Adware.BetterSurf

Posted: November 18, 2013

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	6,077
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	15,561

First Seen:	November 18, 2013
Last Seen:	October 11, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

BetterSurf is adware that modifies Web pages as they're loaded to display additional advertising content. Since BetterSurf's advertisements don't provide any tangible benefit, malware researchers would recommend deleting BetterSurf to better the safety and performance of whatever Web browser is being affected at the time. Most casual PC users have experienced difficulties in deleting BetterSurf, which attempts to ignore normal software uninstallation methods, and using anti-malware tools for BetterSurf's removal is likely to save you significant time and trouble.

When 'Better' Means More Advertisements

BetterSurf is a browser add-on that has been confirmed to affect Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox (although not necessarily at the same time) by displaying additional advertisements. These advertisements are loaded into Web pages that are modified for their display, which may cause performance issues, security problems (related to exposure to unwanted third party advertisements) and, in some cases, problems with accessing the interface or content of the original site. BetterSurf may refuse to uninstall itself or disable its advertisements on request, making BetterSurf a non-consensual program that could be considered a threat, although most types of adware more usually are classified as PUPs.

BetterSurf's stubbornness in the face of prospective deletion isn't the only thing BetterSurf has in common with unsafe software; BetterSurf also has been seen being distributed through compromised software updates. Recent modified updates for the Firefox browser have been seeded with BetterSurf and distributed through third party advertisement networks. As malware experts always would recommend, taking the simple route of avoiding update links that aren't from the original company will provide the most obvious protection against this means of installing BetterSurf, which save you the trouble of needing to figure out how to be rid of BetterSurf.

The Best Way to Surf the Web: without BetterSurf

Even though BetterSurf includes more than enough negative traits, all by itself, malware researchers also have been unhappy to confirm that BetterSurf sometimes is related to the presence of high-level PC threats. Tesch.B is one of the recent PC threats to be seen included in the latest BetterSurf-related attacks, which are compatible with modern versions of Windows. Other operating systems are awaiting confirmation, but, nonetheless, are just as vulnerable to attacks by similar adware programs, even if they are lucky enough to be unaffected by BetterSurf.

One minor point in the victim's favor is that BetterSurf's advertising modifications are persistent and easy to detect, with clear labeling that will let you notice BetterSurf's presence immediately. Once you do see these symptoms, the use of anti-malware products to restore your browser and get rid of BetterSurf simply is a common sense reaction that all PC users should have whenever their online security is at stake.

Aliases

Riskware/BetterSurf [Fortinet]AdWare.Win32.BetterSurf [Ikarus]Adware/Win32.BetterSurf [AhnLab-V3]GrayWare[AdWare:not-a-virus]/Win32.BetterSurf [Antiy-AVL]BetterSurf [Sophos]BehavesLike.Win32.AdwareBetterSurf.mh [McAfee-GW-Edition]Adware.BetterSurf.1 [DrWeb]Application.Win32.AdWare.BetterSurf.C [Comodo]Win32:Adware-gen [Adw] [Avast]Adware.Adpopup [Symantec]Adware-BetterSurf [McAfee]AdWare.BetterSurf.r5 (Not a Virus) [CAT-QuickHeal]Generic5.AKJO [AVG]Adware/BetterSurf [Fortinet]JS.BetterSurf [Ikarus]
More aliases (46)

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\BetterSurf\file-6220826_crx

File name: file-6220826_crx
Size: 2.71 KB (2716 bytes)
MD5: 8cf09f72515a2aabf208546f6768fdba
Detection count: 190
Path: %ProgramFiles(x86)%\BetterSurf
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 10, 2023