable has been released and available for download from their website. This version gets Chameleon technology and comes with other improvements and bug fixes over the previous version.

Malwarebytes Chameleon

What is the Malwarebytes Chameleon technology all about?

As we all know most users use MBAM when their Computer gets infected with malware that can’t be removed by Antivirus and Antispyware programs, though this Malwarebytes is very effective in detecting threats, malware and fake anti-viruses, user does need to run it on an infected system where malware can block it from running, this is where this new technology comes into play, which lets MBAM running even though blocked by infection or viruses.

Where to download Malwarebytes Chameleon File?

How Chameleon runs MBAM on an infected system?

First of all after installing Malwarebytes on your computer, you can notice mbam-chameleon app in the following folder

“C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\Chameleon” .

mbam-chameleon directory

When this app is called by MBAM (the case when it is blocked by malware or other apps) or run by the user manually

  • a DOS window appears, user needs to press any key to continue
  • After which, installs the much needed driver and protects MBAM.exe path, here it is: “C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware\mbam.exe”
  • Updates MBAM, after updating was done, kills malicious processes that are running in the background and preventing the anti-malware from running
  • After that, chameleon tries to run MBAM.exe which opens Malwarebytes window and starts scanning for threats.

mbam-chameleon dos window

How to Enable Rootkit Scanning and Chameleon Self-Protection in Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0.0

Testing Malwarebytes Chameleon in your Computer?

If you’re curious about how this technology works, Malwarebytes Corporation has placed some sample programs for testing in Chameleon folder, which you can test one by one, if a black DOS window appears on the first test, then it’s confirmed that Chameleon is working.

test malwarebytes chameleon

Venkat Eswarlu
Venkat Eswarlu

Venkat is an independent technology journalist and the founder of Techdows. He has been covering web browsers, Windows, and software news since 2009. His exclusive scoops on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge features have been cited by Forbes, TechCrunch, Wired, CNET, and other major publications.

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Posted in: How to, Tips and Tricks Tagged: Malwarebytes anti-malware, Malwarebytes Chameleon, MBAM

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