Adware.BrowseSmart

Posted: January 3, 2014

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:	14,580
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	6,743

First Seen:	January 3, 2014
Last Seen:	March 5, 2025
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

BrowseSmart is an adware program designed to make money off of your casual Web-browsing by interspersing advertisements as pop-up windows and injected content. BrowseSmart is, at worst, a PUP, and malware researchers would consider any interaction with BrowseSmart-promoted third parties to be very much at your own risk. Standardized methods of removing software usually are ineffective, and using anti-malware software for deleting BrowseSmart is, by far, the most time-efficient way of removing BrowseSmart.

Smartening Up About Browsing with BrowseSmart

BrowseSmart is part of an essentially indefinite roll-out of adware products by SuperWebLLC, which the company markets as having benefits for your Web-searching and shopping activities, but has minimal functions not related to delivering advertisements. Installing BrowseSmart may occur by accident through the installation of general software bundles on sites known for being heavy on adware distribution, or by force through the attacks of some types of Trojans, such as Trojan-Downloader.Apher or Downloader.Ponik. Most users find that BrowseSmart is installed randomly, with its browser advertisements being the first sign they have for the fact that BrowseSmart is there.

BrowseSmart's browser changes may include:

Pop-up advertisements that are loaded on other websites indiscriminately.
Injected links to third party offers through any available text content (such as a website's article or blog post).
Injected banners for graphical advertisements.

Since the latter two functions alter a Web page as your browser loads it, they have the potential to block you from intended interactions with the site's interface and content. All of these functions also are minor security issues, and malware researchers are confident in flagging BrowseSmart as just as worthless for your browser as other SuperWeb brands of adware like Illoxum, Storimbo and WonderBrowse.

Outsmarting an Advertising Add-On that Drops in without Calling First

Any PC users who make a habit of downloading programs from freeware sites, torrent networks and other typical wellsprings of PUPs may easily find themselves next on BrowseSmart's list of its captive audience members. Even when avoiding these sources for downloads is impractical, you never have an excuse to fail to scan a suspicious installation file with appropriate anti-malware tools before you choose to launch it. Other methods of getting BrowseSmart installed on your computer often involve other types of threats that may not show symptoms, but always can be blocked by a solid combination of safe Web-browsing behavior and anti-malware protection.

Because BrowseSmart is an adware program with normal program entries and visible files, it may seem like uninstalling BrowseSmart through normal methods is a viable option. However, malware experts often found that samples of BrowseSmart fail to delete all of their browser changes even when they're removed. To make sure that BrowseSmart's advertisements leave you alone at the same time that the BrowseSmart toolbar does, using anti-malware products for deleting BrowseSmart is simple and painless.

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:

%PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart\bin\utilBrowseSmart.exe

File name: utilBrowseSmart.exe
Size: 63.35 KB (63356 bytes)
MD5: 5eb13b2d60fb1af6cb3d7685a7e3663e
Detection count: 73
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart\bin
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: February 5, 2014

%PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart\BrowseSmartbho.dll

File name: BrowseSmartbho.dll
Size: 249.63 KB (249632 bytes)
MD5: 2674a386e2582045e76b184139ae39cc
Detection count: 30
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: February 5, 2014

%PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart\BrowseSmartuninstall.exe

File name: BrowseSmartuninstall.exe
Size: 240.91 KB (240917 bytes)
MD5: 2a09acb6b01fd4f8fa8b41adea0faec7
Detection count: 16
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: February 5, 2014

%PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart\updateBrowseSmart.exe

File name: updateBrowseSmart.exe
Size: 29.77 KB (29771 bytes)
MD5: 60e65b45fb7004567d8471a30a392893
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: February 5, 2014

More files

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{392DE650-A1E6-4FB3-A5A4-21285DE225BD}{B463ECD2-E5D8-4178-80C4-EC7C7E72F9AC}{ffbb88a9-c663-4b9b-9170-70fa0a5a2786}HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\BrowseSmartSoftware\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Approved Extensions\{FFBB88A9-C663-4B9B-9170-70FA0A5A2786}SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\BrowseSmart_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\BrowseSmart_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\updateBrowseSmart_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\updateBrowseSmart_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{ffbb88a9-c663-4b9b-9170-70fa0a5a2786}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{FFBB88A9-C663-4B9B-9170-70FA0A5A2786}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{FFBB88A9-C663-4B9B-9170-70FA0A5A2786}SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\BrowseSmartSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\BrowseSmart_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\BrowseSmart_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\updateBrowseSmart_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\updateBrowseSmart_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{ffbb88a9-c663-4b9b-9170-70fa0a5a2786}SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\eventlog\Application\Update BrowseSmartSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Update BrowseSmartSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application\Update BrowseSmartSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Update BrowseSmartHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}BrowseSmart

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%PROGRAMFILES%\BrowseSmart%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\BrowseSmart

The following URL's were detected:

http://browsesmart.net