Home Malware Programs Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) Search Tuner Extension

Search Tuner Extension

Posted: January 22, 2018

Threat Metric

Ranking: 2,792
Threat Level: 2/10
Infected PCs: 389
First Seen: August 7, 2023
Last Seen: October 16, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows

The Search Tuner is a Chrome browser extension that also happens to be a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP). What does the Search Tuner extension do, exactly? Let's try to find out!

Visiting the extension's page on the Chrome Web Store and looking at its description reveals absolutely nothing about its functionality. The official description says that the Search Tuner redirects searches and 'works hard' to give you better search results and better browsing and searching 'experience.' This means absolutely nothing to the user and gives no workable description of what Search Tuner does. Installing the extension, however, reveals what the Search Tuner really does. After the Search Tuner finds its way onto your system, the Search Tuner places an icon on the right side of your navigation panel. You may not find anything different in your browser's behavior at first, as your homepage and new tab content remain unchanged. However, every time you use the Omnibox – the same box that Chrome uses to display the address of the page you're viewing currently – your search will no longer use your browser's default search provider and, instead, be forwarded through search.searchtuner.com. The search will culminate in a Yahoo Search results page for your query, but Search Tuner will now have access to all your searches and be able to store them.

The Search Tuner requires rights to read and change the data shown on the websites you visit, as well as communicate with 'cooperating websites,' possibly to use your search queries for later targeted advertising. Apart from having a Chrome Web Store page, the Search Tuner also may be distributed in software bundles, where it may come packaged with legitimate software, piggy-backing inside the same installation package. Thankfully, the Search Tuner is easy to uninstall and can be removed either by right-clicking the icon in the navigation panel or through the Chrome's Extension Manager.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:
medicmediai.com
Loading...