Adware.Linksicle

Posted: October 11, 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:	3,250
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	55,997

First Seen:	October 11, 2013
Last Seen:	October 16, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Linksicle is an adware program that injects its advertisement content into the Web pages that you're browsing in an effort to provide you with additional links for supposedly relevant content. While Linksicle markets its functions as beneficial for the user, Linksicle's functions are no different from those of any other adware program, and Linksicle should be deleted just as Linksicle is recommended removing any software that performs such invasive changes to your Web content at its own leisure. For surety in preventing any of Linksicle's browser changes from remaining even after the Linksicle program has been uninstalled, the use of anti-malware products is encouraged.

Linksicle: When New Links are Dripping from Your Browser Like Water from a Melting Icicle

Linksicle is a very typical example of an adware program that tries to convince its users are in their best interest, even when its functions primarily are intended to provide profit to its company with few advantages to the supposed customer base. Although Linksicle is most well-known for injecting hyperlinks into the text content of various websites, Linksicle also displays pop-ups, pop-unders (the reverse of a pop-up, wherein the window is displayed underneath your browser instead of atop it) and banners. Although the content of these advertisements is intended to be relevant to the sites you're viewing at the time, Linksicle gathers information on what's 'relevant' by monitoring your basic browsing habits more or less continuously.

Besides the inevitable performance issues and site interaction problems that Linksicle may cause, Linksicle has an unusually broad agreement policy that includes non-consensual updates for its software. Because Linksicle, in theory, could update its functions to include additional ones besides those that were just listed, you should take the above list of symptoms with a grain of salt. Linksicle also may change other browser settings automatically – which may impact the stability, performance or safety of your browser.

Changing Seasons from a Linksicle Winter to a Summer without Advertisements

Even though Linksicle is not a Trojan or other type of dedicated threatening software, the dubious nature of its functionality, marketing and user agreements all work together to make Linksicle classifiable as a Potentially Unwanted Program. Deleting Linksicle, once Linksicle is seen, should be considered the obvious and default reaction to its advertisements. While Linksicle does include some very basic uninstall instructions on its site, malware experts suggest that you ignore them in favor of using anti-malware products that can verify that all of Linksicle's browser changes are removed.

Linksicle may be installed by itself (although you probably would be hard-pressed to come up with a reason to do so), but also may be distributed through software bundles. Be cautious about installing software from any site that's known for distributing browser add-ons with other applications, and always analyze any offered installation options before you accept them, and your computer should be able to avoid Linksicle's idea of providing relevant content.

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:

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-4173812974-4024746568-2807418354-1001\$RPN6A3X\Quarantine\C\Program Files (x86)\Linksicle\Service\lssvc.exe.vir

File name: lssvc.exe.vir
Size: 272.93 KB (272936 bytes)
MD5: 4ebd5db8349c2d0d9eb3335a56fe71be
Detection count: 14,210
Mime Type: unknown/vir
Path: %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-4173812974-4024746568-2807418354-1001\$RPN6A3X\Quarantine\C\Program Files (x86)\Linksicle\Service\lssvc.exe.vir
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: November 21, 2022

%WINDIR%\system32\drivers\lsnfd.sys

File name: lsnfd.sys
Size: 58.19 KB (58192 bytes)
MD5: c9cff377cf56f12076a48ea5a14c75e2
Detection count: 11,343
File type: System file
Mime Type: unknown/sys
Path: %WINDIR%\system32\drivers\lsnfd.sys
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 25, 2021

%WINDIR%\system32\drivers\lsnfd.sys

File name: lsnfd.sys
Size: 58.19 KB (58192 bytes)
MD5: a9cb93a568b7f60ecbd4ec647b20ec88
Detection count: 6,642
File type: System file
Mime Type: unknown/sys
Path: %WINDIR%\system32\drivers\lsnfd.sys
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: February 19, 2023

%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Linksicle\Service\lssvc.exe

File name: lssvc.exe
Size: 272.93 KB (272936 bytes)
MD5: 55c4c01682e57856c79a13f7b674eb84
Detection count: 4,843
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Linksicle\Service
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 12, 2018

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-4173812974-4024746568-2807418354-1001\$RPN6A3X\Quarantine\C\Program Files\Linksicle\IE\LinksicleClientIE.dll.vir

File name: LinksicleClientIE.dll.vir
Size: 176.16 KB (176168 bytes)
MD5: f8d6cd1139a156c236e93d5f0baf476b
Detection count: 845
Mime Type: unknown/vir
Path: %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-4173812974-4024746568-2807418354-1001\$RPN6A3X\Quarantine\C\Program Files\Linksicle\IE\LinksicleClientIE.dll.vir
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 20, 2023

%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Linksicle\Service\lssvc.exe

File name: lssvc.exe
Size: 272.93 KB (272936 bytes)
MD5: dac21f6dfa0d8dff2bd05e67edf66b77
Detection count: 574
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Linksicle\Service
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 1, 2020

%PROGRAMFILES%\Linksicle\IE\LinksicleClientIE.dll

File name: LinksicleClientIE.dll
Size: 176.16 KB (176168 bytes)
MD5: 4efaa71429731e499040422f77730241
Detection count: 16
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\Linksicle\IE
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 1, 2020

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\air3291.exe

File name: air3291.exe
Size: 1.57 MB (1579616 bytes)
MD5: 5a02633ccd7884b65e4448a53fabf5a5
Detection count: 12
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\air3291.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 17, 2022

linksicle@linksicle.com.xpi

File name: linksicle@linksicle.com.xpi
Size: 11.05 KB (11054 bytes)
MD5: 2630f7db42ab62b2a6d083d926edca34
Detection count: 3
Mime Type: unknown/xpi
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: October 11, 2013

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{2AD2D8CA-D24D-40D2-A8FC-46952409BA9A}{8A7BE212-5F53-4252-8DCA-1FB5451D4E2B}{A073AC6F-0B69-494C-8D61-60618FA37B4A}HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}SOFTWARE\LinksicleSOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\linksicle@linksicle.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\LinksicleSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\linksicle@linksicle.comSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\lssvcSYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\lssvcSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\lssvcHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}Linksicle

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%ProgramFiles%\Linksicle%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\extensions\linksicle@linksicle.com%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Linksicle%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Mozilla Firefox\extensions\linksicle@linksicle.com