CouponPeak

Posted: February 28, 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:	8,995
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	7,881

First Seen:	February 28, 2014
Last Seen:	October 12, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

CouponPeak, also referred to as ccoupOnpeakk, is adware that makes changes to your browser to display shopping-related advertising content. While this content has the theoretical potential to benefit you with easy savings and special offers, malware researchers more often find it to be the case that such adware causes security and performance issues for any affected Web browsers. Given the other suspicious arrangements of CouponPeak's business model, including questionable distribution methods and difficulty of uninstallation, removing CouponPeak with security software able to deal with browser-based PC threats should be your usual response to CouponPeak.

Hitting the Peak of Browser Problems... with a Boost from CouponPeak

CouponPeak is one of various adware programs supposedly produced for your benefit, providing its users with immediate access to special discounts and competitive prices. However, CouponPeak's benefits as a shopping adviser are extremely limited, and malware researchers noted many telltale signs of poor business behavior on the part of CouponPeak, and its company. Variants of CouponPeak add-ons have been seen in numerous but minor name variants, possibly in an attempt to confuse its 'customers' or to distinguish between new versions. However, you will not find CouponPeak offered openly on any website, and malware researchers suspect that CouponPeak is using the traditional method of a free software-based bundler to install itself on new computers.

CouponPeak's advertisements ignore any advertisement-blocking features your browser might already have, and will display themselves automatically, regardless of the sites that you load. Malware experts have found that adware like CouponPeak often causes a range of different Web-surfing issues, some of which include:

Causing inadvertent exposure to unsafe Web content, such as promotional material for fraudulent system optimizers or phishing attacks that con their victims into transferring confidential information.
Causing poor browser performance, both due to the advertisements and due to their tendency to update themselves automatically. Poor site loading times and occasional crashes are frequent occurrences with poorly-designed (or despitefully-designed) adware.
Issues with accessibility to all of a site's content. CouponPeak may modify a Web page to load additional banners or other formats of advertisements, which may block or rearrange the normal content in undesirable ways.

Tumbling Back Down from CouponPeak

Although you may find some CouponPeak advertisements to be helpful, malware researchers find it preferable that you don't relinquish control of your Web browser to an advertising add-on with a questionable history for respecting its users' security. Removing CouponPeak is the recommended response to seeing its advertisements, particularly considering that its installation may occur automatically, or through misleading circumstances, such as a software bundle that takes pains to refrain from describing what else CouponPeak installs accurately. However, any respectable anti-malware or anti-adware product should be able to isolate and delete CouponPeak with no real problems.

With its 'company' avoiding all communications, CouponPeak is left as a mere, drifting aftereffect of at least one programmer's poorly-chosen idea for making money. Although malware researchers see no harm in looking for shopping help online, your PC will be safer than otherwise if you restrict your search to products that have a good reputation, a normalized distribution strategy and a readily-available customer support line.

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:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\coUPonopeak\V0cxlFDG.x64.dll

File name: V0cxlFDG.x64.dll
Size: 474.11 KB (474112 bytes)
MD5: 174470263a0d80f8f09915cbcb24bfcf
Detection count: 115
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\coUPonopeak
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 21, 2014

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couponPeiauk\9.x64.dll

File name: 9.x64.dll
Size: 473.08 KB (473088 bytes)
MD5: 7cec0bd6faf7af3073e45bcfffa77eff
Detection count: 91
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couponPeiauk
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 21, 2014

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\cOuponnPeeak\mmoyj1__.x64.dll

File name: mmoyj1__.x64.dll
Size: 473.6 KB (473600 bytes)
MD5: d911c3e911e64af2ec2af23bf90e9e62
Detection count: 80
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\cOuponnPeeak
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 21, 2014

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couPonpeeak\_.x64.dll

File name: _.x64.dll
Size: 472.57 KB (472576 bytes)
MD5: 0518298f144d9115d87ccbaf59bcf3bd
Detection count: 63
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couPonpeeak
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 21, 2014

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couponpeeak\7O9.x64.dll

File name: 7O9.x64.dll
Size: 473.6 KB (473600 bytes)
MD5: e75ee5333a2901ebc9a522abc299bc4d
Detection count: 52
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couponpeeak
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 21, 2014

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\ccouPonpeaku\80.x64.dll

File name: 80.x64.dll
Size: 476.16 KB (476160 bytes)
MD5: 12559a528aa773a3bbf26d05aeab6b04
Detection count: 33
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\ccouPonpeaku
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 21, 2014

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couponpeuak\Iwqiqlq.x64.dll

File name: Iwqiqlq.x64.dll
Size: 472.06 KB (472064 bytes)
MD5: 6b65e73dfead36fd9b8fbba2383569a2
Detection count: 26
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\couponpeuak
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: August 21, 2014

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}SOFTWARE\Classes\coUponpeakk.coUponpeakkSOFTWARE\Classes\coUponpeakk.coUponpeakk.3.1SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ext\CLSID\{19CF2ACE-7946-D03E-9354-4A2414BD25C0}HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}{7C28DF4D-53DB-2913-830C-A43B46EAC005}

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\coupOnpEak%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\fikpcnmgckmppildnknigcolkpiankno%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\windows_ie_ac_001\AC\{19CF2ACE-7946-D03E-9354-4A2414BD25C0}%PROGRAMFILES%\coupOnpEak%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\coupOnpEak%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\{19CF2ACE-7946-D03E-9354-4A2414BD25C0}