Is Important Update for Firefox a virus?
The last two times I opened Firefox, after using it for a while a pop up would appear. Says important update for Firefox. Install now. When I launch the link it takes me to a page that looks exactly like a Firefox page with the orange background and the big Firefox logo in the center of the page. The one that appears when you download any other update. Any way, I clicked on the update. Windows asks to verify the download. I accept. Then a little command prompt box appears with a file name. Not sure what it was. A progress bar with cursor blocks starts moving and numerical percentage. Then it says update complete. All this appears in green . The box does not go away until you click the red X on the box. After the second time this happened Windows Defender reported malware and partially removed the Trojan. I have McAfee Anti Virus. It has not reported anything. Tried to run virus scans with Windows Defender and McAfee. Windows blue screened during both scans. The last time I shut down my computer Windows installed over 50 updates. Today I have not had any issues though. Let me know if this is a problem you are having with updates. Or , if it is someone else infecting my system. Thanks for the support.
Chosen solution
You should never update Firefox via a pop-up on a web page.
If you get a pop-up message asking to update Firefox or plugins or scanning for malware then such a message is likely a scam and you should never respond to such an alert to avoid getting infected with malware.
- Only update Firefox via "Help > About" or by downloading and installing Firefox from the Mozilla server and never via a pop-up or link on a web page.
- plugins should only be updated via the plugin itself or by visiting the home page of the plugin.
All Replies (3)
Chosen Solution
You should never update Firefox via a pop-up on a web page.
If you get a pop-up message asking to update Firefox or plugins or scanning for malware then such a message is likely a scam and you should never respond to such an alert to avoid getting infected with malware.
- Only update Firefox via "Help > About" or by downloading and installing Firefox from the Mozilla server and never via a pop-up or link on a web page.
- plugins should only be updated via the plugin itself or by visiting the home page of the plugin.
I saw this, too, and instantly killed it. I'm ashamed to say it didn't occur to me to post it in this forum. To repeat the oft-stated advice: "Do not click on proffered links." Of course there are exceptions, e.g. the link in this topic from "james", but treat proffered links as guilty until proven innocent. You didn't mention Malwarebytes: https://www.malwarebytes.com/ (Yeah, I know, here's a link...)