SearchWeb2 Hijacked my Browser

Zaphod 42 · Jan 8, 2005

Hey All,

Well I have become a victim of Searchweb2 as far as I can tell. It got through McAfee (which probably wasn't too big a feat) and I suspect came in through MSN Messenger. I had my home page set to About:blank which I'm starting to gether may not have been such a good idea.

Anyway I now have a bunch of annoying icons on my desktop (ie. Casino Online, Travel, Bingo, Printer Cartridges, Website Hosting, etc.); my browser has a "silver colored" search bar at the top and a multi-colored one at the bottom. The bottom one I can close and it stays away until next boot up, but the "silver" one is there to stay apparently. My favorites folder has been radically altered and has all ther same junk in it (ie. Casino Online etc.) and I cannot delete them at all.

What is especially annoying is that it won't let me access McAfee's website and I suspect it is also denying me access to certain other sites.

Fun stuff hey? I've been following a thread here (I'm baffled ...) and I just can't believe how much work and time Chaslang and Fuelman have invbested trying to solve a similar problem. But, if there is a chance to fix this dam thing I'm willing to give her a go.

Thanks in advance!

Zaphod in Canada

chaslang · Jan 8, 2005

The work performed in Fuelman's thread was for an HSA hijack. It has nothing to do with the items you mentioned here. You should first go to Add/Remove programs and uninstall any of those undesired items (that is if they appear in Add/Remove programs). After that do what follows.

First, please follow ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ ME FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT: Basic Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal
If you already have any of the programs linked in the tutorial please double check your version to make sure you have the latest one and that you have any/all updates for the programs.

NOTE: In order to resolve the issues you are having it is very important that you at least try to perform all the steps as outlined. If you have any difficulty please post back letting us know what steps you have completed, what you found while doing the scans if anything and details about any problems you have encountered in completing the steps. The more details you can provide the better.

Check you hosts file to make sure no websites like McAfee are blocked. Also check your Restricted Zones (RZ) in Internet Explorer to make sure McAfee has not been added to the RZ.

After doing ALL of the above if you still have a problem:

Make sure you have HijackThis 1.99 and follow the guidelines on where to install it and how to post a log as an attachment. This is all covered in the sticky thread NO HIJACK THIS LOG FILES BEFORE READING THIS: HJT Tutorial & LOG File Posting

Now post a HijackThis log as an attachment to your message (Do not post the log inline). All running programs should be closed, including your web browser, e-mail. Close before running Hijack This!

To repeat: Do NOT run Hijack This from the Desktop, a temp folder, or a sub-folder of C:\Documents and Settings, or choose to run it directly from the downloaded ZIP file. Place it in its own folder, for example C:\Program Files\HJT

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SearchWeb2 Hijacked my Browser

Zaphod 42 Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member