Adware.SearchEngineHijack

Short bio

Adware.SearchEngineHijack is Malwarebytes' detection name for a family of search hijackers that display advertisements in their search results.

Symptoms

Adware.SearchEngineHijack webstore

Adware.SearchEngineHijack as promoted in the webstore

Type and source of infection

Adware.SearchEngineHijack is usually installed by users due to promises of improved searching. The installer then hijacks the search results to a domain that belongs to the threat-actors, which will show sponsored results.

Protection

searchdimension.com block

Malwarebytes blocks the domain searchdimension.com

Remediation

Malwarebytes can detect and remove Adware.SearchEngineHijack without further user interaction.

  1. Please download Malwarebytes to your desktop.
  2. Double-click MBSetup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
  3. When your Malwarebytes for Windows installation completes, the program opens to the Welcome to Malwarebytes screen.
  4. Click on the Get started button.
  5. Click Scan to start a Threat Scan.
  6. Click Quarantine to remove the found threats.
  7. Reboot the system if prompted to complete the removal process.

Malwarebytes removal log

A Malwarebytes log of removal will look similar to this:

Malwarebytes
www.malwarebytes.com

-Log Details- Scan Date: 9/24/18 Scan Time: 11:21 AM Log File: 48e4d27b-bfdb-11e8-a4f1-00ffdcc6fdfc.json

-Software Information- Version: 3.5.1.2522 Components Version: 1.0.441 Update Package Version: 1.0.6983 License: Premium

-System Information- OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 CPU: x64 File System: NTFS User: {computername}\{username}

-Scan Summary- Scan Type: Threat Scan Scan Initiated By: Manual Result: Completed Objects Scanned: 252029 Threats Detected: 17 Threats Quarantined: 17 Time Elapsed: 4 min, 1 sec

-Scan Options- Memory: Enabled Startup: Enabled Filesystem: Enabled Archives: Enabled Rootkits: Enabled Heuristics: Enabled PUP: Detect PUM: Detect

-Scan Details- Process: 0 (No malicious items detected)

Module: 0 (No malicious items detected)

Registry Key: 0 (No malicious items detected)

Registry Value: 0 (No malicious items detected)

Registry Data: 0 (No malicious items detected)

Data Stream: 0 (No malicious items detected)

Folder: 4 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0\_metadata, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0\icons, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\DEFAULT\EXTENSIONS\MFEIGFDAFONJKMBPFAIDPKMENGGOHPJO, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983

File: 13 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Secure Preferences, Replaced, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Preferences, Replaced, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\DEFAULT\EXTENSIONS\MFEIGFDAFONJKMBPFAIDPKMENGGOHPJO\1.1.2_0\MANIFEST.JSON, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0\icons\icon128.png, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0\icons\icon48.png, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0\_metadata\computed_hashes.json, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0\_metadata\verified_contents.json, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo\1.1.2_0\background.js, Quarantined, [336], [570731],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Web Data, Replaced, [336], [570730],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Web Data, Replaced, [336], [460701],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Web Data, Replaced, [336], [460701],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Web Data, Replaced, [336], [460701],1.0.6983 Adware.SearchEngineHijack, C:\USERS\{username}\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Web Data, Replaced, [336], [460701],1.0.6983

Physical Sector: 0 (No malicious items detected)

WMI: 0 (No malicious items detected)

(end)

Traces/IOCs

You may see these entries in FRST logs:

CHR DefaultSearchURL: Default -> hxxps://searchprivacyplus.com/results.php?p=6000&v=400&q={searchTerms}&source=default
CHR DefaultSearchKeyword: Default -> Secure
CHR DefaultSuggestURL: Default -> hxxps://searchprivacyplus.com/gjson.php?q={searchTerms}
CHR Extension: (Secure) - C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo
Chrome extensions: mfeigfdafonjkmbpfaidpkmenggohpjo dgldcllfgcheelimlbmilnkilnamlhbd ggnceihnaabghbfmifjmofepelnahpjb

Domains: searchprivacyplus.com elastisearch.com securedsearch.xyz bettersearch.co searchdimension.com

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