It’s very sad, but many software downloaders/ installers will trick you into installing not only their program, but other programs as well.

You have heard of the fine print in shady contracts, right? Well, some installers you need to look at the itsy bitsy teeny weeny fine print.

You are thinking you are giving the installer permission to install the program you want by using the recommended option. But if you use the Manual Option Instead, you discover all kinds of stuff that you do not even know what it is or what it does.

From now on, everyone needs to Use The Manual Option to put a stop to this.

Note that these programs can also change browser/computer settings.

Type about:support in the address bar and press Enter. Under the main banner, press the button; Copy Text To Clipboard.. Now in the Reply Box on the forum page, do a right-click in the box and select Paste.

This will show us your system details. No Personal Information Is Collected.

If you can't fit everything in one post, do not worry. It's the upper part we need to check out.

Discovered Hidden Add-on On Firefox. How To Check Yours https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/support-forum-contributors/711335

Type chrome://mozapps/content/extensions/extensions.xul?<enter> in the address bar.

Is this the URL:

https://addonbrowser.com/safe-web-with-virustotal?v=1.0.1

Maybe that "Safe Web with VirusTotal" extension you have isn't what you thought it was?

Thanks for the replies, Fred McD, I wasn't aware that this was an option when adding an addon, but I will look for this option next time.

Name Firefox Version 68.0.2 Build ID 20190813150448 Update History Update Channel release-cck-ubuntu User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 OS Linux 4.15.0-58-generic Profile Directory /home/stuart/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/firefox/kdk2invd.default Enabled Plugins about:plugins Build Configuration about:buildconfig Memory Use about:memory Performance about:performance Registered Service Workers about:serviceworkers Multiprocess Windows 1/1 Enabled by default Remote Processes 4 Enterprise Policies Active Google Location Service Key Found Google Safebrowsing Key Found Mozilla Location Service Key Found Safe Mode false Profiles about:profiles

Also typed in this, 'chrome://mozapps/content/extensions/extensions.xul?' but nothing showed up that I wasn't aware of.

In reply to jscher 2000 yes, that is exactly it

Application Basics

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days

Firefox Features

Name: Firefox Monitor Version: 3.0 ID: fxmonitor@mozilla.org

Name: Firefox Screenshots Version: 39.0.0 ID: screenshots@mozilla.org

Name: Form Autofill Version: 1.0 ID: formautofill@mozilla.org

Name: Web Compat Version: 5.0.2 ID: webcompat@mozilla.org

Name: WebCompat Reporter Version: 1.1.0 ID: webcompat-reporter@mozilla.org

Remote Processes

Type: Web Content Count: 3 / 8

Type: Extension Count: 1

Extensions

Name: Adblock Plus - free ad blocker Version: 3.6.2 Enabled: true ID: {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}

Name: Amazon.co.uk Version: 1.1 Enabled: true ID: amazon@search.mozilla.org

Name: Bing Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: bing@search.mozilla.org

Name: Chambers (UK) Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: chambers-en-GB@search.mozilla.org

Name: Disconnect Version: 5.19.3 Enabled: true ID: 2.0@disconnect.me

Name: DuckDuckGo Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: ddg@search.mozilla.org

Name: DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials Version: 2019.7.19 Enabled: true ID: jid1-ZAdIEUB7XOzOJw@jetpack

Name: eBay Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: ebay@search.mozilla.org

Name: Facebook Container Version: 2.0.1 Enabled: true ID: @contain-facebook

Name: Ghostery – Privacy Ad Blocker Version: 8.3.4 Enabled: true ID: firefox@ghostery.com

Name: Google Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: google@search.mozilla.org

Name: HTTPS Everywhere Version: 2019.6.27 Enabled: true ID: https-everywhere@eff.org

Name: Safe Web with VirusTotal Version: 1.0.1 Enabled: true ID: {c53b95bc-1403-4076-a618-25aef2dd37fa}

Name: Twitter Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: twitter@search.mozilla.org

Name: Wikipedia (en) Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: wikipedia@search.mozilla.org

Graphics

Features Compositing: Basic Asynchronous Pan/Zoom: wheel input enabled; scrollbar drag enabled; keyboard enabled; autoscroll enabled WebGL 1 Driver WSI Info: GLX 1.4 GLX_VENDOR(client): Mesa Project and SGI GLX_VENDOR(server): SGI Extensions: GLX_ARB_create_context GLX_ARB_create_context_profile GLX_ARB_create_context_robustness GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float GLX_ARB_framebuffer_sRGB GLX_ARB_get_proc_address GLX_ARB_multisample GLX_EXT_buffer_age GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile GLX_EXT_create_context_es_profile GLX_EXT_fbconfig_packed_float GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB GLX_EXT_import_context GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap GLX_EXT_visual_info GLX_EXT_visual_rating GLX_INTEL_swap_event GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer GLX_MESA_multithread_makecurrent GLX_MESA_query_renderer GLX_MESA_swap_control GLX_OML_swap_method GLX_OML_sync_control GLX_SGIS_multisample GLX_SGIX_fbconfig GLX_SGIX_pbuffer GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group GLX_SGI_make_current_read GLX_SGI_swap_control GLX_SGI_video_sync WebGL 1 Driver Renderer: Intel Open Source Technology Center -- Mesa DRI Intel(R) Haswell Desktop WebGL 1 Driver Version: 3.0 Mesa 18.0.5 WebGL 1 Driver Extensions: GL_3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1 GL_AMD_conservative_depth GL_AMD_draw_buffers_blend GL_AMD_seamless_cubemap_per_texture GL_AMD_shader_trinary_minmax GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt3 GL_ANGLE_texture_compression_dxt5 GL_APPLE_object_purgeable GL_APPLE_packed_pixels GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility GL_ARB_ES3_compatibility GL_ARB_arrays_of_arrays GL_ARB_blend_func_extended GL_ARB_buffer_storage GL_ARB_clear_buffer_object GL_ARB_clear_texture GL_ARB_clip_control GL_ARB_color_buffer_float GL_ARB_compressed_texture_pixel_storage GL_ARB_compute_shader GL_ARB_conditional_render_inverted GL_ARB_conservative_depth GL_ARB_copy_buffer GL_ARB_copy_image GL_ARB_cull_distance GL_ARB_debug_output GL_ARB_depth_buffer_float GL_ARB_depth_clamp GL_ARB_depth_texture GL_ARB_derivative_control GL_ARB_draw_buffers GL_ARB_draw_buffers_blend GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex GL_ARB_draw_instanced GL_ARB_explicit_attrib_location GL_ARB_explicit_uniform_location GL_ARB_fragment_coord_conventions GL_ARB_fragment_program GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow GL_ARB_fragment_shader GL_ARB_framebuffer_no_attachments GL_ARB_framebuffer_object GL_ARB_framebuffer_sRGB GL_ARB_get_program_binary GL_ARB_get_texture_sub_image GL_ARB_half_float_pixel GL_ARB_half_float_vertex GL_ARB_instanced_arrays GL_ARB_internalformat_query GL_ARB_internalformat_query2 GL_ARB_invalidate_subdata GL_ARB_map_buffer_alignment GL_ARB_map_buffer_range GL_ARB_multi_bind GL_ARB_multisample GL_ARB_multitexture GL_ARB_occlusion_query GL_ARB_occlusion_query2 GL_ARB_pipeline_statistics_query GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_ARB_point_sprite GL_ARB_polygon_offset_clamp GL_ARB_program_interface_query GL_ARB_provoking_vertex GL_ARB_query_buffer_object GL_ARB_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_ARB_robustness GL_ARB_sample_shading GL_ARB_sampler_objects GL_ARB_seamless_cube_map GL_ARB_seamless_cubemap_per_texture GL_ARB_separate_shader_objects GL_ARB_shader_atomic_counter_ops GL_ARB_shader_atomic_counters GL_ARB_shader_bit_encoding GL_ARB_shader_clock GL_ARB_shader_draw_parameters GL_ARB_shader_group_vote GL_ARB_shader_image_load_store GL_ARB_shader_image_size GL_ARB_shader_objects GL_ARB_shader_precision GL_ARB_shader_storage_buffer_object GL_ARB_shader_texture_image_samples GL_ARB_shader_texture_lod GL_ARB_shading_language_100 GL_ARB_shading_language_420pack GL_ARB_shading_language_packing GL_ARB_shadow GL_ARB_stencil_texturing GL_ARB_sync GL_ARB_texture_barrier GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_ARB_texture_compression_bptc GL_ARB_texture_compression_rgtc GL_ARB_texture_cube_map GL_ARB_texture_cube_map_array GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_ARB_texture_env_combine GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_ARB_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_ARB_texture_float GL_ARB_texture_gather GL_ARB_texture_mirror_clamp_to_edge GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_ARB_texture_multisample GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two GL_ARB_texture_query_levels GL_ARB_texture_query_lod GL_ARB_texture_rectangle GL_ARB_texture_rg GL_ARB_texture_rgb10_a2ui GL_ARB_texture_stencil8 GL_ARB_texture_storage GL_ARB_texture_storage_multisample GL_ARB_texture_swizzle GL_ARB_texture_view GL_ARB_timer_query GL_ARB_transform_feedback2 GL_ARB_transform_feedback3 GL_ARB_transform_feedback_instanced GL_ARB_transform_feedback_overflow_query GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object GL_ARB_vertex_array_bgra GL_ARB_vertex_array_object GL_ARB_vertex_attrib_binding GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_ARB_vertex_shader GL_ARB_vertex_type_10f_11f_11f_rev GL_ARB_vertex_type_2_10_10_10_rev GL_ARB_window_pos GL_ATI_blend_equation_separate GL_ATI_draw_buffers GL_ATI_separate_stencil GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3 GL_ATI_texture_float GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate GL_EXT_blend_func_separate GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array GL_EXT_copy_texture GL_EXT_draw_buffers2 GL_EXT_draw_instanced GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_EXT_fog_coord GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample_blit_scaled GL_EXT_framebuffer_object GL_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil GL_EXT_packed_float GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object GL_EXT_point_parameters GL_EXT_polygon_offset GL_EXT_polygon_offset_clamp GL_EXT_provoking_vertex GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_EXT_shader_integer_mix GL_EXT_shader_samples_identical GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_stencil_two_side GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_EXT_subtexture GL_EXT_texture GL_EXT_texture3D GL_EXT_texture_array GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 GL_EXT_texture_compression_rgtc GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_cube_map GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_integer GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_texture_rectangle GL_EXT_texture_sRGB GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode GL_EXT_texture_shared_exponent GL_EXT_texture_snorm GL_EXT_texture_swizzle GL_EXT_timer_query GL_EXT_transform_feedback GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_EXT_vertex_array_bgra GL_IBM_multimode_draw_arrays GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_INGR_blend_func_separate GL_INTEL_performance_query GL_KHR_blend_equation_advanced GL_KHR_context_flush_control GL_KHR_debug GL_KHR_no_error GL_KHR_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_KHR_robustness GL_MESA_pack_invert GL_MESA_shader_integer_functions GL_MESA_texture_signed_rgba GL_MESA_window_pos GL_NV_blend_square GL_NV_conditional_render GL_NV_depth_clamp GL_NV_light_max_exponent GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil GL_NV_primitive_restart GL_NV_texgen_reflection GL_NV_texture_barrier GL_NV_texture_env_combine4 GL_NV_texture_rectangle GL_OES_EGL_image GL_OES_read_format GL_S3_s3tc GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_lod GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays WebGL 1 Extensions: ANGLE_instanced_arrays EXT_blend_minmax EXT_color_buffer_half_float EXT_disjoint_timer_query EXT_float_blend EXT_frag_depth EXT_shader_texture_lod EXT_sRGB EXT_texture_compression_bptc EXT_texture_compression_rgtc EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic OES_element_index_uint OES_standard_derivatives OES_texture_float OES_texture_float_linear OES_texture_half_float OES_texture_half_float_linear OES_vertex_array_object WEBGL_color_buffer_float WEBGL_compressed_texture_etc WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc WEBGL_compressed_texture_s3tc_srgb WEBGL_debug_renderer_in

Try AdwCleaner

Sorry Eldar Value, but this dose not show up when I search add-ons?

stujo said

Sorry Eldar Value, but this dose not show up when I search add-ons?

Its a freeware tool by malwarebytes (not an addon) to scan & remove adwares from browsers: (no installation , just run and go) https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/

stujo said

jscher2000 said

Is this the URL: https://addonbrowser.com/safe-web-with-virustotal?v=1.0.1 Maybe that "Safe Web with VirusTotal" extension you have isn't what you thought it was?

In reply to jscher 2000 yes, that is exactly it

Okay, did you already disable or remove that extension?

You can view, disable, and often remove unwanted or unknown extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
• type or paste about:addons in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the left column of the Add-ons page, click Extensions.

Then find "Safe Web with VirusTotal" in the list on the right side and use its ••• menu to disable (or remove).

Any improvement?

Unfortunately Eldar Value, I use Linux, so that would not install?

Hi jscher2000, I have not deleted it as yet, I was kinda waiting to see if that was confirmed as the source of the problem. It only appears about once every two months, so it is going to be difficult to know if the problem is solved

stujo said

Hi jscher2000, I have not deleted it as yet, I was kinda waiting to see if that was confirmed as the source of the problem. It only appears about once every two months, so it is going to be difficult to know if the problem is solved

Why do you have that extension? What value is it providing that you don't want to give up?

I'm happy to delete it, do you think it is the source of add-on browser?

You can try to reset your firefox configuration.

Please note: it will remove everything in the Firefox config - there is no undo. if you need, create backup before.

run the following in the terminal:

rm -rf ~/.mozilla rm -rf ~/.cache/mozilla rm -rf ~/.macromedia/ rm -rf ~/etc/firefox/

stujo said

I'm happy to delete it, do you think it is the source of add-on browser?

Yes, when you search, there is definitely a connection: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Safe+Web+with+VirusTotal%22

Note how few references there are, and lack of legitimate install sites: this is common for malware extensions, they keep renaming them to make them harder to research.

Interestingly jscher2000, the web address for that add-on was the one you quoted above, I hadn't noticed that before. It has now been removed. Thank you all for your time. I shall mark this as resolved.