Home Malware Programs Browser Hijackers Searchengage.com

Searchengage.com

Posted: April 5, 2016

Threat Metric

Ranking: 9,342
Threat Level: 5/10
Infected PCs: 4,825
First Seen: April 5, 2016
Last Seen: September 29, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows


Searchengage.com is a search engine that looks a lot like Google but is not affiliated with the Google Corporation in any way. Regardless of this, Searchengage.com appears to be a safe Web destination, and users who opt to use this website's features will not end up being disappointed or exposed to a potentially unsafe content. The only thing the visitors of Searchengage.com will find is a search feature that works just like the one seen on Google and provides users with credible search results. So far, everything about Searchengage.com seems legitimate, but there is one thing that ruins this website's good reputation – its owners have opted to attract new users by taking advantage of browser hijacking software.

Searchengage.com may be linked to more than one browser hijacker, and this is why identifying the intrusive application responsible for Searchengage.com's sudden appearance in your Web browser might not be an easy task. Browser hijackers may be installed as extensions for your Web browser, and they usually serve one purpose – to tamper with the browser's configuration so that Searchengage.com will be set as the default new tab page, homepage or search engine. This change is nothing else than annoying, but the good news is that it does not put anyone's online safety in danger.

The Searchengage.com site does not appear to host any ads at the moment, but there's no way to guarantee that this will not change in the future. Although Searchengage.com does not exhibit any potentially harmful behavior, we advise users not to trust pages that they are being redirected to by unwanted 3rd-party software. If you start noticing the Startengage.com page while browsing the Web regularly, then it's likely that the reason for this is a browser hijacker that was installed on your computer. Although the removal of the intrusive application is not mandatory, it is strongly recommended to remove software of this sort and restore your Web browser's original configuration. The removal of the Searchengage.com hijacker may be carried out manually by users who manage to identify and uninstall the unwanted extension successfully. If manual removal seems impossible, then you'll be glad to hear that a reputable anti-virus product should be able to get the job done in a matter of minutes.

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:



Search_Engage.exe File name: Search_Engage.exe
Size: 347.08 KB (347080 bytes)
MD5: 4501430e3a8e9d60775ef39c685e2888
Detection count: 62
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 5, 2016
Search_engageMK2.exe File name: Search_engageMK2.exe
Size: 1.35 MB (1359768 bytes)
MD5: 4a7c686fe3b69ceb5046e9678515d157
Detection count: 18
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: April 5, 2016

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{02234668-126B-4C34-8D29-3749BC1EB068}{410D4BB6-81B5-49F0-ADA1-46EE793CFEC1}{44A322B2-E6B2-403D-8C3B-D5A867C7C27B}{B81BF46A-B455-48FB-A81B-40DFFF66786F}{B85B96CC-C480-40CE-85E9-8D86C75EF0DE}File name without pathhttp_searchengage.com_0.localstorageHKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}SOFTWARE\Classes\AS.BHOToolbarSOFTWARE\Classes\AS.BHOToolbar.1SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{410D4BB6-81B5-49F0-ADA1-46EE793CFEC1}SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node\TypeLib\{410D4BB6-81B5-49F0-ADA1-46EE793CFEC1}Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Approved Extensions\{B81BF46A-B455-48FB-A81B-40DFFF66786F}SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\APPROVEDEXTENSIONSMIGRATION{B81BF46A-B455-48FB-A81B-40DFFF66786F}SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\{B81BF46A-B455-48FB-A81B-40DFFF66786F}

Additional Information

The following directories were created:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Search Engage%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\codbdfjjjgeaecahmhihkpjbadffccob
The following URL's were detected:
searchengage.comsearchengaged.com

One Comment

Loading...