Nation Toolbar

Posted: September 26, 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:	8,288
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	20,069

First Seen:	September 27, 2013
Last Seen:	October 15, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Nation Toolbar is a Potentially Unwanted Program that offers easy access to Nation.com-based search features, but also hijacks your default search and prevents you from using various alternative search sites. Although malware experts don't consider the Nation Toolbar to be more than a PUP and, as such, a low-level PC threat at its worst, they do consider harboring programs that choose what sites your browsers load to be a bad habit and possible security issue that should be fixed by deleting the relevant software in almost all cases. For an efficient and complete uninstallation, removing the Nation Toolbar and the browser changes enacted by the Nation Toolbar usually requires anti-malware tools that have good records against browser hijackers, unwanted toolbars and other browser-based PC threats.

A Cyber-Nation United... in Getting Search Hijacked

Search engine-based toolbars are a continuing trend in the PUP industry, and, while they sometimes are exploited to deliver unsafe content, more often than not are used simply to redirect traffic to their affiliated websites. The Nation Toolbar is another one of these programs that want nothing more than to redirect you to sites like the Nation.com's search engine, which SpywareRemove.com malware researchers have analyzed and classified as non-malicious. Unfortunately, the same can't wholeheartedly be said of the Nation Toolbar, which may ignore your default search settings and may block you from using other sites (Google, Yahoo Search, etc.) in its eagerness to promote Nation.com.

The Nation Toolbar may be installed on more than one browser at a time and is compatible with, at a minimum, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. While the Nation Toolbar may be installed by itself, malware research team often finds that the Nation Toolbar and other PUPs are installed through software bundles as conveniently-concealed add-ons that you may not notice until you browser starts loading new search sites. Staying clear of sites known for marketing fraudulent or risky freeware programs and using anti-malware tools to detect these software bundles before they've installed the Nation Toolbar can provide a decent degree of protection from unwanted installations of this toolbar.

Seceding Your Browser from the Control of the Nation Toolbar

Because the Nation Toolbar chooses which sites your browser may load independently from your personally-chosen settings, malware analysts consider removing the Nation Toolbar par for the course with respect to keeping the integrity of your Web-browsing experience optimized. Even though the Nation Toolbar does provide uninstallation instructions, the use of anti-malware programs is highly recommended whenever you're deleting a Nation Toolbar, as a means of insurance against the Nation Toolbar's browser-hijacking modifications remaining in place after the toolbar has been removed.

Although a Nation Toolbar is a PUP that usually should be removed from your computer whenever the Nation Toolbar is detected, contact with the Nation.com website currently isn't classified as hazardous. Search results acquired through this website's searches are not probable sources of attacks against your computer, but, at the same time, may not necessarily be perfectly accurate or relevant.

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)%\Nation\ProtectedSearch.exe

File name: ProtectedSearch.exe
Size: 88.64 KB (88648 bytes)
MD5: 327390d564d124c248de624750d52d01
Detection count: 6,354
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Nation
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 29, 2020

duosearch.dll

File name: duosearch.dll
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file

tbhelper.dll

File name: tbhelper.dll
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file

suggestion_plugin.dll

File name: suggestion_plugin.dll
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file

TbCommonUtils.dll

File name: TbCommonUtils.dll
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file

uninstall.exe

File name: uninstall.exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

TbHelper2.exe

File name: TbHelper2.exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

update.exe

File name: update.exe
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{1BB22D38-A411-4B13-A746-C2A4F4EC7344}{FCBCCB87-9224-4B8D-B117-F56D924BEB18}HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\Nation ToolbarSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Nation ToolbarHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}Nation Toolbar

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%ProgramFiles%\Nation Toolbar%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Nation Toolbar