Browser Hijacking

What is Browser Hijacking?

Browser hijacking is where malicious code of some sort modifies your browser settings and you are not able to change it.
Some types of Browser hijacking are:

Home page Hijacking
Favorites Hijacking
A flood of obscene pop-up windows assaulting you after a mistyped URL
Malicious code taking over your browser completely

Home page Hijacking

Home page Hijacking means that your default start page (home page) in Internet Explorer has been reset from your choice to something else.

Normally, a quick trip to the "Tools menu - Internet Options" will let you reset the start page. But if your brower is hijacked then each time you re-boot your computer, the homepage switches back to the unwanted page.

The worst of the Homepage Hijacking programs are incredibly sophisticated too; they spoof their URL with an innocent URL, encrypt their own URL so you cannot find it, update the start, homepage and search fields in the registry and then load a program which runs continuously updating the registry entry's before locking the user out of the registry.

Favorites Hijacking

Web sites that you have not saved as favorites have attached to your favorites folder and are not able to rid them.

Browser Hijacking Resources

Beginners Guides: Browser Hijacking & How to Stop It - PCstats - www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1579

This excellent PCstats Beginners Guide will show you how to avoid and defeat these annoying and potentially embarrassing attacks on your computer Including: What's a browser Hijacker?, The worst case scenario, Use Anti-virus programs regularly, Repairing a browser hijack, Antivirus Scan in safe mode, Manual system search; HOSTS file, Manually Checking the registry.

Home Page Hijacking, General Tips & Tricks - WorldStart.com - www.worldstart.com/tips/internet-tips/homepagehijacking.htm

Short General Introduction with some Tips & Tricks about Home Page Hijacking.

Microsoft Support for Internet Explorer

Home Page Setting Changes Unexpectedly, or You Cannot Change Your Home Page Setting - support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320159

Microsoft Knowledge Base article about Home Page Hijacking in Internet Explorer. Including symptoms, cause, and resolution.

Steps that you can take to help identify and to help protect yourself from deceptive (spoofed) Web sites and malicious hyperlinks - support.microsoft.com/?kbid=833786

A malicious user could create a link to a deceptive (spoofed) Web site that displays the address, or URL, to a legitimate Web site in the Status bar, Address bar, and Title bar. This article describes steps that you can take to help mitigate this issue and to help you to identify a deceptive (spoofed) Web site or URL.

Java Applet Can Redirect Browser Traffic - support.microsoft.com/?kbid=300845

A session hijacking vulnerability exists in the Microsoft virtual machine (Microsoft VM) that could allow a maliciously crafted Java applet to silently reroute all browser traffic to the host of the applet without the knowledge of the user. After an attacker possesses the rerouted browser traffic, he or she could take any action or any combination of actions that he or she chooses, including the following: Handle the browser request, Record the session information, Forward the request to the intended destination. This article describes the cause and resolution.

Free Prevention, Detection & Removal Tools

Anti-Hijack Tools - Merijn.org - www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/index.html

Here you can download some anti-hijack tools, especially he tools "CWShredder" and "HijackThis" have become quite popular.

CWShredder is a small utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names).
HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect, and optionally remove selected items.

Michael Platt's WebLog about Hijacking - blogs.msdn.com/michael_platt/archive/2004/05/14/131798.aspx

WebLog about Homepage Hijacking.

Spyware and Hijackware removal - SpywareInfo.com - www.spywareinfo.com

This site is dedicated to giving you the tools and knowledge you need to protect your privacy from the onslaught of spyware, adware, and corporate and government surveillance. Including message boards, spyware and browser hijacker support forums, a chat room, and a weekly newsletter.
By far the two most popular articles on this site are:

the Browser Hijack Removal article and
the Prevent Browser Hijacking article.

Spyware tools and links - Siena College - www.siena.edu/antivirus/Spyware

Spyware tools and links from Siena College.
Including easy steps to remove CoolWebsearch Browser Hijacker.

Free Anti-Spyware Tools

See our page Anti-Spyware