BestToolbars

Posted: November 4, 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:	772
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	234,407

First Seen:	November 4, 2013
Last Seen:	October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

BestToolbars is a premium framework for constructing browser add-ons and toolbars for various purposes. Although the functions of products based on BestToolbars are not necessarily unsafe, BestToolbars does have a history of being used by low-level PC threats as a way to disguise and distribute their negative functions, such as browser hijacks or pop-up advertisements. Because of BestToolbars's frequent associations with threats, browser add-ons related to BestToolbars often are identified as unsafe or, at least, Potentially Unwanted Programs. No matter what kind of symptoms you experience from a BestToolbars product, malware analysts find the use of anti-malware products the best means of deleting BestToolbars add-ons from your browser.

BestToolbars and Add-On Delivery Systems that Don't Deliver Much

BestToolbars is a general platform for allowing third party programmers to design browser add-ons for a range of different purposes. What BestToolbars is most well-known for, in fact, is the fact that many of its toolbar 'products' end up displaying all of the expected traits of a Potentially Unwanted Program or PUP.
The top issues most usually associated with BestToolbars programs may include worsened browser performance and problems with uninstalling the associated add-on, in the probable case of you deciding you're uninterested in BestToolbars. However, BestToolbars add-ons also may cause a range of other issues. Malware experts find that pop-up advertisements, injected links to third party sites, homepage hijacks and search engine hijacks all are very common issues with browser-based PUPs like the offspring of BestToolbars.

The Best Way of Getting Your Browser Free of a Toolbar You Don't Want

Since BestToolbars products may show any (or, in theory, zero) symptoms that are applicable to a browser-based add-on, you should use anti-malware products to figure out whether or not your browser is being plagued by a spinoff of BestToolbars. The same anti-malware products also should be more than able to delete BestToolbars add-ons with little to no problems, particularly since BestToolbars add-ons currently only are considered PUPs (as opposed to Trojans or even worse threats than that). Removing BestToolbars software yourself usually is not recommended due to this software group's history of being difficult to uninstall.

Toolbars linked to BestToolbars are most likely being distributed through software bundles, whether authorized or illegitimate, through freeware sites. However, other PC threats also may install minor PUPs like a BestToolbars add-on, along with the rest of their payloads. Along with good anti-malware protection, malware researchers consider safe browsing habits that keep your browser clear of potentially corrupted sites to be the most important part of keeping a BestToolbars problem away from your browser.

Aliases

PUP/InstallManager [Panda]Win32.Application.ToolbarAH.A [GData]RiskWare[WebToolbar:not-a-virus]/Win32.Agent [Antiy-AVL]Adware.Toolbar.226 [DrWeb]not-a-virus:WebToolbar.Win32.Agent.yh [Kaspersky]W32/WebToolbar.B [F-Prot]

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:

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users\<username>\appdata\local\temp\dmr\downloads\3676090eded622c6bec547ed78bdf6d1\9f9ab3b2d0f1ab613b243985e3bbd8a9\addonshelper.exe

File name: addonshelper.exe
Size: 896.51 KB (896512 bytes)
MD5: dbd5934d88cdd8b8c255d857df9f689b
Detection count: 108,690
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users\<username>\appdata\local\temp\dmr\downloads\3676090eded622c6bec547ed78bdf6d1\9f9ab3b2d0f1ab613b243985e3bbd8a9\addonshelper.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 25, 2023

C:\Program Files (x86)\Speed Test\ScriptHost64.dll

File name: ScriptHost64.dll
Size: 426.49 KB (426496 bytes)
MD5: d5f437952e4c33c39436b65c727012e4
Detection count: 17,299
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Speed Test\ScriptHost64.dll
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 5, 2023