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I would like to inform you that the Batchdownload Add-on appears to have been infected with ad-ware that redirects Google searches.

  • 5 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by John99

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I have emailed the creator, but he has a limited grasp of English, so I thought I'd inform you. Here's how I know: I was getting google redirects and neither McAfee nor Malwarebites could find anything. With some testing I discovered that this was a Firefox-only problem. Resetting Firefox fixed it. I then reinstalled my add-ons one at a time, checking for the redirects (by opening multiple search results) repeatedly after each add-on installed. The problem returned when I installed Batchdownload. After resetting again and installing all add-ons but Batchdownload, the problem went away again. To repeat, my problem is solved. I just wanted to let you all know that this particular add-on is now infected. I've been using it for years, and it's only now become a problem, so I doubt it's the dev's fault.

I have emailed the creator, but he has a limited grasp of English, so I thought I'd inform you. Here's how I know: I was getting google redirects and neither McAfee nor Malwarebites could find anything. With some testing I discovered that this was a Firefox-only problem. Resetting Firefox fixed it. I then reinstalled my add-ons one at a time, checking for the redirects (by opening multiple search results) repeatedly after each add-on installed. The problem returned when I installed Batchdownload. After resetting again and installing all add-ons but Batchdownload, the problem went away again. To repeat, my problem is solved. I just wanted to let you all know that this particular add-on is now infected. I've been using it for years, and it's only now become a problem, so I doubt it's the dev's fault.

All Replies (5)

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I will find someone to look into this further. Meanwhile caution may be advised if considering downloading and installing batchdownloader.

This does look rather suspicious. I installed this on Ubuntu and got an unexpected web page opening. I then installed on a limited Windows account and again got unexpected pages opening.

I did not notice any google searches being redirected. I have uninstalled the add on from both partitions and see no lasting problems.

Modified by John99

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Not sure whether you have already removed it, but the extension "Mozilla Safe Browsing 2.0.14" is installed by malware. It is not part of Firefox or a Mozilla product. See Encyclopedia entry: Win32/Medfos - Learn more about malware - Microsoft Malware Protection Center.

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Thanks for the heads-up, although I've already reformatted the PC. There was a Backdoor Trojan, which may or may not have been a result of Batchdownload. (I was unaware that you had to delete old versions of Java manually, so my PC had a vulnerability that the test PCs might not have.)

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Thanks for the help Jeff.

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Just in case the trojan was related to the add-on or the redirects from the support site it may be interesting to know what that was and what it was that you used to detect and remove the trojan.