Fassurun

Posted: December 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.

Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	728

First Seen:	December 11, 2013
Last Seen:	June 29, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Fassurun is a colloquial alias for adware add-ons by Fassurun, the company responsible for developing the Topic Torch Virus (a browser-hijacking adware program). Because variants of Topic Torch software sometimes don't include visible components other than their advertisements, some versions of this adware simply are referred to as Fassurun, based on their 'advertisements by Fassurun' tag lines. As a general guideline, malware researchers would consider deleting Fassurun adware always to be what's best for your browser, both in terms of performance and overall online security.

How Fassurun Runs Its Advertisements Headlong into Your Browser

As a general term for Fassurun-brand adware that displays no symptoms other than its advertisements, Fassurun usually is a symptom of a partial installation of Topic Torch or other Potentially Unwanted Programs. Malware researchers last wrote about Fassurun software in 2012, but the company still is active, and looks like still keeping the habit of delivering questionable software that doesn't benefit your browser. However, Fassurun couches all descriptions of its features in language that makes Fassurun seem advantageous to have installed, and Fassurun software often is installed through the bundles of unrelated programs. This makes it very easy to install Fassurun without intended to do so, or while assuming that Fassurun is more useful for your browser than Fassurun actually is.

Fassurun symptoms may extend to such attributes as:

'Sponsored' search result advertisements inserted above your normal search results.
Injected hyperlinks that cause a website's text content to link specific words or phrases to advertisements.
Injected banners and similar graphical advertisements.
Interstitial advertisements, or advertisements that pause your browser's loading time and take over the window temporarily.

Advertisements by Fassurun usually are identified by their tag lines, and aren't affiliated with any Web pages that may have been modified to load them. Fassurun also disclaims any responsibility for advertising content loaded through its software, and may change various other browser settings to 'optimize' the performance of adware.

Getting Your Browser out of Fassurun Advertisements Fast

Even without taking into account the assorted security issues related to adware programs, Fassurun adware has more than enough drawbacks that malware researchers wouldn't recommend letting Fassurun stay on your PC for a protracted period of time. The potential for phishing attacks and other threats to target your PC through Fassurun advertisements merely is an additional spice to the many negatives of the Fassurun software, which always should be uninstalled, regardless of whether Fassurun refers to itself as Topic Torch or another application. The Fassurun company does offer some uninstallation instructions for its software, although putting these instructions to the test is likely to leave various unwanted browser changes intact.

Because of the fairly substantive browser modifications made by Fassurun software, you normally should use anti-malware or anti-adware tools for deleting the Fassurun adware from your PC. Malware experts discourage trying to delete Fassurun products by normal software uninstallation methodology – since they make numerous changes to separate programs that may not be reversed through any solutions less thorough than that.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{D5B61C4D-7FC9-452A-B5C1-32625AC3B850}{E2EB0829-CC71-4622-9E69-48C5E01361F0}{e6efad0c-2d79-4b0d-8996-3e759a9c7914}HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\fassurunSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\fassurun_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\updatefassurun_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\updatefassurun_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{e6efad0c-2d79-4b0d-8996-3e759a9c7914}SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\fassurunSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\fassurun_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\fassurun_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\updatefassurun_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\updatefassurun_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{e6efad0c-2d79-4b0d-8996-3e759a9c7914}SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\eventlog\Application\Update fassurunSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application\Update fassurunHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}fassurun

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%PROGRAMFILES%\fassurun%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\fassurun