MarketResearchHelper

Posted: December 19, 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.

Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	1,995

First Seen:	December 23, 2013
Last Seen:	July 12, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

MarketResearchHelper is an add-on that tracks your basic browser behavior, supposedly to provide sociological research information to an unspecified group of scientists. This high-minded ideal falls flat on its face when compared with the actual functions from MarketResearchHelper, which, incongruously, are meant to load advertisements into your browser. Like any common adware program, MarketResearchHelper may be a problem for your browser's performance and for your online security, and malware experts have little difficulty in suggesting that you delete MarketResearchHelper with the anti-malware product of your choice, rather than opt in to its 'scientific research.'

The Helper that Helps Itself to Easy Money at Your Expense

MarketResearchHelper is a particularly ironic case of adware, with a website marketing plan that directly contradicts its actual set of features. Although MarketResearchHelper claims to provide research material for increasing understanding of human behavior, and explicitly claims not to use advertising to support itself, a close look at its user agreement will find that MarketResearchHelper actually uses significant advertising functions. Injecting advertisements into pages that don't host them naturally, loading pop-ups or changing your browser's settings automatically all are some of the main issues you may expect from MarketResearchHelper.

Hypocrisy isn't MarketResearchHelper's only problem, and malware analysts also have connected MarketResearchHelper to many similar adware add-ons throughout the Web. These programs appear to be designed by the same group of developers, always for the purpose of gathering advertising revenue, although these products don't mention each other – most likely an attempt to avoid being identified. Some of MarketResearchHelper's most recently confirmed relatives include Zippy Zarp, EnhanceTronic, Larparus, VeberGreat, JoomiWeb and SolteraTop.

Helping Yourself out of the MarketResearchHelper Market

With the regularity with which malware researchers see advertisements from similar programs compromising vulnerable PCs, you would have to seek arduously for a justification for not removing MarketResearchHelper. However, any removal attempts that don't use qualified anti-malware or anti-adware products may be incomplete.
Not all advertisements are equal, and dealing with MarketResearchHelper also means being cautious about potential attacks that could be delivered through its advertisements. Drive-by-download attacks disguised as software updates, fraudulent system warning pop-ups and phishing attacks disguised as valuable offers are some of the usual PC threats known to use advertisement networks. Blocking scripts and using other common browser security protocols always is encouraged by malware researchers for depriving these PC threats of easy access routes to new victims.

MarketResearchHelper may be installed by itself, with your permission, but this isn't a likely scenario. Most often, MarketResearchHelper may be installed through bundles with other programs. Safe downloading behavior that avoids known adware distribution points (such as free software sites with bad reputations) can offer an easy protection against a case of MarketResearchHelper advertisements.

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(x86)%\MarketResearchHelper\updateMarketResearchHelper.exe

File name: updateMarketResearchHelper.exe
Size: 111.92 KB (111920 bytes)
MD5: 3eaf90cb698ac837a3f139c414438421
Detection count: 316
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\MarketResearchHelper
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 30, 2014

%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\MarketResearchHelper\updateMarketResearchHelper.exe

File name: updateMarketResearchHelper.exe
Size: 103.21 KB (103216 bytes)
MD5: e91a34f51229f4a46fa80acd63ac96ec
Detection count: 101
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\MarketResearchHelper
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 30, 2014

%PROGRAMFILES%\MarketResearchHelper\updateMarketResearchHelper.exe

File name: updateMarketResearchHelper.exe
Size: 111.4 KB (111408 bytes)
MD5: a867d4c2eff5520baa23eae810cb4cfa
Detection count: 56
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\MarketResearchHelper
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 30, 2014

%PROGRAMFILES%\MarketResearchHelper\bin\MarketResearchHelper.PurBrowse.exe

File name: MarketResearchHelper.PurBrowse.exe
Size: 239.4 KB (239408 bytes)
MD5: 135b807e7216fbb814cbc9c845516b3e
Detection count: 35
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\MarketResearchHelper\bin
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 30, 2014

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{085C4D33-AB97-4165-9275-6174CF6B530D}{2ACC2EF3-B127-4F5B-B18C-47763737CB19}{e71ecfaa-158b-4027-9a01-1959834a82db}HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\MarketResearchHelperSoftware\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Approved Extensions\{e71ecfaa-158b-4027-9a01-1959834a82db}SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\MarketResearchHelper_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\MarketResearchHelper_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\updateMarketResearchHelper_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\updateMarketResearchHelper_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\utilMarketResearchHelper_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing\utilMarketResearchHelper_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{e71ecfaa-158b-4027-9a01-1959834a82db}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{e71ecfaa-158b-4027-9a01-1959834a82db}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{e71ecfaa-158b-4027-9a01-1959834a82db}SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\MarketResearchHelper_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\MarketResearchHelper_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\updateMarketResearchHelper_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\updateMarketResearchHelper_RASMANCSSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\utilMarketResearchHelper_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\utilMarketResearchHelper_RASMANCSSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\eventlog\Application\Update MarketResearchHelperSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\eventlog\Application\Util MarketResearchHelperSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application\Update MarketResearchHelperSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application\Util MarketResearchHelper

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%PROGRAMFILES%\MarketResearchHelper%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\MarketResearchHelper