WTHOT: new thing: unexpected browser window pop-ups

[Dave Labrecque]

I'll be trying to go to a web page, and I'll get an unexpected pop-up browser window (full height), that says "Redirecting, Please Wait..." at the top, then it goes to some other website. I'm guessing it's some kind of ad-directed malware thing. But what do I know? Malware bytes hasn't fixed it. Uninstalled stuff. Nothing.

Any ideas?

[jmh]

Hopefully this is not your production machine.

If you think it may be an infection, I would leave it shutdown until you can copy the drive or boot with a live linux cd, and then depending on what your harddrive format is like regular ntfs with no encryption, you are likely to be able to backup everything that is essential. Then you can start investigating.

Then it could be something as simple as maybe a script set a proxy server? ...or dns server as a lot of the browsers now want to override the connection's dns in favor of their own - which they claim are more secure, but you can never be sure that those settings are not be redirected?

[Naturally Digital]

I'll be trying to go to a web page, and I'll get an unexpected pop-up browser window (full height), that says "Redirecting, Please Wait..." at the top, then it goes to some other website. I'm guessing it's some kind of ad-directed malware thing. But what do I know? Malware bytes hasn't fixed it. Uninstalled stuff. Nothing.

Any ideas?

Which browser are you using?

[mr_es335]

Dave,

You may have been "parasited"? Try the following:

1. Clear the "cache".
2. Perform a browser refresh or reset...search for the process for your specific browser.

If none of the above work, I may be able to remote-in to have a peep.

PS: In my book, Malwarebytes is a complete waste of time.

[Dave Labrecque]

Which browser are you using?

Chrome.

[Dave Labrecque]

Thanks, gents. Traveling today, so won't be back to my computer till tomorrow.

More info: when I arrived here in Tucson and went to my Mom's computer to log into my Chrome profile when opening the browser, I found that this issue had followed me. Same problem on her computer when using my Chrome/Google account. It did not do this last time I was in town and working on my mom's computer. AND: browsing under her profile/account does not suffer the same pop-ups.

So maybe there's hope for a less invasive fix?

[Ian Alexander]

Maybe you unintentionally agreed to install some browser extension?

[mr_es335]

Ian,

That seems a logical assumption...

[John Ludlow]

Maybe you unintentionally agreed to install some browser extension?

I'm thinking that a browser extension would have been installed on that particular browser (local to that particular machine). Whereas, Dave found that, on a completely different machine, his logon, on that same application, still had the same issue - whereas his mother's, on that same application, on that same 'different' machine, did not. So, to me, that seems to indicate that the issue is something particular to the account that he has logged into, rather than a browser extension - or even something on his machine.

As a result, Dave, I think the issue must be coming to you, each time, from whatever you have logged into - and probably is something you have (inadvertently) chosen that your mother has not. An examination of the differences between your setup and hers on that same remote application might tell you what it was.

[Dave Labrecque]

Maybe you unintentionally agreed to install some browser extension?

Weird thing IIRC is it happens regardless of which browser I use. The plot thickens...

I checked my extensions. I have five in Chrome (my primary browser). And I (think I) know what they all do.