Hello! Just a quick post today, since I’m busy working with the next release of FreeFixer. Did you see a file, such as vlc-media-player.exe, on your system digitally signed by Hummingbird Limited? Then read on..
The certificate information can also be viewed from Windows Explorer. According to the embedded certificate we can see that Hummingbird Limited is located in Oakland in California, US and that the certificate is issued by VeriSign Class 3 Code Signing 2010 CA.
26% of the scanners detected the file. The vlc-media-player.exe file is detected as Trojan.Vittalia.456 by DrWeb, a variant of Win32/DownloadAdmin.N potentially unwanted by ESET-NOD32, PUP.Optional.DownLoadAdmin by Malwarebytes, DownloadAdmin by McAfee and Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT by VIPRE.
Did you also find a Hummingbird Limited file? Do you remember where you downloaded it?
Does this sound familiar? You see pop-up ads from lp.musicboxnewtab.com while browsing sites that generally don’t advertise in pop-up windows. The pop-ups manage to bypass the built-in pop-up blockers in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. Perhaps the lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-ups appear when clicking search results from Google? Or does the pop-ups show up even when you’re not browsing?
(Sorry for the watermarks. Need to add them to prevent the most blatant attempts of other bloggers using my screenshots without attribution)
Does this sound like what you see your computer, you presumably have some adware installed on your system that pops up the lp.musicboxnewtab.com ads. Contacting the site owner would be a waste of time. The ads are not coming from them. I’ll try help you to remove the lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-ups in this blog post.
For those that are new to the blog: Not long ago I dedicated a few of my lab computers and intentionally installed some adware programs on them. Since then I have been monitoring the behaviour on these machines 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 computers. I first spotted the lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-up on one of these lab machines.
musicboxnewtab.com resolves to 94.31.0.55 IP and the same goes for lp.musicboxnewtab.com. lp.musicboxnewtab.com was registered on 2015-05-04.
So, how do you remove the lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the lp.musicboxnewtab.com ads I had istartsurf, MedPlayerNewVersion and Movie Wizard installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.
It seems as lp.musicboxnewtab.com is getting quite a lot of traffic, based on Alexa’s traffic rank:
The problem with this type of pop-up is that it can be initiated by many variants of adware, not just the adware that’s installed on my system. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.
So, what can be done to solve the problem? To remove the lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-up ads you need to examine your computer 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 lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-ups is to examine the software installed on the machine, by opening the “Uninstall programs” dialog. You can reach this dialog from the Windows Control Panel. If you are using one of the more recent versions of Windows you can just type in “uninstall” in the Control Panel’s search field to find that dialog:
Click on the “Uninstall a program” link and the Uninstall programs dialog will open up:
Do you see something suspect 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 seeing the lp.musicboxnewtab.com pop-ups.
The next thing to check would be your browser’s add-ons. Adware often show up under the add-ons dialog in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Is there something that looks suspicious? Something that you don’t remember installing?
I think most users 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’ve developed since 2006. Freefixer is a tool designed to manually track down and remove unwanted software. When you’ve found 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 locked like many other removal tools out there. It will not require you to pay a fee just when you are about to remove the unwanted files.
And if you’re having difficulties deciding if a file is safe or adware in the FreeFixer scan result, 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:
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.
Here you can see FreeFixer in action removing the adware that caused pop-up ads:
Did you find any adware on your machine? Did that stop the lp.musicboxnewtab.com ads? Please post the name of the adware you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.
Did you just get interrupted by a pop-up ad from travian.com? You are not alone. I also get the travian.com pop-ups while browsing. Do the pop-ups also find a way round the pop-up blocker in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Then read on…
Here’s how the travian.com pop-up looked like when I got it on my system:
If this sounds like what you are seeing on your system, you most likely have some adware installed on your computer that pops up the travian.com ads. Contacting the site owner would be a waste of time. The ads are not coming from them. The pop ups are most likely caused by some unwanted software on your machine. I’ll do my best to help you with the travian.com removal in this blog post.
Those that have been reading this blog already know this, but for new visitors: A little while back I dedicated a few of my lab computers and intentionally installed some adware programs on them. Since then I have been following the actions on these systems 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 downloads and installs additional unwanted software on the systems. I first spotted the travian.com pop-up on one of these lab machines.
So, how do you remove the travian.com pop-up ads? By removing the adware causing the pop ups.
On the machine where I got the travian.com ads I had WebShield, mystartsearch, Wajam, PhaseProfessor, FastSearch, PrimaryColor, SSFK.exe, SFKEX64.exe, YTDownloader and acengine installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the travian.com pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.
The pop pop-up ad was labelled with “Ads by GetPrivate“, however, I could not see anything installed named GetPrivate on my machine. What label did your pop up have?
What label did your pop-up ad have? Please share in the comments area.
The issue with pop-ups like this one 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.
Anyway, here’s my suggestion for the travian.com ads removal:
What software do you have installed if you look in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel? Something that you don’t remember installing yourself or that was recently installed?
You can also check the browser add-ons. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
If that didn’t help, you can give FreeFixer a try. FreeFixer is built to assist users when manually tracking down adware and other types of unwanted software. It is a freeware utility that I’ve been working since 2006 and it scans your system at lots of locations where unwanted software is known to hook into your computer. If you would like to get additional details about a file in FreeFixer’s scan result, you can just click the More Info link for that file and a web page with a VirusTotal report will open up, which can be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.
Did this blog post help you to remove the travian.com pop-up ads? Please let me know or how I can improve this blog post.
Hi there! If you are a regular here on the FreeFixer blog, you know that I’ve been examining files that have a digital signature and bundle various types of potentially unwanted software. Today I found another publisher named LLC “LEVADIYA-PROEKT” that bundles some software.
You can also see the LLC “LEVADIYA-PROEKT” certificate by looking under the Digital Signature tab on the file’s properties. According to the certificate, LLC “LEVADIYA-PROEKT” is located in Lviv, Ukraine. Comodo has issued the certificate.
The issue is that FlashPlayer__6741_i1651201445_il1668.exe is not an official Adobe Flash Player download. If it was, it would have been digitally signed by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Here’s how the authentic Adobe Flash Player looks like when you double click on it. Notice that the “Verified publisher” says “Adobe Systems Incorporated”.
So, what does the anti-virus programs say about the LLC “LEVADIYA-PROEKT” file? No problem, I just uploaded the file to VirusTotal and it turned out that a few of the anti-virus programs detects the LLC “LEVADIYA-PROEKT” file, with names such as ADWARE/Amonetize.Gen and a variant of Win32/Amonetize.IQ potentially unwanted.
I ran into a blue screen this morning in SRTSP64.SYS, with the PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and “Your PC Ran into a problem and needs to restart” error messages. I fixed the srtsp64.sys blue screen error by uninstalling Norton 360.
I got this blue screen repeatedly, a few minutes after booting my Windows 8 machine. I figured out that SRTSP64.SYS was a Symantec driver by looking in regedit, where it appeared with the “Symantec Real Time Storage Protection x64” name.
I fixed the PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA / SRTSP64.sys blue screen by first restarting the machine into safe mode, and then I uninstalled Norton 360 from the Windows Control Panel.
Did that help you solve the SRTSP64.sys bluescreen problem? Did you find another solution to the SRTSP64.sys error which did not involve uninstalling Norton 360?
Hello! Was looking for some downloads to play around with and found one, digitally signed by CrossBeam (New Media Holdings Ltd.). The file is named chrome-download.exe.
Typically you’d see the CrossBeam (New Media Holdings Ltd.) publisher name appear when double-clicking on the chrome-download.exe file: By examining the certificate, we can see that CrossBeam (New Media Holdings Ltd.) appears to be located in Tel Avivl, Israel.
The certificate is issued by GlobalSign CodeSigning CA – G2.
The issue here is that if chrome-download.exe really was a setup file for Google Chrome, it should be signed by Google Inc. and not by some unknown company. Here’s how the authentic Google Chrome looks like when you double click on it. Notice that the “Verified publisher” says “Google Inc”.
9% of the anti-virus scanners detected the file. Some of the detection names for the chrome-download.exe file are a variant of Win32/InstallCore.ACQ.gen potentially unwanted, PUP.Optional.InstallCore and InstallCore (fs).
When I tested the CrossBeam file it bundled StormFall and Norton 360. The checkbox for these two programs were not checked by default.
Did you also find a CrossBeam (New Media Holdings Ltd.) file? What kind of download was it? If you remember the download link, please post it in the comments below.
Does this sound like what you are seeing right now? You see pop-up ads from privilegesbox.net while browsing websites that usually don’t advertise in pop-up windows.
The pop-ups manage to bypass the built-in pop-up blockers in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Maybe the privilegesbox.net pop-ups show up when clicking search results from Google? Or does the pop-ups show up even when you’re not browsing?
Here another privilegesbox.net pop up ad:
If this sounds like what you are seeing on your computer, you presumably have some adware installed on your machine that pops up the privilegesbox.net ads. So there’s no idea contacting the owner of the website you were browsing. The ads are not coming from them. I’ll try help you to remove the privilegesbox.net pop-ups 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 machines and knowingly installed some adware programs on them. I have been monitoring the behaviour on these systems to see what kinds of ads that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the adware auto-updates, or if it downloads and installs additional unwanted software on the machines. I first observed the privilegesbox.net pop-up on one of these lab computers.
privilegesbox.net resolves to the 162.159.246.105 IP address. privilegesbox.net was registered on 2014-12-30.
So, how do you remove the privilegesbox.net pop-up ads? On the machine where I got the privilegesbox.net ads I had istartsurf, MedPlayerNewVersion and Movie Wizard installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the privilegesbox.net pop-ups and all the other ads I was getting in Mozilla Firefox.
If you are wonder if there are many others out there also getting the privilegesbox.net ads, the answer is probably yes. Check out the traffic rank from Alexa:
The problem with pop-ups such as this one is that it can be launched by many variants of adware, not just the adware on my machine. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the pop-ups.
So, what can be done? To remove the privilegesbox.net pop-up ads you need to review your machine for adware or other types of unwanted software and uninstall it. Here’s my suggested removal procedure:
What software do you have installed if you look in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel? Something that you don’t remember installing yourself or that was recently installed?
You can also examine the add-ons you installed in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
If that didn’t solve the problem, 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:
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.
Here’s a video tutorial on how to remove the pop-ups with FreeFixer:
Did you find any adware on your machine? Did that stop the privilegesbox.net ads? Please post the name of the adware you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.
This page shows how to remove pstatic.pricemoon.co and istatic.pricemoon.co from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.
Did you just see pstatic.pricemoon.co in the status bar of your browser and wonder where it came from? Or did pstatic.pricemoon.co show up while you searched for something on one of the major search engines, such as the Google search engine?
Here is how the pstatic.pricemoon.co status bar message looked like on my system:
The following are some of the status bar messages you may see in your browser’s status bar:
Waiting for pstatic.pricemoon.co…
Transferring data from pstatic.pricemoon.co…
Looking up pstatic.pricemoon.co…
Read pstatic.pricemoon.co
Connected to pstatic.pricemoon.co…
Does this sound like what you are seeing, you most likely have some potentially unwanted program installed on your computer that makes the pstatic.pricemoon.co domain appear in your browser. So there’s no idea contacting the owner of the web site you currently were browsing. The pstatic.pricemoon.co status bar messages are not coming from them. I’ll try help you to remove the pstatic.pricemoon.co status bar messages in this blog post.
Those that have been visiting this blog already know this, but here we go: A little while back I dedicated some of my lab machines and knowingly installed a few potentially unwanted programs on them. I’ve been observing the behaviour on these computers to see what kinds of advertisements, if any, that are displayed. I’m also looking on other interesting things such as if the potentially unwanted program updates itself, or if it installs additional software on the computers. I first spotted pstatic.pricemoon.co in Mozilla Firefox’s status bar on one of these lab systems.
pstatic.pricemoon.co was registered on 2015-05-27. istatic.pricemoon.co resolves to the 104.31.65.182 address and so does pstatic.pricemoon.co.
So, how do you remove pstatic.pricemoon.co and istatic.pricemoon.co from your browser? On the machine where pstatic.pricemoon.co showed up in the status bar I had ActSys, WNet, PlainSavings and CashReminder installed. I removed them with FreeFixer and that stopped the browser from loading data from pstatic.pricemoon.co.
The problem with status bar messages like the one described in this blog post is that it can be caused by many variants of potentially unwanted programs. This makes it impossible to say exactly what you need to remove to stop the status bar messages.
Anyway, here’s my suggestion for the pstatic.pricemoon.co removal:
What software do you have installed if you look in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel? Something that you don’t remember installing yourself or that was recently installed?
You can also examine the add-ons you installed in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari. Same thing here, do you see something that you don’t remember installing?
If that did not help, you can give FreeFixer a try. FreeFixer is built to assist users when manually tracking down potentially unwanted programs. It is a freeware utility that I’ve been working since 2006 and it scans your machine at lots of locations where unwanted software is known to hook into your system. If you would like to get additional details about a file in FreeFixer’s scan result, you can just click the More Info link for that file and a web page with a VirusTotal report will open up, which can be very useful to determine if the file is safe or malware:
An example of FreeFixer’s “More Info” links. Click for full size.
Did you find any potentially unwanted program on your machine? Did that stop pstatic.pricemoon.co? Please post the name of the potentially unwanted program you uninstalled from your machine in the comment below.
Hello! Just a quick post on a publisher called BeST ApP that I found while running some tests for the upcoming FreeFixer release. The suspicious file is named Player.exe.
You will also see BeST ApP listed as the verified publisher in the User Account Control dialog that pops up if you try to run the file: It is also possible to check a digital signature by looking at a file’s properties. Here’s a screenshot of the BeST ApP certificate.
Downloader.UVA, Generic PUA OP (PUA) and OutBrowse are some detection names according to VirusTotal:
Did you also find a file digitally signed by BeST ApP? Where did you find it and are the anti-virus programs detecting it? Please share in the comments below.
Welcome! Just a short post on a publisher called SM Install (Fried Cookie Ltd.) before going back to some coding on FreeFixer.
You can view additional information about the certificate by right-clicking on the file, choosing properties and then clicking on the Digital Signatures tab. According to the certificate we can see that SM Install (Fried Cookie Ltd.) is located in Tel Aviv, Israel and that the certificate is issued by GlobalSign CodeSigning CA – G2.
What caught my attention was that the download was called chrome-download.exe. This might look like an official Google Chrome download, but it is not. If it was an official download, it should be digitally signed by Google Inc.. Here’s how the authentic Google Chrome looks like when you double click on it. Notice that the “Verified publisher” says “Google Inc”.
When I uploaded the SM Install (Fried Cookie Ltd.) file to VirusTotal, it came up with a 12% detection rate. The file is detected as Generic.BEC by AVG, Install Core Click run software (PUA) by Sophos and InstallCore (fs) by VIPRE.
Did you also find a SM Install (Fried Cookie Ltd.) file?
Did you also find a Hummingbird Limited file? Do you remember where you downloaded it?
