Luckystarting.com

Posted: January 21, 2017

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:	5/10
Infected PCs:	6,975

First Seen:	January 21, 2017
Last Seen:	October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

LuckyStarting.com is a search site that acquires its results from third-party sources, such as Yahoo. Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) are promoting this website by installing a custom version of a Web browser, which redirects your searches and locks your homepage. Although malware experts see no unsafe content on the website, you may want to remove LuckyStarting.com hijackers from your PC with the anti-malware products you'd use for similar potential scourges.

A Little Bad Luck for a Browser

Browser-hijacking programs that take the option of where you go on the Web out of your hands are a common sight on freeware domains with too-generous hosting policies. However, most Potentially Unwanted Programs fitting into this category also fall under the side classification of being browser toolbars, extensions or other add-ons. Recent LuckyStarting.com hijackers are using a somewhat different method: placing a separate browser onto your computer automatically.

LuckyStarting.com hijackers install a specially-modified variant of the Chromium browser, resembling Chrome, in most respects. However, the PUP's authors locked both the browser's homepage and its default search engine configuration to LuckyStarting.com. After looking at this website, malware experts concluded that LuckyStarting.com is not unsafe but provides no features of benefit to any of its traffic; it has no independent search capabilities and only can redirect any users to another engine, such as the Yahoo Search. When doing so, LuckyStarting.com also may inject advertising content or affiliate links out of the control of the other company.

Another, similarly suspicious feature of LuckyStarting.com's custom browser is that its installation process modifies your file associations by default, to encourage you to use this browser when double-clicking on HTML files, and similar content. Although changing file associations often is an optional component of various programs' installation routines, legitimate software always requests consent from the user and clearly denotes the change visually.

Don't Let Luck be a Factor in Your Web-Surfing

Since LuckyStarting.com's search hijacker routinely changes its brand name (currently, the software uses 'Fishjane' for its host directory), you may not be able to identify this Potentially Unwanted Program before it installs itself. Most PUPs bundle themselves into the installers of other applications, such as media players, codec packs, or torrents for both legal and illegal downloads. Content downloaded from less trustworthy sources like freeware websites associated with adware and browser hijackers historically always should be under some suspicion for carrying unwanted programs with their desired ones.

Most PC users should uninstall LuckyStarting.com's hijacker, along with its custom browser, instead of trying to modify the already-modified Web browser back into a 'blank slate' status. Web browsers downloaded from safe hosts always should allow you to select your homepage and search engine without forcing you to use any site, regardless of the domain's safety or lack of it. Most anti-adware and anti-malware programs include varying degrees of protection from browser hijackers, bundle-concealed installers, and other, unwanted applications.

LuckyStarting.com's owners are unlikely to have any interest in using their practices to promote anything other than a little extra profit for some simple search hijackings. Although a LuckyStarting.com hijacker is far from being a Trojan or spyware, that caveat is, like with other PUPs, a case of damning with faint praise.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

File name without pathluckystarting[1].xmlHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}{D751E92C-AB44-45E6-9733-427FE2C37FD8}

MyLuckyStarting.com