Firefox opens new tabs to spam sites randomly?
I've looked into this, but it's not the redirect virus that sends to to a different spam site, and it doesn't happen when I refresh or open a new tab myself. Every 15 minutes to hour Firefox opens a new tab by itself sending me to a spam site(most common: Earn a living online ads and those sites that have a pop up asking if you really want to leave). I'm not sure what's causing this, and my AVG isn't detecting anything. Please help, thank you!
This happened
Every time Firefox opened
== I don't remember if I downloaded something, but I only download from trusted sites. About a week ago is when this started happening.
All Replies (20)
Do a malware check with a few malware scan programs. You need to use all programs because each detects different malware. Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of the database.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page .......... See also "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked and What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website
I have the same problem, ran all the anti malwares on this list and more and still didn't help. Anymore idea? Now, I have to use other browser to stop seeing this annoying randomly popup and redirect and all sort garbage.
I'm not sure, but I read something about deleting certain files that might help. Go to program files, Mozilla Firefox, then find the extensions folder. They said to delete the folders with names that look like random numbers and letters...I just tried this, I'll reply if it works for me.
Anonymous (the second one) Be careful about doing that in the Programs\Mozilla Firefox\extensions folder.
Within that folder, the folder {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd} is the default theme for Firefox.
Within that folder, anything that looks like same letters but with different numbers than the highlighted ones is Java Console extension installed as part of Java.
Be careful, don't give this kind of advice, and always backup or rename things rather than deleting them unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing.
Its true... it keeps opening random sites in new window or tab. Further, there is no way to control it, no custom code, no malware. It seems the EXE file distributed by Mozilla itself is either corrupt or malware or programmed to open paid sites ??
Do you have any answer Mozilla ???
Same problem now getting worse...
New tab opens with result of previous search [Google] only linking to "anti-virus" software sites with web pages that look like windows explorer.
Attached shows the URL with the search parameters in it.
After this followed several download pop-ups and new tabs opening. All tabs finally closed then another opened whilst writing this!
Help!
OP here. I agree with Kevin, it's like it's the actual browser that's corrupted. I opened internet Exploer and it worked rather crappy, but without the random tabs. Also, I'm getting redirects whenever I open a new tab from any Google powered search.
Matt In the image you provided, note the title of the "OK"/"Cancel" overlay refers to worldttuy.info. Here is Norton's information on that site: http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?name=worldttuy.info I also checked McAfee Site Advisor and Google Safe Browsing and they both indicated that they had not visited the site.
You could have had a bug planted on your system. Most of these fake security program sites want you to buy a product to "clean" your system. An acquaintace of mine lost $80 and gave away his credit card number due to some similar warning that appeared on his system. I would strongly suggest a very thorough malware scan. If you find yourself unable to go to the following sites or update your own security software, it is because of an infection. In that case, you may want to seek the help of one of the specialists listed at the bottom of the following; just read their posting rules, include everything they ask to be posted, and follow their instructions to-the-letter.
Do a thorough malware scan Install, update and run these programs in this order. They are all free for personal use, but some have limited functionality in the "free mode", but those are features you really don't need to find and remove the problem that you have. (Not all programs detect the same Malware.)
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php SuperAntispyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/ AdAware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html Windows Defender - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx Dr. Web Cureit - http://www.freedrweb.com/cureit/
If these don't find it or can't clear it, post in one of these forums for specialized malware removal help: http://bleepingcomputer.com http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/ http://www.spywarewarrior.com/index.php http://forum.aumha.org/
I have the same problem and NONE of the anti-virus programs are detecting it at all, so that solution is not currently helping (may be fixed eventually)
I have also looked at all running processes and services and there is nothing unusual there either.
I have tried disabling certain firefox extensions with no success.
Same problem here. Found some malware when running anti-virus sw but didn't fix the problem.
Same here, I had to endure another one of those "antivirus suite" things forced installed on my computer even with the real antivirus + spyware on (it also fucked up one of my dll, gonna have to repair windows again...) , then when I got rid of it, and rebooting, my mozilla was only loading blank pages... It began working again, and now every 20 min, when I open a new page, it also opens an extra page with a random spam website... I don't understand what's going on, it seems that the latest mozilla update might have had a breach or something because I can see here it all happened around the same time for everyone... Hope a solution comes soon... :(
same here guys, every once in a while, 15 minutes, maybe more, a new tab opens with some random crap, always with a google logo on it. any ideas?
yep, started happening 8/4/10. I have pretty awesome protection on my machine, I think this popped on when I was searching for a font and hit a dodgy url, didn't install anything, but it popped up with weird code on a blank page seconds before loading the site. I've run ever scan, malware,anti-virus program pretty much available and it's not fixed. I can tell you, these "random" sites aren't all that random, they correlate with a google search you've run, then 10 or 15 minutes later a tab opens to a spam site reflecting the search you made..pissing me off it is! It's sort of a hijacked browser BHO thing.
minx trɔe
Ok, I fixed this myself finally. it's a tdsskiller rootkit, so most likely it will keep you from going to sites to help you fix it. Get the rootkit killer from Kaspersky (link below), run it, problem all gone bye-bye! http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684
Thanks a bunch, minx! I was having the same problem, and it found something that no other scanner, not even ESET found! Thanks a bunch!
Come on Mozilla Support. You have a real problem here with Firefox opening random spam pages in new tabs. I finally after fighting with this for 3 weeks formatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows 7. I then did nothing else but download Firefox v3.6. Guess What??? Firefox started opening up random web pages just like it's been doing for 3 weeks. I have no viruses on my system so where do you think this crap is coming from? It's coming from Firefox v3.6. I've been reading about hundreds of people with this problem and nothing is being done on your end. How hard can it be??? I'm done with your browser for now. I'll switch over to Chrome and you can notify me when you finally decide to fix this problem.
If you've used IE to visit suspect web pages restored infected files from a backup then it is quite possible that you got infected once again.
You can do a malware scan with the programs mentioned above or ask advice in one of the forums that specialized in malware removal.
"If you've used IE to visit suspect web pages restored infected files from a backup then it is quite possible that you got infected once again."
What the hell is this sentence suppose to mean??? All I did was reinstall my Windows 7 from the original disk (which also included IE). No Backups. I then used IE to download the Firefox installation file. Once installed I used Google to do some random searches and that's when Firefox started opening spam pages on seperate tabs.
Neither Chrome or IE is opening these random spam pages
I've had this problem for 1 week now. I'll just be randomly on any site than a tab would open (usually advertisement sites which are fake and scams) Anyone have any idea how to remove it?? It's been happening since around December 22/23. Also I just got a fake XULrunner add on installed which made my Google Links go to different websites but I finally removed it. I thought after I removed it, the tabs should be gone but they are still there.
Anyone got any ideas?? I've already run Malwarebytes and Avast and they found some viruses but I still have the problem
I figured it out it isn't fire fox it's your router. log into you router and you will see you have an ip address from russia in the dns field. reset you router and change the password don't leave the default one and your done.
cr85tx trɔe