MyStart by Incredibar

Posted: January 18, 2012

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:	589
Threat Level:	5/10
Infected PCs:	796,323

First Seen:	February 28, 2012
Last Seen:	October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

MyStart by Incredibar is an adware program that displays advertisements. While similar adware plugins have been known to be bundled with freely-distributed programs, malware experts have also caught websites using browser exploits to install MyStart sans any other software. If you notice symptoms of the presence of Incredibar's MyStart while you browse the web, you should remove MyStart with anti-malware software that can delete all of MyStart without difficulties, including its Registry-based components. Normal software removal methods have been confirmed to fail on MyStart, although, at this point, malware experts only rank MyStart by Incredibar as a low-level PC threat.

The Not-So-Incredible Services of MyStart by Incredibar

While MyStart would love you to start your day off by using its services to search the web, malware researchers haven't seen any signs that MyStart has any beneficial features for your PC. Rather than being a search assistant, MyStart is an advertisement-deliverer that generates revenue by redirecting you to irrelevant advertising content. At the time of this writing, the safety levels of advertisements related to MyStart haven't been verified, and, in most cases, adware-delivered advertisements are potentially hazardous (as in cases of them promoting rogue anti-virus scanners and similar types of scamware). In general, MyStart can be considered a minor nuisance, although the content that MyStart promotes may be more overtly malicious than MyStart itself.

MyStart by Incredibar has also been found to change your homepage, change other browser settings or block your access to unrelated sites (especially Google). However, these symptoms may not be evident in all MyStart infections.

Other PC threats that are closely-associated with MyStart include the Web Assistant toolbar and Incredimail, both of which are low-level adware like MyStart. These PC threats, including MyStart, have been noted for their compatibility with several types of popular browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox. MyStart attacks should be considered an active albeit minor threat.

Ways to Keep Your Day from Starting with MyStart

Avoiding websites that are affiliated with MyStart by Incredibar should always be considered the simplest way to protect your browser from a MyStart infection. Sites that are affiliated with MyStart (such as mystart.incredibar.com) may use browser exploits in their attacks. These exploits can install the MyStart browser hijacker without your consent and are especially likely to exploit outdated versions of JavaScript and Flash.

Updating your browser, if necessary, is also recommended, and malware researchers particularly advise you to keep anti-malware software at work in the background consequently able to block malicious sites and content that could be used to promote MyStart, such as drive-by-download exploits.

Aliases

Artemis!36C55F1CCDD6 [McAfee]APPL/InstallBrain.Gen5 [AntiVir]ApplicUnwnt.Win32.AdWare.IBrain.B [Comodo]Win32:PUP-gen [PUP] [Avast]W32/IBrain.B.gen!Eldorado [F-Prot]Unwanted-Program [K7AntiVirus]

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%\AdwCleaner\Quarantine\v1\20201016.122001\1\dmwu.exe#99CB3988B192FEAC

File name: dmwu.exe#99CB3988B192FEAC
Size: 3.03 MB (3039536 bytes)
MD5: 6718d6a986ff9314d372c61c2fac0941
Detection count: 12,083
Mime Type: unknown/exe#99CB3988B192FEAC
Path: %SYSTEMDRIVE%\AdwCleaner\Quarantine\v1\20201016.122001\1\dmwu.exe#99CB3988B192FEAC
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 26, 2023