Overview
Summary:
Vendor Notes:
Alias:
Category:
Homepage Hijacker: Any software that changes your browser's home page to some other site. Hijacks may reroute your info and address requests through an unseen site, capturing that info. In such hijacks, your browser may behave normally, but be slower.
Dialer: Software that dials a phone number. Some dialers connect to local Internet Service Providers and are beneficial as configured. Others connect to toll numbers without user awareness or permission.
Search Hijacker: Any software that resets your browser's settings to point to other sites when you perform a search. Hijacks may reroute your info and address requests through an unseen site, capturing that info. In such hijacks, your browser may behave normally, but be slower. Search results when such a hijacker is running will sometimes differ from non-hijacked results.
Spyware: Any product that employs a user's Internet connection in the background without their knowledge, and gathers/transmits info on the user or their behavior. Many spyware products will collect referrer info (information from your web browser which reveals what URL you linked from), your IP address (a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer), system information (such as time of visit, type of browser used, the operating system and platform, and CPU speed.) Spyware products sometimes wrap other commercial products, and are introduced to machines when those commercial products are installed. See also Adware.
Toolbar: A group of buttons which perform common tasks. A toolbar for Internet Explorer is nomally located below the menu bar at the top of the form. Toolbars may be created by Browser Helper Objects.
Trojan: Any program with a hidden intent. Trojans are one of the leading causes of breaking into machines. If you pull down a program from a chat room, new group, or even from unsolicited e-mail, then the program is likely trojaned with some subversive purpose. The word Trojan can be used as a verb: To trojan a program is to add subversive functionality to an existing program. For example, a trojaned login program might be programmed to accept a certain password for any user's account that the hacker can use to log back into the system at any time. Rootkits often contain a suite of such trojaned programs.
Similar Pests:
Origins
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Date of Origin:
Distribution
Prevalence:
Clot Factor:
The "Clot Factor" is a measure of how much a pest "gums up" a machine by adding registry entries, files, and directories. As more objects are placed in a machine, manual removal becomes more difficult and more error-prone.
Growth:
Operation
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Risks
Privacy Policy:
Detection and Removal
Automatic Removal:
PestPatrol detects this.
PestPatrol removes this.
Manual Removal:
Kill these running processes with Task Manager:
Unregister these DLLs with Regsvr32, then reboot:
Remove these registry items (if present) with RegEdit:
Remove these files (if present) with Windows Explorer:
After following the instructions above, you will still need to restore your original settings and prevent this from happening again.
Research
File Analyses:
- DotCom Toolbar: redirect2.exe · redirect4.exe · redirect5.exe