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Firefox fake update add-on is a virus?

  • 2 replies
  • 59 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by mashuro

mashuro
mashuro
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I was using Firefox just fine until I got this pop-up that claimed to be a Firefox update of some sort. It played music and had a funky name(jiangjunosaurus) and right then I knew it was a fake. However, I could not escape the pop-up and when using CTRL+ALT+DELETE I managed to close Firefox but when I opened it back up again the pop-up just would not go away. I know I probably shouldn't have but I clicked "OK" and let it install.. I'm not very computer savvy and I was getting really anxious so that obviously wasn't a smart thing to do, but how else could I have gotten rid of it?

I opened up Firefox and disabled the fake add-on hoping that would do the trick but it just keeps crashing.

I'm running on Windows 7 and currently have Norton and MalwareBytes scanning. Norton detected plugin-container.exe and crashreporter.exe as threats and it gave me the option of removing/stopping them so I did. Now every time I start up Firefox it crashes immediately and I'm just frustrated and scared. I don't know if it's because I deleted the plugin-container.exe or what but if anyone has ANY kind of advice I'd be so grateful! Thank you in advance!

I was using Firefox just fine until I got this pop-up that claimed to be a Firefox update of some sort. It played music and had a funky name(jiangjunosaurus) and right then I knew it was a fake. However, I could not escape the pop-up and when using CTRL+ALT+DELETE I managed to close Firefox but when I opened it back up again the pop-up just would not go away. I know I probably shouldn't have but I clicked "OK" and let it install.. I'm not very computer savvy and I was getting really anxious so that obviously wasn't a smart thing to do, but how else could I have gotten rid of it? I opened up Firefox and disabled the fake add-on hoping that would do the trick but it just keeps crashing. I'm running on Windows 7 and currently have Norton and MalwareBytes scanning. Norton detected plugin-container.exe and crashreporter.exe as threats and it gave me the option of removing/stopping them so I did. Now every time I start up Firefox it crashes immediately and I'm just frustrated and scared. I don't know if it's because I deleted the plugin-container.exe or what but if anyone has ANY kind of advice I'd be so grateful! Thank you in advance!

Chosen solution

Norton not acceting plugin-container is a false positive (bug 564389). crashreporter.exe also is a part of Firefox.

Since you removed them while they're required for Firefox to function, I recommend to re-install Firefox again: clean reinstall. If that does not work, please test for the issue in a new profile (Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles).

Please let us know of further progress on the issue.

Read this answer in context 👍 5

All Replies (2)

Svetlana
Svetlana
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Chosen Solution

Norton not acceting plugin-container is a false positive (bug 564389). crashreporter.exe also is a part of Firefox.

Since you removed them while they're required for Firefox to function, I recommend to re-install Firefox again: clean reinstall. If that does not work, please test for the issue in a new profile (Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles).

Please let us know of further progress on the issue.

mashuro
mashuro Question owner
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Ah, I see.. it was odd to me that crash reporter didn't even come up when Firefox crashed. I thought that maybe it had infected those files but neither Norton nor MalwareBytes has picked up anything other than the bug so far.

I performed a clean install as you suggested and it seems to be running smoothly again. Hopefully since I deleted the fake plug-in it saved me from any harm.

If I have any more problems I'll be sure to try your other suggestion or update on the issue. Thank you very much for your help!

Modified by mashuro