Search-NewTab
Posted: January 16, 2014
Threat Metric
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: | 11,594 |
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Threat Level: | 1/10 |
Infected PCs: | 721 |
First Seen: | January 16, 2014 |
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Last Seen: | September 27, 2023 |
OS(es) Affected: | Windows |
SearchNewTab is a browser hijacker with a history of causing crashes, redirecting your homepage to unwanted sites and being distributed through methods that malware researchers would describe as most often typical of threats (harmful software). At this point, SearchNewTab is considered a Potentially Unwanted Program, but its presence still provides no benefits to your PC with substantial disadvantages. Whether or not you should remove SearchNewTab is not an issue that should be up to the question for long, and you should feel free to use whatever PC security tools are required to delete SearchNewTab completely, along with all of its browser side effects.
What's in Your Browser Tab is Up for Grabs
SearchNewTab is a browser add-on that might market itself as a beneficial program, but, ultimately, has more in common with threats than with any legitimate plugin. Above all else, malware researchers were most struck with some of SearchNewTab's distribution methods, which have used fraudulent streaming movie sites and fake codec updates as stepping stones towards a victim's Web browser. SearchNewTab often is installed along with one or more other PC threats, including other PUPs that latch onto your browser.
Although your browser may show a wide range of other ill effects, SearchNewTab's personal allotment of these problems is easy to identify. SearchNewTab hijacks your homepage in all three Windows-popular Web browsers, thereafter locking it to an unwanted site (currently, a questionable search engine that's a variant of YouWillFind.info). SearchNewTab also loads similar content whenever a new tab is opened.
Malware researchers were even more concerned with the propensity of SearchNewTab to be installed alongside system changes that disable crucial browser features, up to and including the ability to uninstall add-ons. Normal routines for a program's uninstallation may appear to effect, SearchNewTab but, in reality, remove its visible components without removing the rest of the program. Finally, malware researchers found that SearchNewTab often causes stability issues for the browsers SearchNewTab modifies, resulting in crashes and sluggish performance.
A New Day for Your Browser that's Lacking in SearchNewTab Problems
SearchNewTab may not steal legally-protected information or conduct other types of illegal activities, but its overall functions are more than sufficient to warrant deleting SearchNewTab on sight. Preferably to that, however, malware researchers would consider it ideal for all readers to avoid fake movie sites and movie sites with unconfirmed reputations, which most likely still are distributing copies of SearchNewTab, along with other PC threats like ViauddiXi. If it's necessary, deleting SearchNewTab should use anti-malware applications that can confirm its removal – as opposed to mere browser changes that may eliminate the symptoms without removing the software. As noted previously, and stressed for emphasize here, SearchNewTab does include components that affect Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer more or less equally.
Even Potentially Unwanted Programs are happy to use the same types of disingenuous ways of handling proliferation that also are favored by high-level PC threats. A 'codec' update from one of the websites described above may install SearchNewTab, but SearchNewTab also may be responsible for delivering other types of PUPs and even threats to your computer. Avoiding sources of updates that aren't legitimate is one of the foundational defenses you can erect against any online threat to your computer security.
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:C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application data\search-newtab
File name: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application data\search-newtabGroup: Malware file
C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\uninstall.exe
File name: C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\uninstall.exeFile type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51018268b9ffb.dll
File name: C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51018268b9ffb.dllFile type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file
C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\5187c9e223f5f.dll
File name: C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\5187c9e223f5f.dllFile type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file
C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51275feb18801.dll
File name: C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51275feb18801.dllFile type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file
C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51fec4474d67b.dll
File name: C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51fec4474d67b.dllFile type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file
C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51bd4425e5777.dll
File name: C:\ProgramData\search-newtab\51bd4425e5777.dllFile type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Group: Malware file
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