Aug 25

How to remove DNS Unlocker virus from Chrome, Firefox and IE

DNS Unlocker app inundates one’s browser with excessive ads under the guise of providing web traffic filtering features, so get rid of this adware right away.

There is a fine line between legit and adware backed ecommerce. What is more, the average user may find it hard to tell the difference with the naked eye. It takes some system inspection and web page layout analysis to draw accurate conclusions in this regard. The criteria that matter the most are whether or not there’s a new browser add-on or plugin that’s modifying the look of visited sites, and whether identical or similar-looking ads are popping up across different domains. Speaking of DNS Unlocker program, it makes a consonant extension appear on the web service enhancements list for the browsers used on a computer, and miscellaneous items saying “Ads by DNSUnlocker” literally deluge every single page accessed via these browsers. It all appears to fit in the adware framework, and yet some further dissection of this code would make sense to better understand the essence and true motives of the application.

DNS Unlocker product isn’t in fact all about benefits Continue reading

Oct 12

Uninstall Shopperz adware from Firefox, Chrome and IE

Remove Shopperz app and get its ads out of the browser by leveraging a technique which ensures thorough and hassle-free cleanup of this adware junk.

Collecting and redeeming points for the routine web browsing activity is a game the Shopperz app tries to get its customers involved into. It all ends up being not that fun, though. The problem number one is users do not opt into this service, and yet it’s somehow on their PCs. Another issue is the excess ecommerce data appearing across every single web page returned in the affected browser. One more thing to look out for is the harvesting of private information that inexorably co-occurs with this program’s functioning inside a system.

In fact, Shopperz masquerades bad intensions under the guise of discounts or freebies provision features. However, people don’t always get the opportunity to even peruse details on the much-praised V-Bates collection principle, because the software just shows up in the machine out of the blue. The scammers out there have come up with a con deal where some free applications can only be installed on condition that an arbitrary drive-by payload is also sanctioned to slither in. The accompanying open source software doesn’t have to be malicious – it’s innocuous media players for the most part. The entity to blame is the installation client, which is a lightweight piece of software configuring the setup and possibly promoting random objects along the way.

V-Bates may look enticing, but the Shopperz app plays dirty Continue reading

Feb 22

GDCB file virus: GandCrab decryptor and removal

Numerous files with the .GDCB extension on a PC is the way the new GandCrab ransomware signals its presence, so learn how to fix the problem if that’s the case.

It looks like there’s a new high-profile player on the crypto ransomware arena, or an old stager with some groundbreaking tactics up their sleeve. Indeed, there hasn’t been much game-changing stuff going on in this threat landscape lately, but the author of the GandCrab ransomware has managed to add some new hues to it. One of the reasons why this strain is offbeat is because it forces victims to pay in cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin or Monero. Also, it leverages the .bit top-level domain to interact with its C2 infrastructure, which is a trait never seen with ransomware before. And certainly the worst news for the victims is that the .GDCB file virus implements the cryptographic data processing job seamlessly, therefore decryption of the ransomed items is extremely challenging.

Symptoms of the .GDCB file virus attack Continue reading

Oct 10

Remove hairullah@inbox.lv ransomware virus and recover encrypted files

In case file extensions on a computer have been appended with hairullah@inbox.lv, it indicates a ransomware issue that must be fixed as soon as possible.

Samples of a new ransom Trojan are being continuously reported by users who happened to fall victim to another vicious extortion attack. The attribute that all infestation encounters have in common is the “.id-(random 10 digits)_hairullah@inbox.lv” string, which is automatically added to the regular file extensions on the computer. These modifications ultimately result in one’s personal data becoming inaccessible, with the attempts to manually edit the extensions or use different programs to open the files turning out to no avail. This article is going to shed light on what actually happens to the documents, images, videos and other objects stored on the compromised PC if it becomes affected by said ransomware, and provides efficient troubleshooting advice.

The hairullah@inbox.lv (hayrullah@inbox.lv) contamination workflow is heterogeneous: some people get the malicious dropper after opening an infected email attachment, while others get in trouble when browsing to sites that host exploit kits. The latter scenario is extremely obfuscated, and the potential virus distributing pages can be hacked ones, so neither the visitors nor even the webmasters are aware of the risk most of the time. One way or another, the plague infiltrates into a system in a furtive fashion, which gives it a time gap to do the bulk of damage without being spotted.

Extensions of encrypted files are appended with the hairullah@inbox.lv attribute Continue reading

Oct 01

Remove Sonic Train ads from Firefox, Chrome and IE

Since the Sonic Train software renders users’ web browsing insufferable and endangers their privacy, removal of this adware shouldn’t be dallied off.

Not so many Internet surfers would willingly opt into expanding the volume of advertising they see online. Ads are everywhere anyway, some people would argue, but it’s redundancy that makes the principal difference. With the Sonic Train app on board a computer, the amount of ecommerce information on websites slips out of the user’s control. The program pursues strictly mercantile goals by tainting all visited pages with comparison shopping, popups and text ads that do not belong there.

Installing Sonic Train is a choice hardly ever made consciously – the underground cyber actors are actually imposing this setup along with some free-to-use products. The infrastructure of any campaign for adware propagation incorporates an array of open source solutions that look catchy but, as a rule, can only be installed if a potentially harmful third-party applet is allowed to get into the PC as well. This particular infection typically collaborates with primitive multimedia tools and spoofed updates for programs like Flash Player or Java.

Sonic Train site with hardly any relevant product description Continue reading

Oct 01

Remove Turbo Your PC (TurboYourPC) malware

Although Turbo Your PC software is distributed in a fancy wrapping of purportedly efficient system optimization, it is a rogue and should thus be uninstalled.

Computer health does not go hand in hand with Turbo Your PC application, despite the fact that the publisher of this product is trying to convince people these concepts are a perfect match. Things may appear serene at first sight: the program’s official page reflects best practices of web design, with reassurances about all-around recognition of its quality and trustworthy-looking references. Upon closer scrutiny, though, none of the above turns out to be genuine. The utility claims to do a lot more than it can actually cope with. What’s worse is it comes up with errors that do not exist as it runs system scans. This is a trick used for encouraging license purchases in return for fixing imaginary problems.

Scan report within Turbo Your PC user interface Continue reading

Sep 27

Uninstall Malware Protection Live (MalwareProtectionClient.exe) virus

Malware Protection Live app is delivered via freeware setup clients without users’ approval, so it obviously does not belong on a PC and should be removed.

Software installation, regretfully, isn’t always preceded by and based on the computer user’s consent, though it certainly should be. This attribute constitutes a pretty unequivocal delineation between what’s regular and what’s anomalous, Malware Protection Live application belonging to the latter category. It is marketed as a free, lightweight security solution intended for real-time defense from Internet threats. Questions and reasonable doubts regarding this product’s intensions arise against the background of the way it infiltrates into a computer. It isn’t beyond the ordinary state of things when malicious objects are distributed through installers that are hosted on shady, semi-underground online resources. It’s more of an offbeat situation, however, when junk applications are built into setup clients on services like Download.com, which is the case with Malware Protection Live.

Malware Protection Live bundled with free software installation Continue reading

Sep 25

Remove Gangnam Game popup virus (gangnamgame.net) from Chrome, Firefox and IE

The commonplace adware elimination tactics are inefficient for handling Gangnam Game popup virus, so follow these steps to get the whole security job done.

The malicious specimen to be dissected in this post is built more intricately than the overwhelming majority of adware threats. Run-of-the-mill samples of browser operation disrupting code tend to center around modifying the user’s preferences in order to capture and rearrange the Internet traffic to their makers’ benefit. In the case of the so-called “Gangnam Game” hijack, unauthorized changes reach a lot further, involving unfavorable configuration of the system startup and registry corruption. The process of remediating these alterations is aggravated by the virus preventing the Task Manager and Regedit commands execution. Given the whole multitude of these heinous effects, the victims find themselves in the predicament where gangnamgame.net and gangnamgame.org sites keep popping up once the machine is booted up and in the course of the routine browser usage.

Gangnamgame.net popup at computer startup Continue reading

Sep 21

Remove Palikan Search and Chromium-based Palikan Browser

Undo all unsanctioned changes made by the Palikan adware and thus prevent the imposed site from being forcibly visited during the routine browser use.

The people behind Palikan software prefer a quick buck over taking effort to conduct elaborate online marketing. In the long run, this product’s activity comes down to driving user hits to a specified landing page that has ads on it. Traffic supply in large volumes through legitimate techniques is a nontrivial challenge, so cybercriminals tend to employ things called “PUPs”, that is, potentially unwanted programs so as to reach their mean goals. One of them is Palikan Browser – software based on legitimate open-source Chromium browser. These little culprits are, essentially, browser add-ons that automatically get high-level privileges, such as to read and change one’s bookmarks, browsing history, all user’s data on websites accessed, as well as to manage apps, extensions and themes.

Palikan Search homepage flagrantly replaces the victim’s browsing preferences Continue reading

Sep 16

Remove MyBrowser virus from Chrome, Firefox and IE

Removal of Ads by MyBrowser from web pages on infected PC is not as hard as it may seem, so use these instructions to get a cure for the adware plague now.

MyBrowser application by The MyBrowser Authors publisher exceeds the adware spreading and implementation practices that the majority of potentially unwanted programs exhibit. The attack surface is unusually expansive, encompassing such vectors as backstage software bundling as well as promotion via legitimate affiliate platforms. The cognitive catch is that this product makes the impression of an innocuous web navigation instrument based on the Chromium project, which is the cradle of one of today’s most popular browsers. The disappointing truth, however, is that users find themselves at their wit’s end trying to get rid of the pervasive Ads by MyBrowser with little to no success.

Misleading presentation of MyBrowser product on its web page Continue reading

Sep 13

Remove DNSMohawk.exe virus from Chrome, Firefox and IE

Learn how to get rid of the malicious DNSMohawk background process which underlies the functioning of DNS Unlocker adware and causes operating system issues.

DNSMohawk isn’t really a standalone virus, nor does it act explicitly enough for the computer user to realize it’s a problem. In fact, it denotes an executable file that enables a piece of adware called DNS Unlocker to do its dirty job inside the infected machine. It can be found inside the folder for the higher-level software under Program Files directory. As a rule, this process runs in the background and doesn’t cause issues until something goes wrong with the operation of the adware proper. Sometimes these malfunctions result from the victim’s attempts to remove the infection, where the cleaning wasn’t sufficiently thorough. In this case, interaction between the virus’ separate components gets broken, and the system keeps coming up with application error alerts. Some of these notifications say “DNSMohawk.exe is not a valid Win32 application”, “This program is not responding” and “DNSMohawk.exe has stopped working”.

GUI of the program behind DNSMohawk executable Continue reading