Occasionally tabs are opening with obvious hacker names wanting me to update drivers. How do I stop this?
About once a day, a tab is opened with a name like "Comparison" or some other obvious hack name, wanting me to update my Windows drivers, media drivers, etc. i of course just close these tabs, but they are getting annoying. I have scanned with Spybot, AVG and MalwareBytes, nothing has fixed this. Any ideas?
Thanks, Greg
All Replies (4)
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.
Does this issue occur on any specific site or just Firefox in general?
As I posted in my more detailed posting, I have already scanned with 3 of the best anti's around and it's still happening. Doesn't matter what sites I have up. It is almost like there is a malware add-on inside of Firefox, that a normal malware program isn't going to find. When the next one shows up, I'll take a screen shot and post it. Was sort of hoping I wasn't the only one having this issue....
Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.
(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)
- On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
- Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.
Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.
To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
Please report back soon.
I have the same problem, and have done complete scans with AVG and the Karpensky root kit removal tool - all to no avail. I have downloaded and run Spybot Search and Destroy today, and it did find a couple of things that appeared suspicious. Will let you know it this works.