14290 : spyware-coolwebsearch

spyware-coolwebsearch

High Risk

CoolWebSearch is a hijacker program that redirects Web pages to a page that was not selected by the user. A file may have been added to the registry that restores the hijacked setting each time the system is started. CoolWebSearch has many different variants. Some variants may act as advertising-oriented spyware (adware) that downloads and displays new advertisements in a popup window while a user is browsing the Web. One variant can be directed by Web pages to download arbitrary code from the servers and execute it on the victim's system, without the victim's consent. Internet Explorer's performance may slow as a result of the CoolWebSearch spyware. Known variants include CoolWebSearch.MSG, CoolWebSearch.MsxMidi, CoolWebSearch.StartPage, and CoolWebSearch.StartPage.

Files

%HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH%\application data\googlems.dll\
%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\iehost.exe
*:\progra~1\intern~1\toolbar\autose~1.dll\
*:\progra~1\intern~1\toolbar\search~1.dll\
*:\progra~1\intern~1\toolbar\webinfo.dll\

Registry Information

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TYPELIB\TYPELIB
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\toolband.toolbandobj.1\toolband.toolbandobj.1
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\toolband.toolbandobj\toolband.toolbandobj
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser\WebBrowser
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Run

Affected platforms

How to remove this spyware

If the CoolWebSearch software is not desired, uninstall it from your system. Use an up-to-date antivirus or spyware removal program to determine if the target computer is host to a spyware program.

References

PestPatrol Web site
CoolWebSearch
http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/c/coolwebsearch.asp

and.doxdesk.com Web site
CoolWebSearch
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/CoolWebSearch.html

CoolWebSearch Web site
Cool Web Search - the Search you Trust
http://www.coolwebsearch.com/

Information about this document

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This page was created on Wed Jun 10 00:50:47 2009