Chiff and Fipple Forums

There I was, searching for a gif for tumbleweed and, in the process, trying to find and download some free software to grab videos off the net. Then ...

BAMMMMM!!!

I got hit by the "Yahoo Redirect Virus". Took me a couple of hours, I should think, to get rid of it.

Anybody come across this virus? Should I have been looking out for something? I have McAfee ...

I don't think I'm familiar with that one, but yeah, viruses can be pesky things.
'Course, I probably wouldn't have a job without them...

I'll research it when I get home; I've not heard of this one.

Geez, that'll throw your embouchure off, won't it?

chas wrote:Geez, that'll throw your embouchure off, won't it?

Ha! Yeah, I was so busy fixing the pesky 'puter I didn't even get round to practicing.

Coffee wrote:I don't think I'm familiar with that one, but yeah, viruses can be pesky things.
'Course, I probably wouldn't have a job without them...

I'll research it when I get home; I've not heard of this one.

Let us know what you come up with. I'd be interested.

I can tell you the gist of what it does though. It interferes with some basic system files (I have no idea which ones, or how this stuff works) to re-direct you (apparently) to the Yahoo search engine, even if you go to 'Manage Add-ons' and remove everything except, say, Google, as I did. Then it forces any searches you perform to go to websites that you didn't intend to go to, for commercial purposes. Clicks while surfing don't do what you expect. So, for instance, me pressing 'cancel' took me perilously close to paying for something by Paypal! Something I hadn't searched for at all. It's a nasty little bit of virus kit it is. I have a feeling it's fairly long established. Something I read suggested that its first incarnations may have been about 2009.

Ah. Yeap. Nasty little bugger, that one. Tends to embed itself in freeware installs.
As for what to look out for... well, be careful of your software sources. Sometimes it pays to do custom installs and look for any add-ons you don't need.

Coffee wrote:Ah. Yeap. Nasty little bugger, that one. Tends to embed itself in freeware installs.
As for what to look out for... well, be careful of your software sources. Sometimes it pays to do custom installs and look for any add-ons you don't need.

I thought I was ...