Monthly Archives: November 2014

Random Stuff from Adware Land

Here’s some random stuff found while I was working. If you see any of the ads or pop-ups on your machine, it’s possible that you have some adware installed on your machine. I recommend a scan with FreeFixer to track down the adware.

Girlssnail.biz pop-up survey:girlssnailz.com pop-up

Ladysweater.biz pop-up surveys:ladysweater.biz pop-up survey

mma-tube.net:80 blocked in the hosts file:mma-tube-net in HOSTS file

Unresponsive script at pijoto.net:pijoto.net script

By My Savings:

by My Savings

A fake Java update hosted at fugupdates101.com:

fake java update

LPT System Updater Service, I think you should remove it:

LPT System Updater Service

creative.ad127m.com pop-up:

ad127m.com pop-up

bitsearch.com:

bit-search.com

Pop-up from s.ad127m.com:

s.ad127m.com

Google Update Packages. It’s not part of Chrome, uninstall it:Google Chrome Packages

SoftwareRefresher.exe:softwarerefresher.exe startup softwarererefresher.exe process

 The socket connection to the upstream proxy/gateway failed. Closing Fiddler, changing your system proxy settings, and restarting Fiddler may help.

ErrorCode: 10061

No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

socket-connection-to-the-upstream-failed

Internet Explorer blocked a pop up from *.ib.adnxs.com.

adnxs

Ads by LinkSicle:

Ads by LinkSicle

A new bundled Firefox Extensions called “Set Search Settings“:Set Search Settings remove

update-for-pc-1024.com. Known to push unwanted software.

update-for-pc-1024.com screenshot

There’s also other domains on the same IP (207.244.83.26) that sounds related: pc-update-1024.netpc-update-1024.com and pc-update-1024.org.

FileTypeAssistant with a faked “Installed On” date:

File Type Assistant

Seeing connections to js.neomapobjectrack.com in your network log?

js.neomapobjectrack.com connection

Then it’s possible you have some PUA installed on your machine. I’ve also seen app.neomapobjectrack.com and logs.neomapobjectrack.com in use.

p.trkkrd.com or secure.trkkrd.com in the status bar?

p.trkkrd.com status bar secure.trkkrd.com status bar

You should check what’s installed on your computer…

Same thing with fasterol.org:

fasterol.org status bar

 

 

Remove display-buy.com Pop-Up Ads

Did you just get a new tab or a pop-up from display-buy.com and ponder where it came from? Did the display-buy.com ad appear to have been launched from a web site that under normal circumstances don’t use aggressive advertising such as pop-up windows? Or did the display-buy.com pop-up show up while you clicked a link on one of the major search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.?

Here’s how the display-buy.com pop-up looked like when I got it on my machine:display-buy.com pop-up(Sorry for the watermarks. Need to add them to prevent the most blatant attempts of other bloggers using my screenshots without attribution)

Does this sounds like what you are seeing, you almost certainly have some adware installed on your system that pop up the display-buy.com ads. So don’t send angry emails to the site you were browsing, the advertisements are presumably not coming from them, but from the adware on your computer. I’ll try help you to remove the display-buy.com in this blog post.

For those that are new to the blog: Some time ago I dedicated a few of my lab computers and deliberately installed a few adware programs on them. Since then I’ve been following the actions on these computers to see what kinds of advertisements that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware updates itself automatically, or if it installs additional unwanted software on the systems. I first noticed the display-buy.com pop-up on one of these lab machines.

display-buy.com was registered on 2013-08-06. display-buy.com resolves to the 54.204.151.128 address. It appears to be a dedicated server.

So, how do you remove the display-buy.com pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the display-buy.com ads I had TinyWallet, BrowserWarden and BlockAndSurf installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the display-buy.com pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.

It seems as display-buy.com is getting quite a lot of traffic, based on Alexa’s traffic rank:

display-buy.com traffic rankThe site had a traffic spike in February/March then again a big spike in October. The 25K traffic rank shows that it get quite a lot of traffic.

Alexa also have some info which the “Upstream Sites” are: bannersdontwork.com, akamaihd.net, mcafeestore.com, hrtnvk.com and srshql.com.

The issue with this type of pop-up is that it I think it can be launched by many variants of adware. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

To remove the display-buy.com pop-up ads you need to examine your machine for adware or other types of unwanted software and uninstall it. Here’s my suggested removal procedure:

  1. Examine what programs you have installed in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. Do you see something that you don’t remember installing or that was recently installed? Do you see any of the three adware programs I mentioned above?
  2. You can also check the browser add-ons. Same thing here, do you see anything that you don’t remember installing?
  3. If that didn’t help, I’d recommend a scan with FreeFixer to manually track down the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’m working on that scans your computer at lots of locations, such as browser add-ons, processes, Windows services, recently modified files, etc. If you want to get additional details about a file in the scan result, you can click the More Info link for that file and a web page will open up with a VirusTotal report which will be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:

    FreeFixer More Info link example
    An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Did this blog post help you to remove the display-buy.com pop-up or new tab ads? Please let me know or how I can improve this blog post.

Thank you!

 

Remove topwebsiteconnect.xyz Pop-Up Survey Ads

Did you just get interrupted by a pop-up surveys from topwebsiteconnect.xyz ?. You are not alone. I also get the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-ups while browsing. Do the surveys also find a way round the pop-up blocker in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari or Opera. Then read on.

Here is a screenshot on the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-up survey from my machine:

topwebsiteconnect.xyz

(Sorry for the watermarks. Need to add them to prevent the most blatant attempts of other bloggers using my screenshots without attribution)

Does this sounds like your story, you presumably have some adware installed on your computer that pop up the topwebsiteconnect.xyz ads. So there’s no use contacting the site owner. The ads are not coming from them. I’ll try help you to remove the topwebsiteconnect.xyz surveys  in this blog post.

Those that have been visiting this blog already know this, but here we go: Some time ago I dedicated some of my lab machines and deliberately installed a few adware programs on them. I have been monitoring the behaviour on these computers to see what kinds of advertisements that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware auto-updates, or if it installs additional unwanted software on the machines. I first found the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-up on one of these lab systems.

topwebsiteconnect.xyz was registered on 2014-11-19.

So, how do you remove the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the topwebsiteconnect.xyz ads I had BuyNSave, TinyWallet and BlockAndSurf installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.

The issue with this type of pop-up is that it can be launched by many variants of adware. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

To remove the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-up ads you need to check your machine for adware or other types of unwanted software and uninstall it. Here’s my suggested removal procedure:

The first thing I would do to remove the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-ups is to examine the programs installed on the machine, by opening the “Uninstall programs” dialog. You can find this dialog from the Windows Control Panel. If you are using one of the more recent versions of Windows Operating System you can just type in “uninstall” in the Control Panel’s search field to find that dialog:
Uninstall a program search

Click on the “Uninstall a program” link and the Uninstall programs dialog will open up:
Uninstall a program dialog

Do you see something dubious in there or something that you don’t remember installing? Tip: Sort on the “Installed On” column to see if some program was installed approximately about the same time as you started observing the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-ups.

The next thing to check would be your browser’s add-ons. Adware often appear under the add-ons dialog in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari or Opera. Is there anything that looks suspicious? Anything that you don’t remember installing?
Firefox add-ons manager

I think you will be able to track down and remove the adware with the steps outlined above, but in case that did not work you can try the FreeFixer removal tool to identify and remove the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I started develop many years ago. Freefixer is a tool designed to manually identify and remove unwanted software. When you’ve identified the unwanted files you can simply tick a checkbox and click on the Fix button to remove the unwanted file.

FreeFixer’s removal feature is not crippled like many other removal tools out there. It will not require you to purchase the program just when you are about to remove the unwanted files.

And if you’re having difficulties determining if a file is legit or adware in FreeFixer’s scan report, click on the More Info link for the file. That will open up a web page which contains more information about the file. On that web page, check out the VirusTotal report which can be quite useful:

FreeFixer More Info link example
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Did this blog post help you to remove the topwebsiteconnect.xyz pop-up ads? Please let me know or how I can improve this blog post.

Thank you!

Remove ask.couplose.com Pop-Up Ads

Does this sound familiar? You see pop-up ads from ask.couplose.com while browsing websites that usually don’t advertise in pop-up windows. The pop-ups manage to find a way round the built-in pop-up blockers in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Maybe the ask.couplose.com pop-ups appear when clicking search results from a Google search? Or does the pop-ups appear even when you’re not browsing?

Here’s how the ask.couplose.com pop-up looked like when I got it on my machine.ask.couplose.com

(I know, lots of watermarks. Have to do it to stop the copy-cats.)

Does this sounds like your computer, you almost certainly have some adware installed on your system that pop up the ask.couplose.com ads. Don’t flame the people that owns the website you were at, the ads are almost certainly not coming from that website, but from the adware that’s running on your computer. I’ll do my best to help you remove the ask.couplose.com in this blog post.

For those that are new to the blog: Not long ago I dedicated some of my lab computers and deliberately installed a few adware programs on them. I have been monitoring the behaviour on these computers to see what kinds of ads that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware updates itself automatically, or if it downloads and installs additional unwanted software on the machines. I first found the couplose.com pop-up on one of these lab systems.

ask.couplose.com resolves to the 208.43.241.245 address. ask.couplose.com was registered on 2014-09-18.

So, how do you remove the ask.couplose.com pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the ask.couplose.com ads I had TinyWallet, BuyNSave and BlockAndSurf installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the ask.couplose.com pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.

BlockAndSurf was the adware that caused the pop-ups in my case. I know this since the pop-up ad had a label with the adware name: “BlockAndSurf“.

bxh.mulctsamsaracorbel.com ads by BlockAndSurf

What label did your pop-up ad have? Please share in the comments area below.

The issue with this type of pop-up is that it can be launched by many variants of adware. I think that adware such as NewPlayer, Salus, CheckMeUp and SaferSurf can also be responsible for the couplose.com popups. And there are probably other variants too. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

Anyway, here’s my suggestion for the ask.couplose.com ads removal:

  1. Check what programs you have installed in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. Do you see something that you don’t remember installing or that was recently installed?
  2. You can also examine the add-ons you installed in your browsers. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
  3. If that didn’t help, I’d recommend a scan with FreeFixer to manually track down the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’m working on that scans your computer at lots of locations, such as browser add-ons, processes, Windows services, recently modified files, etc. If you want to get additional details about a file in the scan result, you can click the More Info link for that file and a web page will open up with a VirusTotal report which will be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:

    FreeFixer More Info link example
    An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Here’s a video tutorial which shows FreeFixer in action removing adware causing pop-up ads:

Are you a Mac or Linux user and get the ask.couplose.com pop-ups? What did you do to stop the pop-up in your browser? Please share in the comments below. Thanks!

Did you find any adware on your machine? Did that stop the ask.couplose.com ads? Please post the name of the adware you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.

Thank you!

CoolMirage Ltd. – 28 % Detection Rate – DefaultTab / OneClickDownloader / MultiToolbar

Hello! Here’s a short blog post from a foggy Stockholm. If you’ve been following me for the last year you know that I’ve been examining many software publishers that put a digital signature on their downloads. Today I found another publisher called CoolMirage Ltd. which appears to have been around for some time.

CoolMirage Ltd. publisher in the UAC dialog

 

The file is named in a way which can make some users think they are downloading a movie, rather than an executable file.

Typically you’d see the CoolMirage Ltd. publisher name appear when double-clicking on the downloaded file: Viewing the certificate information is also possible by looking under the digital signature tab for the file. Here the certificate says that CoolMirage Ltd. is located in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The CoolMirage Ltd. certificate

The issue with the CoolMirage Ltd. file is that it is detected by many of the anti-malware scanners. Here are some of the detection names: Gen:Application.Bundler.DefaultTab.1, PUP.Optional.OneClickDownloader.A, Adware-SweetIM, PUP/MultiToolbar.A and CoolMirage.

CoolMirage Ltd. virustotal scan report

Did you also find a CoolMirage Ltd. file? Do you remember the download link? Please post it in the comments below and I’ll upload it to VirusTotal to see if that one is also detected.

Thanks for reading.

Tiger Download – 33% Detection Rate – Kazy / IBryte

Hi there! Did you just find a file that’s digitally signed by Tiger Download and came to this blog to find more about it? I ran into this one while I was looking at the steady stream of files submitted to the FreeFixer library.

The reason for posting about Tiger Download is that the file is detected by many of the anti-virus programs. F-Secure classifies flashplayerpro_Setup.exe as Gen:Variant.Adware.Kazy.491026, Kaspersky detects it as not-a-virus:AdWare.Win32.iBryte.jig, Malwarebytes detects it as PUP.Optional.Fusion.A and VIPRE names it Optimum Installer (fs). Big thanks to VirusTotal for the scan report.

Tiger Download

Another problem with the Tiger Download file is how it is named: “flashplayerpro”. Users might think that it is an official Flash Player setup file, but it’s not. The official Flash Player download should be signed by Adobe Systems Incorporated, not by Tiger Download. Here’s how the official Flash Player installer should look like when you run it:

Adobe Systems Incorporated - Adobe Flashplayer Installer

Did you also find a Tiger Download file? Do you remember where you downloaded it?

Thanks for reading.

“File Verified” – 11% Detection Rate – InstallMetrix

Welcome! Just a short note on a publisher called File Verified that I just found while going through some of the latest additions in the FreeFixer library.

What caught my attention was that the download was called Chrome_Updater.exe. This might look like official Chrome software, but it is not. If it was an official “Chrome Updater”, it should have been digitally signed by Google Inc. and not by some company that no one never heard of.

It turns out that File Verified file is detected by some of the anti-malware scanners, according to VirusTotal. Avira reports Chrome_Updater.exe as Adware/InstallMet.hc, ESET-NOD32 detects it as a variant of Win32/Adware.InstallMetrix.F, Norman detects it as InstallMetrix.E and VIPRE reports InstallMetrix (fs)

File Verified

Did you also find a File Verified download? What kind of download was it?

Thank you for reading.

Remove GadgetPrise Ads – Adware Removal Instructions

Just wanted to write a short post before going back to programming on FreeFixer. I was reviewing some files that recently were submitted to the FreeFixer library and found a new BrowseFox variant called GadgetPrise.

GadgetPrise is, as many of the other BrowseFox variants, bundled with downloads such as media player, PDF converters, etc. Bundled means that it is included in another software’s installer. Generally, you can avoid bundled software such as GadgetPrise by being careful when installing software and declining the bundled offers in the installer.

When I test some new bundled software I always upload it to VirusTotal to test if the antiviruses there detect anything fishy. 44% of the antivirus scanners detected the file. BitDefender reports GadgetPrise as Gen:Variant.Adware.SwiftBrowse.1, DrWeb reports Trojan.BPlug.281, ESET-NOD32 detects it as Win32/BrowseFox.V and Kaspersky reports not-a-virus:AdWare.Win32.Yotoon.bfm.

Gadgetprise virustotal

I’m sure you’d like to remove GadgetPrise, and that’s easy with FreeFixer. You can identify the GadgetPrise files, since they are digitally signed by GadgetPrice as shown in the screen capture above. After selecting the files, click Fix, and reboot your machine and the problem should be gone.

Hope that helped you to figure out how to do the removal.

Do you also have GadgetPrice on your machine? Any idea how it was installed? Please share by posting a comment. Thanks!

Hope you found this useful. Thanks for reading.

Remove fastworldconnect.xyz Pop-Up Survey Ads

Does this sound like your story? You see pop-up surveys from fastworldconnect.xyz while browsing web sites that mostly don’t advertise in pop-up windows. The pop-ups manage to sidestep the built-in pop-up blockers in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari.

Here’s how the fastworldconnect.xyz pop-up looked like when I got it on my computer:

fastworldconnect.xyz

If this description sounds like your computer, you apparently have some adware installed on your machine that pop up the fastworldconnect.xyz surveys. I’ll do my best to help you remove the fastworldconnect.xyz in this blog post.

If you have been reading this blog already know this, but if you are new: Recently I dedicated some of my lab computers and deliberately installed a few adware programs on them. Since then I’ve been observing the behaviour on these computers to see what kinds of adverts that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware auto-updates, or if it installs additional unwanted software on the computers. I first observed the fastworldconnect.xyz pop-up surveys on one of these lab systems.

k9kzz.rewardzone.fastworldconnect.xyz resolves to 104.207.156.103, and fastworldconnect.xyz to 184.73.247.179. The domain was registered just a few days ago.

So, how do you remove the fastworldconnect.xyz pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the fastworldconnect.xyz ads I had BuyNSave, BlockAndSurf and TinyWallet installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the fastworldconnect.xyz pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Firefox.

The issue with this type of pop-up survey is that it can be launched by many variants of adware. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.

To remove the fastworldconnect.xyz pop-up surveys you need to review your system for adware or other types of unwanted software and uninstall it. Here’s my suggested removal procedure:

  1. Check what programs you have installed in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. Do you see something that you don’t remember installing and that was recently installed?
  2. You can also review the add-ons that you have in your browser. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
  3. If that does not help, I’d recommend a scan with FreeFixer to manually track down the adware. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that I’m working on that scans your computer at lots of locations, such as browser add-ons, processes, Windows services, recently modified files, etc. If you want to get additional details about a file in the scan result, you can click the More Info link for that file and a web page will open up with a VirusTotal report which will be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:

    FreeFixer More Info link example
    An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.

Did this blog post help you to remove the fastworldconnect.xyz pop-up ads? Please let me know or how I can improve this blog post.

Thank you!