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A malicious tab opened and I can't close it

  • 11 replies
  • 15 have this problem
  • 267 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I have quite a few tabs open and they have been open for several days and I want to keep them open. I was reading a news article on Yahoo news and another tab opened that is obviously a virus or malware of some sort. I can't close that tab and I can't close the other tabs either, so I can't use Firebox at all now and the virus tab has very loud audio telling me that my computer is infected. I don't want to lose those tabs that were open, but I can't get rid of this one malicious tab. Please help!

I have quite a few tabs open and they have been open for several days and I want to keep them open. I was reading a news article on Yahoo news and another tab opened that is obviously a virus or malware of some sort. I can't close that tab and I can't close the other tabs either, so I can't use Firebox at all now and the virus tab has very loud audio telling me that my computer is infected. I don't want to lose those tabs that were open, but I can't get rid of this one malicious tab. Please help!

Chosen solution

I solved the problem myself, so even though I appreciated the answers very much, they didn't solve the problem.

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All Replies (11)

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Hello, you can Force KIll firefox.exe from the Task Manager, when you reopen it you can restore select tabs you want. You can also try this add-on to avoid this problem again: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

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The only way to close it was to force kill it from Task Manager, but when I open Firefox again and all my tabs open, that malicious one opens too and I'm back to square one. I don't understand what you mean when you said that I can open Firefox and select the tabs I want. Can you give me specific directions? I have the options set to open where I left off and that means getting that bad website again along with all the tabs that I actually want to open.

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You can go into History: Click on the Library Icon >> History >> Show all History, and open the tabs you want to open.

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That was nearly impossible because there were so many tabs that were opened and closed between the time that I opened the tabs that I wanted to keep open and when this happened. I would have to search through two weeks of visited sites and that's a nearly impossible task. It would take a huge amount of time that I don't have.

Thank you anyway.

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Why don't you stop the Browser process with the "esc" key and then go to your settings. You can do this as well and it won't load anything and then look at your settings to see if your Browser didn't get malware installed and also check your Addons as it most likely loaded itself there as well then remove it and restart again. But only after clearing all History and Cache that should return it back assuming there isn't malware installed on your system. Of which I am suspecting it now has that is why it opens those pages-that is the only way your getting what your getting. It's Infected.

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I got rid of that malicious page. I just recently installed Firefox, so I don't have any add-ons or extensions. I also run an anti-spyware program every day and I ran a complete system scan with my AV program.

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Hello,

I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. If you haven't already, ***please select the answer that solves the problem( Yours) ***. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution more easily. Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support.

____________________________________________

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Chosen Solution

I solved the problem myself, so even though I appreciated the answers very much, they didn't solve the problem.

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      • please select the answer that solves the problem( Yours) ***.

By solving the issue it moves it off the Need to Be Done. So that everyone stops looking at it and opening it to find something that is solved. Please make a comment on what solved it then mark it as the solution. Thank You.

Or...... Do not reply to this at all and it is then moved from the to do list.. Thank You.

Modified by Shadow110

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This is a problem in firefox that has yet to be addressed in-house. The answer is simple. The malicious pages use dialog boxes to prevent firefox from closing tabs, therefore firefox needs to be able to close a tab regardless of any open dialogs or running scripts on it. A panic keystroke should also be added to base firefox to shut off js or java within the current tab.

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You can set browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first start after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.