PUP.ThinkTankLabs

Posted: December 16, 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:	14,577
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	5,228

First Seen:	December 18, 2013
Last Seen:	March 8, 2025
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

PUP.ThinkTankLabs is a general classification for Potentially Unwanted Programs from Think Tank Labs LLC, a company that specializes in producing adware. Although neither the Think Tank Labs company nor its PUP.ThinkTankLabs products are classified as threatening, malware researchers habitually suggest deleting any PUP that doesn't have especially good reasons for being on your computer. In the case of adware variants of PUP.ThinkTankLabs, it's likely that PUP.ThinkTankLabs may do more harm than good with its accompanying performance and security issues, and removing PUP.ThinkTankLabs should come with fairly little need to ponder the decision.

Seeing Your Browser Experimented on in the Think Tank's Labs

PUP.ThinkTankLabs isn't a specific label for any one type of toolbar, add-on or other PUP but is applied in general to all identified ThinkTankLabs adware programs. Since this heuristic detection may be used for more than one program, malware experts can't offer hard limitations on their capabilities. However, products labeled as PUP.ThinkTankLabs tend to have histories heavily associated with browser changes like the following:

Pop-under and pop-up windows displaying advertisements, which are loaded under arbitrary circumstances.
Additional search results including 'sponsored' links or other content delivered through PUP.ThinkTankLabs.
Product price comparisons, which usually are formatted as banners or other graphical advertisements that are loaded when you search for a specific product on known shopping sites.
Other Web page modifications, such as inline text advertising, which changes the text to include keyword-based links to third party offers.

Naturally, the agreement used by Think Tank Labs for all of its products expressly forbids the user from modifying PUP.ThinkTankLabs in ways that could block any of the above advertisements.

Busting Your Web Browser out of the Think Tank

Even though all PUP.ThinkTankLabs variants are quite far from being harmful as much as a banking Trojan or other high-level PC threat, malware research team finds it best to remove PUPs regularly. Allowing PUP.ThinkTankLabs adware or similar software to modify your browser in ways not fully under your control may increase the chances of your PC's exposure to advertisement-distributed threats. A robust defense against these kinds of attacks must take into account the usefulness of disabling such contact at sources like PUP.ThinkTankLabs, in addition to the level of the advertisement as it's displayed in your browser. For the latter, disabling JavaScript often is sufficient.

If you find PUP.ThinkTankLabs on your PC after a scan and aren't sure why PUP.ThinkTankLabs is there, you may want to check your Web-browsing history for any recent downloads. Freeware programs frequently partner with companies like PUP.ThinkTankLabs, which allows Think Tank Labs to install PUP.ThinkTankLabs on new computers without requiring users to seek out that company's products beforehand. In slightly rarer circumstances than that, you also may find specifically modified software updates or installers that install PUP.ThinkTankLabs or other PUPs.

Technical Details

Additional Information

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