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Search-fine.com - Very Persistent Malware

Anonymous
2022-04-10T06:47:40+00:00

Whoever you may be, I hope you are having a good day.

A few days ago, my computer was infected with a browser hijacker which redirects all my searches to a website www.search-fine.com, and then onto any random search engine (Google, Bing, Ask Jeeves and Yahoo are all used). The problem was initially with Google Chrome, but has now infected all browsers on my computer, including one I've never used before (Edge). I've been trying to remove it, without success.

Here is what I have tried so far:

  1. Removing extentions (But as it infects all browsers, I don't think this is the issue)
  2. Reinstalling browsers
  3. A Windows System Restore to a point before the malware was installed
  4. Running several anti-virus softwares (Windows Defender, AVG, Avast), and a couple of dedicated Malware removers.
  5. Removing all suspicious and recently installed programs (with none installed around the period where I was infected.
  6. Playing around with browser settings & restroring default settings.

I have no idea how I got this malware, and nothing I have tried has got rid of it.

Any advice on removing this malware would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

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  1. _AW_ 67,216 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-05-29T01:59:24+00:00

    Paste chrome://settings/syncSetup into Chrome's address bar. Is sync definitely disabled i.e Does it say 'Turn on sync...'?

    Paste edge://settings/profiles/sync into Edge's address bar. Does it say 'Not syncing'?

    There doesn't appear to be anything present to infect the browsers, so resetting the browsers should work.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2022-05-03T17:34:35+00:00

    Have you tried running a full scan with Microsoft Defender?

    • Yes, I have run full scans with:
    • Windows Defender
    • Malwarebites
    • AdwCleaner
    • AVG (Free version)
    • HitmanPro
    • Spyhunter 5
    • McAfee Security Scan
    • One or two others, which I have since deleted

    Do you know how you get infected?

    • No. I was playing a video game at the time, which was not connected to the Internet, and suddenly my browser went haywire, popping up over the game. The game itself is well known and trusted. I don't believe I even had an Internet connection at the time, at all, due to an Internet outage in the area. This was the first time I noticed something was wrong, but it is possible the virus was on my system before this.

    Do you have access to the infected file or the website?

    • I am the admin on the computer, so yes. However, I do not know what the infected file or website is.

    One further piece of inforemation: I have a disabled startup app called "Browser_assistant". Some others have reported this as a malicious piece of software, signed by Realistic Media. I cannot find the program connected to "Browser_assistant" to delete it, however I cannot find any tract of a Realistic Media signature or program anywhere on my computer.

    Thank you for your help on this.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-05-03T17:25:12+00:00

    Thank you,

    I have tried scanning with AdwCleaner. Unfortunately no success.

    I have looked at running Farbar - however my computer is saying that may be malicious program in itself?? Might there be an alternative program I can use, as I do not know what Farbar is, and what it does.

    Thank you for your help.

    Kind regards,
    William

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  3. Reza-Ameri 45,806 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-04-10T17:33:47+00:00

    Have you tried running a full scan with Microsoft Defender?

    Do you know how you get infected?

    Do you have access to the infected file or the website?

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  4. _AW_ 67,216 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-04-10T07:07:55+00:00

    Try scanning with AdwCleaner:

    https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner 

    If that doesn't work, I'll see if I can find a cause for the problems if you can provide logs from Farbar Recovery Scan Tool (FRST)

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/farbar-recovery-scan-tool/

    Run FRST as administrator, use default settings and press Scan. Two logs are created in the folder that FRST is run from, FRST.txt and Addition.txt. Zip the logs and share on OneDrive, Google Drive or any file sharing service, then post the share link.

    * Note: If you are downloading FRST with Edge, smartscreen will initially block it.

    Click on the 3 dots next to the warning and select Keep -> Show more -> Keep anyway.

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