Adware.Shopping Suggestions

Posted: December 16, 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:	4,638
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	17,587

First Seen:	December 16, 2013
Last Seen:	October 10, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Shopping Suggestions is adware that uses product recommendations as a means of displaying third party advertising content. Shopping Suggestions isn't considered a threat, but letting a suspicious program load new advertisements in your browser may be a security problem that malware experts would recommend avoiding. Just like any other type of adware, Shopping Suggestions runs the risk of endangering your PC with exposure to hostile content, regardless of how well-meaning its intentions might be, and deleting Shopping Suggestions with adware removal utilities is a sensible decision to make.

The Suggestions that Come on a Little Too Strongly

The shopping sub-genre of adware is a bustling one, albeit one with little apparent innovation discerned by malware researchers. Similar to other shopping PUPs like ShoppingHelper, Adware.ShoppingReport or ShopToWin, Shopping Suggestions provides product price checks while you shop online, although these affiliated offers aren't guaranteed to be the best available. These semi-disguised advertisements always are displayed as additional search results, with minor variations such as sponsored results versus search results acquired through third parties. As malware experts have found to be standard for adware, Shopping Suggestions also includes a paragraph in its terms of use agreement that explains that Shopping Suggestions lacks any responsibility for the consequences of interacting with its advertisements in any way.

Because Shopping Suggestions advertisements are implemented in a well-defined format, malware researchers consider Shopping Suggestions an impractical source of exposure to potentially unsafe advertisements, such as fake Flash updates. However, impractical isn't equivalent to impossible, and, in general, any software without a robust history of respect for proper online security shouldn't be trusted to keep your browser safe from phishing attacks, the drive-by-download attacks of exploit kits and other threats to your PC.

Putting Shopping Suggestions's Shopping Suggestions Back on the Shelf

Between the supposedly useful search results that Shopping Suggestions uses to supplant your organic results, and the potential dangers included in any adware-based advertisements, Shopping Suggestions is firmly classified as a Potentially Unwanted Program that you usually shouldn't hesitate to delete. Shopping Suggestions does provide uninstallation instructions on its site, but malware researchers often find such instructions to be inaccurate or insufficient, with the typical result being the removal of the toolbar, but not all of the toolbar's browser modifications.

However, good anti-malware applications can provide a reasonable secure means of identifying and removing Shopping Suggestions – as well as a means of identifying the software bundles that so often are the main distribution vehicles for adware just like Shopping Suggestions. Bundles usually are downloaded unintentionally, with the PC user searching for an unrelated program that happens to include Shopping Suggestions or another PUP without mentioning the unnecessary extra. For the average Web surfer, a little caution about which sites you trust with your downloading is all that's needed to cut back on potential encounters with Shopping Suggestions between the digital aisles.

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:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\D394D188-BAC7-4e03-8FAF-389A4D7EC6F4\Shopping Suggestion.dll

File name: Shopping Suggestion.dll
Size: 115.71 KB (115712 bytes)
MD5: 74c30b81e46f3f22149066d074c8a034
Detection count: 9,183
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\D394D188-BAC7-4e03-8FAF-389A4D7EC6F4\Shopping Suggestion.dll
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 17, 2023

{D394D188-BAC7-4e03-8FAF-389A4D7EC6F4}.xpi

File name: {D394D188-BAC7-4e03-8FAF-389A4D7EC6F4}.xpi
Size: 13.57 KB (13570 bytes)
MD5: eb63d620f54a91d072021a1136e4456a
Detection count: 103
Mime Type: unknown/xpi
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 4, 2023

Shopping Suggestion.dll

File name: Shopping Suggestion.dll
Size: 16.69 KB (16696 bytes)
MD5: 6c52fb6a3ab0b1063ce3469aab1d1cc2
Detection count: 44
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: December 16, 2013

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{2BFF5187-8BA1-4469-91B9-2FC1B6DD7F8C}{9186135C-5067-4BD3-A886-B0A533744D5D}{E7E8ED77-2FBA-4EC6-BC07-65DE4DE6709F}{F6C07882-D703-4DD5-905A-2C4E815A5066}HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Approved Extensions\{E7E8ED77-2FBA-4EC6-BC07-65DE4DE6709F}SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{F6C07882-D703-4DD5-905A-2C4E815A5066}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{E7E8ED77-2FBA-4EC6-BC07-65DE4DE6709F}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{E7E8ED77-2FBA-4EC6-BC07-65DE4DE6709F}SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{F6C07882-D703-4DD5-905A-2C4E815A5066}

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%APPDATA%\D394D188-BAC7-4e03-8FAF-389A4D7EC6F4%ProgramFiles%\Shopping Suggestion%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Shopping Suggestion

The following URL's were detected:

{4e38134d-ba98-4066-b898-e296d8acc938}