Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Latest version of Window 7 FireFox came with malware including Unico browser and tons of other malware. Mac version seems to be fine. Has anyone else seen this?

  • 8 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by user633449

more options

I have been using FireFox for awhile now on both a Mac and Windows 7 computer and have loved it. It has been updated to the latest version by your request many times in both formats with no problems; until now. The Windows computer just asked me to undate to version. I went directly to Mozilla.org and it had 'Firefox Setup Stub 37.0.1.exe. When I opened this, I immediately got a blast of more nasty malware and viruses than I had ever previously experienced. I deleted all those unwanted programs that had downloaded; removed all the malware and viruses. Firefox worked for a minute before all this different malware and pop-ups and viruses started again. I then repeated everything and also removed firefox and the PC worked fine with a different browser. I then tried a second time to a different Mozilla site that included US firefox in the website name and started over. Same thing happened again. These unwanted programs included Unico Browser and dozens of other that are very nasty. If you click on anything, they download a dozen other programs. If you go to control panel and remove them, they download 6 or eight new unwanted programs. I finally got all the malware, viruses and pop ups removed when I also removed Mozilla Firefox. I can only conclude that the latest version for Windows is corrupted. Any thought or recommendations? For now, I am back to using a different browser on the PC.

I have been using FireFox for awhile now on both a Mac and Windows 7 computer and have loved it. It has been updated to the latest version by your request many times in both formats with no problems; until now. The Windows computer just asked me to undate to version. I went directly to Mozilla.org and it had 'Firefox Setup Stub 37.0.1.exe. When I opened this, I immediately got a blast of more nasty malware and viruses than I had ever previously experienced. I deleted all those unwanted programs that had downloaded; removed all the malware and viruses. Firefox worked for a minute before all this different malware and pop-ups and viruses started again. I then repeated everything and also removed firefox and the PC worked fine with a different browser. I then tried a second time to a different Mozilla site that included US firefox in the website name and started over. Same thing happened again. These unwanted programs included Unico Browser and dozens of other that are very nasty. If you click on anything, they download a dozen other programs. If you go to control panel and remove them, they download 6 or eight new unwanted programs. I finally got all the malware, viruses and pop ups removed when I also removed Mozilla Firefox. I can only conclude that the latest version for Windows is corrupted. Any thought or recommendations? For now, I am back to using a different browser on the PC.

All Replies (8)

more options

The version of Firefox downloaded from mozilla.org (if you really downloaded it from there and not a site pretending to be it) is clean, with no viruses or malware. What you describe sounds like malware that already existed on your computer, and was watching for things it could infect, like Firefox. You should run a bunch of malware scans to remove the infection, Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

more options

Thanks for the quick response Tyler: ........... however...... I find it hard to believe that I was previously corrupted due to using a previous firefox for months since the last update with NO problems. Also even now, no problems while using IE after I removed the new firefox and all the corruption that came with it. PLUS I run anti virus and anti malware at LEAST once a week. Sometimes when nervous, I schedule it every day. Finally; How can you be sure you are on an actual mozilla (or any other) site? I look at the actual address bar and try to verify. The ones I went to LOOK legit. I will copy and paste all FOUR I have tried below: www.mozilla.org www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox These were both through yahoo search Both went to this link and then to the same download. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_campaign=y-searchdd&utm_content=y-free-download Then I tried two from Google which also led to the same download. First: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/ which gave me this download: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/?scene=2#download-fx

and then I tried the second from Google: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ which gave me this download: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/#download-fx

After all this gave me the same firefox which looked good but had incessant pop-ups and added 6 to 12 unwanted programs to my computer; I concluded something MUST be wrong with the 37.0.1.exe download. Any more thought on this? I believe I will use IE until the next firefox update comes out.

more options

Yep, those download links are legit, so that means you have malware on your machine. Please try the removal tools that I linked above and use them to remove the malware on your computer. as hard as you find it to believe, this is in fact what is happening, our downloads are secure and clean. If they weren't Mozilla would lose all credibility and be closed down, defeating the whole purpose we exist. We take our security very seriously.

This is an infection on your computer, so you should use the removal tools I suggested, then install Firefox again.

more options

In fact, this looks like it may be related to the malware you have on your machine. http://www.pcrisk.com/removal-guides/8836-unico-browser-adware

note that if it is in your Firefox profile, you will have to remove it from the profile after you install Firefox. Or, if you don't need any of the information in that profile, just delete it (Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles)

more options

Sorry, but no good. Used both of these links you sent and still no fix.. ALL malware came back when I reloaded firefox fresh again. I went to your malware tips link and followed those instruction which worked very well and found all of the same things that I had found using malwarebytes alone before. This time I also used their recommended ADW cleaner. Still everything came back as soon as I re downloaded and opened firefox. SO, I even removed the entire firefox profile (which must not have been the correct thing to do) because now firefox will not open at all because it can't find a profile :( Started over again with a fresh download of firefox which still will not open, yet ALL the malware still loaded itself again :( until I again removed firefox and all the malware again and now I am once again up and running without a hitch AS LONG AS I USE IE as the browser and do NOT have firefox on the computer. I realize that I do NOT understand enough about windows, still, I usually can follow instructions well. Nothing sugested on your site is working. The info for creating a new firefox profile did not work. It tells me to go to profile manager but I don't know where that is; and I also do not have the buttons on the firefox troubleshooting page it says I should have. I can no longer open firefox at all on the windows 7pro computer. PLUS, if the corruption was on the firefox profile, than I should now be good since I no longer have a firefox profile. That means that the malware must be elsewhere on the PC and yet, It NEVER manifests itself until I re-download firefox. I need to quit for now and be happy with IE. I understand that mozilla takes security very seriously and was NOT accusing you of otherwise. I have been using your programs for years, on THREE different operating system platforms with no problems in that area until I did this very last update to 31.1.0.exe. on the windows 7pro machine only. Still, on this machine, my problem does seem to be related only to mozilla firefox and still It is still not fixed. I am at my wits end for today. Thanks for trying.

more options

Let's try this last thing:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from mozilla.org (or choose the download for your operating system and language from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu New Fx Menu and click the close button Close 29).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.

WARNING: Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Please report back to say if this helped you!

Thank you.

more options

Thanks Tyler!!! Partially fixed..Maybe completely fixed. I am still a bit skeptical because things sometimes stayed clear for a few hours before, and then the ugliness started downloading again in force! It does appear that the corruption was in the FireFox Program File folders. Since deleting them and starting over, I have only had one unwanted program show up. That was a bit disappointing but it at least is much better than before. I am hoping it was just a rouge stray piece that now has been eliminated by malware removal. I am confused why all these anti virus/malware removal/hitman programs can't seem to eliminate ALL the sources of the problem, AND KEEP THEM OUT!. I was planning on buying another program to block this from happening again but honestly, I can't find one that seems to work very well. I want one that goes to all the secret places and removes ALL the unwanted items! Then BLOCKS them from getting through in future. This whole situation was also very odd because I have used this same computer set up in the very same way for years and my antivirus and anti malware have worked perfectly, until about a week ago when I did the last FireFox update. It has been a fight ever since. I understand now that the FireFox update was not the source of the problem but somehow it seemed to sneak in with that update. It is almost like my firewall had opened up but that is not the case. It is still on and seems to be working fine. All my programs are updated with security fixes whenever they come out. Three computers are on the secure home network and the other two have not had any problems. Only the newest Windows7Pro machine went south. All are using FireFox as one of the browsers. I have my fingers crossed but I am not entirely confident yet.

more options

If you need help removing all traces of malware, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ can help with it.