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Search Vortex

Posted: February 19, 2014

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 2/10
Infected PCs: 3,366
First Seen: February 19, 2014
Last Seen: July 4, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows


Search Vortex is adware, which may show annoying pop-up ads, messages and banners on the PC and lead to unwanted browser diversions to unreliable websites that may be produced for commercial intentions. Although the Search Vortex pop-up ads, banners and messages may seem to be trustworthy, they may contain sponsored links. If the PC user clicks on such web-links, the Web browser may get forcibly rerouted to unidentified websites that were created with the purpose to probably generate advertising revenue from clicks on ads and raised web traffic. If the notifications that are delivered by Search Vortex occur on the computer system, this may not necessarily mean that the website the PC user is visiting is displaying the ads. However, this may mean that the computer system is affected by Search Vortex adware, which may be distributed and access the PC through bundled free programs.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

CLSID{30F4ABE2-7B09-4562-9AC1-A45140EBCD65}{f260b59a-921d-4d06-8f4c-59ae3598394f}HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Approved Extensions\{f260b59a-921d-4d06-8f4c-59ae3598394f}SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{f260b59a-921d-4d06-8f4c-59ae3598394f}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{f260b59a-921d-4d06-8f4c-59ae3598394f}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{f260b59a-921d-4d06-8f4c-59ae3598394f}Software\Search VortexSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{f260b59a-921d-4d06-8f4c-59ae3598394f}SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Search VortexSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\eventlog\Application\Update Search VortexSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\eventlog\Application\Util Search VortexSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Update Search VortexSYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Util Search VortexSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application\Update Search VortexSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application\Util Search VortexSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Update Search VortexSYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Util Search VortexHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}Search Vortex

Additional Information

The following directories were created:
%PROGRAMFILES%\Search Vortex%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Search Vortex%TEMP%\Search Vortex
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