Website Redirect Question

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by joegs, Jan 11, 2014.

  1. joegs

    joegs Private E-2

    I have just discovered that three websites I frequent in the same general topic area are redirecting to another of those sites. The website addresses appear in the address box as the original name followed by the name of the site being directed to and ending in "=redirect." This is not happening with any other sites or even other sites saved as favorites in the same topic folder.

    Does this suggest mal or spyware - or simply that these particular sites are redirecting all traffic to the other site? I've done very thorough scans for spyware and malware - Malwarbyes, Ad Aware, a registry cleaner, and several removal tools. Nothing shows ups.
     
  2. joegs

    joegs Private E-2

    Browser is IE10 - OS Win 7 No other issues browsing or otherwise
     
  3. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Welcome to Major Geeks!

    Please read ALL of this message including the notes before doing anything.

    Please follow the instructions in the below link:

    READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

    and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.
    • **** If something does not run, write down the info to explain to us later but keep on going. ****
    • Do not assume that because one step does not work that they all will not. MGtools will frequently run even when all other tools will not.

    • After completing the READ & RUN ME and attaching your logs, make sure that you tell us what problems still remain ( if any still do )!
    Helpful Notes:

    1. If you run into problems trying to run the READ & RUN ME or any of the scans in normal boot mode, you can run the steps in safe boot mode but make sure you tell us what you did later when you post logs. See the below if you do not know how to boot in safe mode:
    2. If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual update Malwarebytes ( links are given in the READ & RUN ME) onto another PC and then burn to a CD. Then copy them to the problem PC. You will have to skip getting updates if (and only if) your internet connection does not work. Yes you could use a flash drive too but flash drives are writeable and infections can spread to them.
    3. If you cannot seem to login to an infected user account, try using a different user account (if you have one) in either normal or safe boot mode and running only RogueKiller and Malwarebytes while logged into this other user account. Then reboot and see if you can log into the problem user account. If you can then run the rest of the READ & RUN ME FIRST instructions on the infected account.
    4. To avoid additional delay in getting a response, it is strongly advised that after completing the READ & RUN ME you also read this sticky:
    Any additional post is a bump which will add more delay. Once you attach the logs, your thread will be in the work queue and as stated our system works the oldest threads FIRST.
     
  4. joegs

    joegs Private E-2


    Jan 14 - Following running Major Geeks malware protocols (logs attached) almost nothing showed up except three items in RogueKiller - two of which are probably benign PUMs. I am still experiencing limited redirects - which may not be malware related but simply legitimate site redirects. It's the number and immediacy with which they appeared vs a few days earlier that made me concerned about an infection but I'm not experiencing any other problems or more general redirects. As I've completed the scans perhaps you could look at the logs and confirm whether that seems to be the case. If so I apologize for taking up your time on a false alarm. Thank you.
     

    Attached Files:

  5. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Hm, not seeing any malware.... which browser(s) does this occur in? :confused
     
  6. joegs

    joegs Private E-2

    IE 10. If you don't see any indications of malware I'm prepared to believe that the redirect is being prompted by the sites rather than an infection - which would be a change from the several years I've used them - but still possible. Tried to contact them but no reply. However, no additional redirects or buggy behavior seems to be occurring.
     
  7. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Other than updating IE I don't know what to suggest. Hope you get a response from them soon.

    If you are not having any other malware problems, it is time to do our final steps:
    1. We recommend you keep Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for scanning/removal of malware.
    2. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others) and running MGclean.bat did not remove them, you can delete these files now.
    3. Renable your Disk Emulation software with Defogger if you had disabled it in step 4 of the READ & RUN ME.
    4. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall HijackThis. If you don't see it or it will not uninstall, don't worry about it. Just move on to the next step.
    5. If running Vista, Win 7 or Win 8, it is time to make sure you have reenabled UAC by double clicking on the C:\MGtools\enableUAC.reg file and allowing it to be added to the registry.
    6. Now goto the C:\MGtools folder and find the MGclean.bat file. Double click ( if running Vista, Win7, or Win 8 Right Click and Run As Administrator ) on this file to run this cleanup program that will remove files and folders related to MGtools and some other items from our cleaning procedures.
    7. Any other miscellaneous tools we may have had you install or download can be uninstalled and deleted.

    8. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
     

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