Study General

The Study General or StudyGeneral is a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) that can redirect your browser to its affiliated websites. Besides hijacking your browser directly, it may cause unwanted setting changes related to your homepage or default search engine. While it's insufficiently hazardous for classifying as a Trojan, malware experts recommend uninstalling the Study General with proper security software for optimizing your Web-surfing safety and performance.

Extending Your Browser in Probably-Unwanted Directions

The list of threats that are compatible with Apple-brand operating systems remains smaller than that of Windows equivalents, but far from nonexistent. High-level threats like OSX.Dummy, cryptocurrency profiteers like CookieMiner and even some variants of the Adload Trojan downloader are circulating on macOS machines. The payloads for the latter of these three examples also include some cases of a new version of an old problem: the classic browser hijacker, this time, using the name of the Study General.

Distribution models for this PUP, or Potentially Unwanted Program, are using free download bundles with various software, such as fake or harmfully modified Flash updates, and torrent-based popular media. Adload is a general-purpose downloader of adware and other low-level threats, which may install other programs besides the Study General. However, the Study General, for its part, is nothing more than a lowly browser extension – for multiple browsers in macOS, including Chrome and Safari.

Malware researchers see few characteristics for differing the Study General from similar browser hijackers. It can reset the user's homepage to one of various 'affiliate' search sites (such as Safe Finder) and tracks the user's browsing history for presumably-profitable statistics for selling. The only unusual feature in the Study General is its elevated permissions for reading sensitive information, which, critically, includes login credentials like passwords. Although the Study General displays no built-in, account-hijacking properties, users should consider their Web accounts at risk while this PUP is present.

Shrinking Your Browser Back to Appropriate Dimensions

The Study General markets itself as a helpful addition to any user's Web browser but has no features of notable positivity, and represents multiple, severe security risks. Accordingly, malware researchers must categorize it as being a Potentially Unwanted Program that should see uninstallation promptly, in a typical environment. Although Adload is a cross-platform threat, the Study General only is appearing on macOS computers, as of April.

Redirections to unwanted sites may or may not pose a hazard to the user's browsing experience. In all cases, such 'features' risk exposing users to corrupted advertisements and drive-by-download attacks, including ones like those that are responsible for installing Adload, in the first place. Additionally, users never should relinquish control over basic browser features like their default search engine or homepage.

Most anti-adware utilities should remove the Study General extensions appropriately. Users dealing with this PUP also should consider a comprehensive anti-malware scan for removing Adload or similar threats whose presence might coincide with the extension's installation.

The Study General isn't much of a study buddy, with no learning benefits to its sessions. One needn't take a class to understand that giving passwords up to third-party extensions is asking for future problems, no matter what the name or functionality of that browser add-on might be.