Home Malware Programs Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) Search Secretly

Search Secretly

Posted: March 22, 2017

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 5/10
Infected PCs: 16
First Seen: March 23, 2017
Last Seen: August 15, 2022
OS(es) Affected: Windows

The Search Secretly is a browser extension by Visicom Media that claims to provide users with an anonymous search engine that they can use to keep their search queries hidden from the inquisitive eyes of major search engines that may use this data for marketing purposes. However, to do this, the Search Secretly will ask users to change their new tab page and default search service provider to hxxp://searchsecretly.net – a search engine that, as the name suggests, is affiliated with the Search Secretly software directly. The worse part is that hxxp://searchsecretly.net does not offer users an anonymous way to search the Web. Instead, the page runs all search queries through the Yahoo Search Engine, therefore not doing anything to hide the user's data.

Another issue with the Search Secretly software is that it is ad-supported. Currently, the software appears only to be compatible with Google Chrome so that users who use other Web browsers regularly are unlikely to end up having to deal with the slightly annoying behavior that the Search Secretly may display. Chrome users who install this software will not just end up with slightly modified search settings, but they also might be exposed to some of the advertisements that the Search Secretly's partners may inject in the Web browser. These advertisements may often be related to irrelevant topics, and they might be used to promote products and services of questionable quality.

If you are not happy with the Search Secretly's ads and the search engine it promotes, then it is recommended to remove the program as soon as you can. Usually, extensions like the Search Secretly can be uninstalled from the web browser's settings panel manually.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following directories were created:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\dnhbopkeaaehajikkdoagbdmnecbbfle
The following URL's were detected:
dnhbopkeaaehajikkdoagbdmnecbbfle
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