On-click ads + secondary search bar pop-up

[Denabyte]

Hello there !

 

After visiting a few suspicious sites, while being on the hunt for a Sony Ericsson firmware file I ended up getting a nasty surprise.

First thing is that when I search for something in google, i sometimes (can't get the logic of when it actually happens) get a secondary search bar above the google one which is used as default, even if i try to type in the original google bar i get redirected to the secondary one. Even if I decide to use that one it redirects me to a yahoo search. I can get rid of it (temporary) by hitting the X button. But it comes back soon after.

 

The second issue is that from time to time, after a moderate interval of probably 10-20 mins, I get an ad pop-up triggered by a mouse click anywhere on the chrome page. ANYWHERE. Another thing i noticed is that the on-click ad somehow sets up a full-screen layer that has a HREF tag to an ad site. Meaning if i open it in chrome HTML explorer I see it as an element of the page, taking the entire visible space, making it impossible to not click it, unless u manually remove it from the DOM of the preloaded page.

 

I have tried 2 things , well more actually

 

- Kaspersky default antivirus I am using found nothing

- Malwarebytes found a file that was an adware, I removed it and restarted but the problem persists. After the second scan malware-bytes did no find anything wrong with my system.

- Some Bitdefender tool for dealing with adware, also found nothing wrong with my system.

- Tried removing any extensions from chrome that were unknown or weird (all I found were my extensions which I have been using for a long time), tried factory reset on chrome, tried re-installing chrome. Nothing seems to work.  It seems to be bound to chrome since I dont have this problem in Edge (I dont have Firefox to try it there)

So I  come to you. I can give you detailed information as to what IP address I get redirected and respectively connected to when I use the secondary search bar, the thing runs in SYSTEM (PID 4) and in Chrome.exe (PID random) but not as a separate process on its own.

 

From here on I am opened for suggestions. Thank you in advance and I wish both of sides good luck.

Addition.txt

FRST.txt

[AdvancedSetup]

Hello @Denabyte and

Please read the following and post back the logs when ready and we'll see about getting you cleaned up.

Before we proceed further, please read all of the following instructions carefully.
If there is anything that you do not understand kindly ask before proceeding.
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STEP 01
RKill is a program that was developed at BleepingComputer.com that attempts to terminate known malware processes so that your normal security software can then run and clean your computer of infections.
When RKill runs, it will kill malware processes and then removes incorrect executable associations and fixes policies
that stop us from using certain tools. When finished it will display a log file that shows the processes that were
terminated while the program was running.

As RKill only terminates a program's running process and does not delete any files, after running it, you should not reboot
your computer as any malware processes that are configured to start automatically will just be started again.
Instead, after running RKill, you should immediately scan your computer using the requested scans I've included.

Please download Rkill by Grinler from one of the links below and save it to your desktop.

Link 1 | Link 2

• On Windows XP Double-click on the Rkill desktop icon to run the tool.
• On Windows Vista/Windows 7 or 8, right-click on the Rkill desktop icon and select Run As Administrator
• A black DOS box will briefly flash and then disappear, this is normal and indicates the tool ran successfully.
• If not, delete the file, then download and use the one provided in Link 2.
• If it does not work, repeat the process and attempt to use one of the remaining links until the tool runs.
• If the tool does not run from any of the links provided, please let me know.
• Do not reboot the computer; you will need to run the application again.

STEP 02

 

Please run a Threat Scan with MBAM. If you're unable to run or complete the scan as shown below, please see the following:
MBAM Clean Removal Process 2x
When reinstalling the program, please try the latest version.

Right click and choose "Run as administrator" to open Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and from the Dashboard please Check for Updates by clicking the Update Now... link
Open up Malwarebytes > Settings > Detection and Protection > Enable Scan for rootkit and Under Non Malware Protection set both PUP and PUM to Treat detections as malware.
Click on the SCAN button and run a Threat Scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware by clicking the Scan Now>> button.
Once completed please click on the History > Application Logs and find your scan log and open it and then click on the "copy to clipboard" button and post back the results on your next reply.

[Denabyte]

Hello there.

 

Honestly, I just reinstalled Win 10. I didnt have the nerve and time to spend on fighting this thing, when all else failed i just eradicated everything.

Thanks for the tips tho , if such a thing happends again I will be sure to follow up on those and try to fight it to a victorious end !

[AdvancedSetup]

Okay then.Thank you for the follow-up.

Take care

Ron

 

[AdvancedSetup]

Since this issue is resolved I will close the thread to prevent others from posting here. If you need assistance please start your own topic and someone will be happy to assist you.