PUP.Quick Start

Posted: April 15, 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:	625
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	294,805

First Seen:	April 15, 2014
Last Seen:	October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Quick Start New Tab, also referred to simply as Quick Start, is a Potentially Unwanted Program that modifies Chrome to display custom backgrounds, links to prominent sites and other accessibility options. Even though Quick Start New Tab markets these functions as beneficial, malware researchers find few tangible benefits to Quick Start New Tab, and also have noted that Quick Start New Tab displays poor behavior with respect to browser permissions and settings. If you're less than certain about wanting to keep Quick Start New Tab on your PC, removing Quick Start New Tab should be considered the default response.

The Ignominious Start of Quick Start New Tab

Quick Start New Tab is a website directory add-on that provides various links to major sites, along with other, miscellaneous functions related to modifying how Chrome's default features behave. Quick Start New Tab also includes links to retailers and content that could be considered advertising, which may cause some PC security programs to classify Quick Start New Tab as adware. Quick Start New Tab's personal functions ended up being less interesting to malware researchers than its distribution methods, which have involved repeated automatic installations of Quick Start New Tab.

Although PUPs may use bundles that conceal their installers with other, free products, an alternative for installing Quick Start New Tab that malware experts also suspect includes the possibility of Web-based attacks that install software automatically. Quick Start New Tab also may be included in the payloads of other threats with download-and-install functions.

Just like Quick Start New Tab comes automatically, Quick Start New Tab also fails to remove itself upon request, unlike reputable software. Normal deletion methods may repeatedly fail to uninstall Quick Start New Tab from Chrome, although other browsers seem to be unmodified by this PUP. Along similar lines, Quick Start New Tab also provides no visible controls to disable its functions, which modify the Web pages displayed in Chrome and load content automatically.

A Quick End to a Tab-Based Threat

Underneath all its features like website 'speed dial' and custom wallpapers, Quick Start New Tab bears little difference from an invasive browser hijacker. Malware researchers may find few reasons to categorize Quick Start New Tab as a high-level threat, but PUPs like Quick Start New Tab normally fail to benefit your PC and should be removed, when possible. Taking into account Quick Start New Tab's history for ignoring efforts to remove Quick Start New Tab by standardized means, you may wish to use anti-adware products that can make deleting Quick Start New Tab as convenient a process as possible.

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:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\newtabv3.crx

File name: newtabv3.crx
Size: 346.92 KB (346928 bytes)
MD5: 14443ff036b68da3e7497cda72d48dcd
Detection count: 883
Mime Type: unknown/crx
Path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: September 14, 2023

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

Regexp file mask%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\newtabv3.crx%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\newtabv3.crxHKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\defsearchp@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\deskCutv2@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\faststartff@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\quick_searchff@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\quick_start@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\searchffv2@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\sweetsearch@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\defsearchp@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\deskCutv2@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\faststartff@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\quick_searchff@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\quick_start@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\searchffv2@gmail.comSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\sweetsearch@gmail.com

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%Temp%\ffext\deskCutv2@gmail.com

The following URL's were detected:

extensions.quick_start.enable_search1faststartff@gmail.com