How come sites can add bookmarks for their own purpose in your browser's (FIREFOX 19.02) bookmarks toolbar without you akcnowledge this ?
Hello Firefox !
I remember in the early 1990s that malicious sites added icons and easily installed ads in your starting page, but to experience this in 2013 with an updated version of FIREFOX 19.02 is a big surprise !
I recently noticed that two sites were silently installed in my bookmarks toolbar I deleted them but who knows what they were doing while they were sitting there ?
Chosen solution
by cor-elDo a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender: Home Page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
Additional System Details
Installed Plug-ins
- Shockwave Flash 11.6 r602
- Next Generation Java Plug-in 10.17.2 for Mozilla browsers
- Google Update
- Foxit Reader Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape
- VLC media player Web Plugin 2.0.2
- Net iD ActiveX and Netscape plugin
- Picasa plugin
- GEPlugin
- DRM Netscape Network Object
Application
- Firefox 19.0.2
- User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0
- Support URL: http://support.mozilla.com/1/firefox/19.0.2/WINNT/sv-SE/eu/
Extensions
- Awesome screenshot: Capture and Annotate 2.4.0
- Flash and Video Download 1.29
- Troubleshooter 1.0a
- Zotero 3.0.14
Javascript
- incrementalGCEnabled: True
Graphics
- adapterDescription: NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
- adapterDescription2:
- adapterDeviceID: 0x0241
- adapterDeviceID2:
- adapterDrivers: nv4_disp
- adapterDrivers2:
- adapterRAM: Unknown
- adapterRAM2:
- adapterVendorID: 0x10de
- adapterVendorID2:
- direct2DEnabled: False
- direct2DEnabledMessage: [u'']
- directWriteEnabled: False
- directWriteVersion: 0.0.0.0
- driverDate: 5-9-2006
- driverDate2:
- driverVersion: 8.2.0.8
- driverVersion2:
- info: {u'AzureContentBackend': u'none', u'AzureCanvasBackend': u'cairo', u'AzureFallbackCanvasBackend': u'none'}
- isGPU2Active: False
- numAcceleratedWindows: 0
- numAcceleratedWindowsMessage: [u'blockedDriver']
- numTotalWindows: 2
- webglRenderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE)
- windowLayerManagerType: Basic
Modified Preferences
- accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
- browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
- browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: False
- browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: False
- browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
- browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 4
- browser.search.suggest.enabled: False
- browser.search.useDBForOrder: True
- browser.startup.homepage: http://www.ub.gu.se
- browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20130307023931
- browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 19.0.2
- browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled: False
- dom.ipc.plugins.enabled: False
- dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.np_prsnl.dll: False
- dom.ipc.plugins.flash.subprocess.crashreporter.enabled: False
- dom.ipc.plugins.java.enabled: True
- dom.max_chrome_script_run_time: 0
- dom.mozApps.used: True
- extensions.lastAppVersion: 19.0.2
- gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d9: 3
- network.cookie.prefsMigrated: True
- places.database.lastMaintenance: 1362672262
- places.history.enabled: False
- places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 11728
- plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: video/x-ms-wmv,audio/x-mpeg,audio/mpeg,video/x-msvideo,video/x-ms-asf,video/x-ms-asf-plugin,audio/x-mpegurl,video/mp4,video/mpeg,audio/mp4,video/x-mpeg,application/vnd.rn-realmedia,audio/wav,audio/x-wav,audio/x-ms-wma
- privacy.cpd.sessions: False
- privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: True
- privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 0
- security.warn_viewing_mixed: False
Misc
- User JS: No
- Accessibility: No
We are always working on blocking malicious applications from hijacking Firefox. Do you know the names of these bookmarks and perhaps how they got there (they usually come bundled with other software).
Please note that just a bookmark won't do anything to compromise your security, they are usually just there to try to increase ad revenue.
Chosen Solution
Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender: Home Page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked