Home Possibly Unwanted Program Guardbox

Guardbox

Posted: August 19, 2015

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 1/10
Infected PCs: 1,220
First Seen: August 19, 2015
Last Seen: March 23, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows


The Guardbox program from IncrediMail, Inc. is promoted at www.Guardbox.net as a valuable addition to your cyber defenses. The Guardbox program is offered to users for free and is said to complement the Google Safebrowsing, and the Mozilla Phishing Protection found in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. The selling points for the Guardbox software are that it can:

  • Provide extended protection against malware-infested sites;
  • Notify the user of phishing and fraud content;
  • Block ingoing and outgoing requests to botnet servers;

There are no new releases for the Guardbox software, and the project is discontinued. Unfortunately, users may install old versions of Guardbox via freeware bundles. Researchers are aware of several versions of Guardbox that may be available for installation and feature numbers including 1.9.0.35, 1.12.1.8 and 1.12.1.8. You should note that the main executable for the Guardbox software is not trusted, and PC users may receive a security alert that may mention any of the following:

  • Toolbar.AQQ
  • Adware.Conduit.411
  • PUA/SearchProtect.Gen
  • PUP.Optional.SearchProtect
  • Win32.Trojan.Searchprotect.Hrep
  • not-a-virus:AdWare.Win32.Agent.johz

The Guardbox has a bad reputation among security vendors because it is known to generate ads from uncertified advertisers which contradict its agenda to secure your PC. IncrediMail, Inc. might use the Guardbox app to read data such as your Internet history, hardware, and software configuration to allow affiliated marketers to load personalized offers in your browser. The Guardbox program might run as GuardboxApp.exe from C:\Users\%username%\appdata\Local\Guardbox and users may have problems removing it. Experts classify Guradbox as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) due to its limited functionality, suspicious behavior and difficulty for removal. We suggest users employing the services of a trustworthy anti-spyware solution to delete the Guardbox app safely.

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:



C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.12.1.8\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 559.56 KB (559568 bytes)
MD5: 5635788946a39e993c4de16b1496ef1d
Detection count: 148
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.12.1.8\GuardboxApp.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 1, 2022
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.4.2.8\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 499.15 KB (499152 bytes)
MD5: 7ab78bd18580df38b90f1e4ccbb07a36
Detection count: 65
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.4.2.8
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 22, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.6.0.61\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 529.36 KB (529360 bytes)
MD5: 3cd2c28872edcd8afb5c7d5aa7eef8aa
Detection count: 42
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.6.0.61
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 22, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.13.0.1\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 592.84 KB (592848 bytes)
MD5: 0c15bc8c8988bdb04b5469174ab9104a
Detection count: 26
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.13.0.1
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: October 16, 2022
C:\Users\<username>\Joe Old\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.9.0.35\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 549.32 KB (549328 bytes)
MD5: 61e27789306da736ff3246e5ab8be0d6
Detection count: 16
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\Joe Old\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.9.0.35\GuardboxApp.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 10, 2022
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.12.0.4\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 559.56 KB (559568 bytes)
MD5: 675cbda800cea19533c355a112c8936c
Detection count: 16
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.12.0.4\GuardboxApp.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: November 24, 2021
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.8.0.8\guardboxapp.exe File name: guardboxapp.exe
Size: 549.32 KB (549328 bytes)
MD5: 8e13013f9b5b70c09dae89c80926fe74
Detection count: 14
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.8.0.8
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 12, 2020
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Guardbox\1.1.1.1\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 10.05 MB (10058704 bytes)
MD5: 82f63d7d6812f68a211ba8cfef4e6f22
Detection count: 13
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Guardbox\1.1.1.1
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 22, 2016
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.12.0.16\guardboxapp.exe File name: guardboxapp.exe
Size: 559.56 KB (559568 bytes)
MD5: ff20a5a77ef63aeb9c3ba44bc1849360
Detection count: 12
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.12.0.16
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: July 13, 2020
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.5.0.74\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 523.21 KB (523216 bytes)
MD5: 5ede136fdc309be10f5a7bb25baa35b8
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox\1.5.0.74
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 22, 2016
C:\Users\<username>\Joe Old\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.10.0.8\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 549.32 KB (549328 bytes)
MD5: fc33d250d91a396286338911b516b83e
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\Joe Old\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.10.0.8\GuardboxApp.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 10, 2022
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.12.0.1\GuardboxApp.exe File name: GuardboxApp.exe
Size: 559.56 KB (559568 bytes)
MD5: 2d47d75e2afe8e55c09badd18ee9fbfb
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Guardbox\1.12.0.1\GuardboxApp.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 26, 2021

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\AppDataLow\Software\Guardbox

Additional Information

The following directories were created:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Guardbox%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\GuardboxData
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