Home Malware Programs Browser Hijackers Search Engage

Search Engage

Posted: April 25, 2016

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 8/10
Infected PCs: 40
First Seen: April 25, 2016
Last Seen: May 5, 2022
OS(es) Affected: Windows

Search Engage is a Web-browsing extension that may reset your homepage and search engine to affiliated websites. Like any Potentially Unwanted Program, Search Engage's capacity for promoting arbitrary sites may put your browser and PC at risk of being exposed to hostile or misleading content. Unless you've installed Search Engage deliberately and intend to use it, malware experts advise uninstalling Search Engage from your browser with a suitable anti-malware or anti-adware tool.

The Hidden Extension Presently Engaging Your Attention

Many Potentially Unwanted Programs earn their classification, not so much by their features, but by how they may gain access to your PC. Although Search Engage is one such PUP, which you may acquire through the Chrome Web Store, Search Engage also may distribute itself in bundles with other products. Some of the products confirmed for distributing Search Engage installations include free graphics editing applications and 'auto clicker' tools that may simulate fake advertisement traffic. Most bundles promoted Search Engage's installation as a 'recommended' option that's opted in by default, although PC owners could opt out at any time.

Search Engage installs itself to the Chrome browser, using the format of an extension. During its installation, Search Engage also may uninstall other, supposedly 'conflicting' extensions from your browser automatically. Search Engage then resets your default homepage and search engine preferences to sites affiliated with it. PC users are prevented from resetting these changes or even uninstalling Search Engage, which protects itself with a Group Policy-based install method.

Malware experts don't endorse Search Engage or its affiliates. However, past research into associated websites has shown no evidence of Search Engage's using its browser-hijacking functions for the purpose of promoting threats or illicit content intentionally.

Disengaging Your Browser from a Conflict in Search Preferences

Although the differences between threats and simply 'unwanted' programs like Search Engage are sharp, the bottom line may remain the same: PC owners dealing with software that results in a drastically worsened and, in some cases, outright unsafe experience. Programs like Search Engage may be responsible for the distribution of fake software updates, exploit kits, and other delivery vehicles for actual threats. Consequentially, malware experts find that removing Search Engage is the best option for PC users with even slight hesitation about its theoretical advantages for Chrome.

Use PC security products with anti-PUP features for uninstalling Search Engage, which should be done while your browser is kept closed. Follow Google's recommendations for removing any remaining settings-related symptoms that persist afterward. Malware experts have correlated no other symptoms with Search Engage, although bundle installers often may include additional PUPs, none of which may be identified by their names necessarily during the time of their installation.

While Search Engage bills itself as an advantageous search enhancement product, its installation methods bring into question whether its benefits are for its users or its advertising partners. Perhaps most importantly, its campaign shows that even trusted websites like those operated by Google sometimes may be purveyors of products that you're unlikely to want on your computer.

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