Spyware Information: CWS.HomeSearchAssistent
This is a hijacker application. Hijackers take control of your web browser's settings, and usually change your homepage, search page or other default pages to point to web sites owned by the hijacker. Since the hijackers can make money based on the number of visits to their web sites, they benefit from forcing you to view their web sites each time your web browser opens.
Hijackers don't normally damage your computer or steal your personal information.
- Size: 247,458 bytes
- Threat level: High (more info...)
- Detections: 99,526 this month: 9
- Author: CoolWebSearch.com/Petro-Line, Ltd
- Appeared: 7/12/2005
Research
- Method of infection: CWS.HomeSearchAssistent, also known as Home Search Assistent, may be the latest CoolWebSearch variant. It can be downloaded from www.looking-for.cc or it can be automatically installed via drive-by download.
CWS.HomeSearchAssistent appears to be closely related to CWS.about:blank. It is distributed on the www.looking-for.cc website, which claims to be run by "Petro-Line, Ltd". The domain name is registered to "Pavel Petroff (support-cc@yellow500.com)". Yellow500.com is a pornographic website. Therefore, the www.looking-for.cc website may be a facade for the distribution of CWS.HomeSearchAssistent. - Advertising: CWS.HomeSearchAssistent replaces Internet Explorer's home page with 'about:blank'. The 'about:blank' page, however is hijacked to display an advertising page. CWS.HomeSearchAssistent also creates popup advertisements.
- Browser degradation: CWS.HomeSearchAssistent hijacks common Internet Explorer pages, including homepage, search page, blank page, and search assistant page.
- Privacy policy: Available online here.
- Security issues: CWS.HomeSearchAssistent may have the ability to update itself automatically. These updates can contain arbitrary code and may significantly alter the performance of CWS.HomeSearchAssistent.
- Stability issues: CWS.HomeSearchAssistent may cause significant system instability.
Spyware Detection Stats
- Spyware Fingerprints: 91,859
- Detections: 6,792,654
- Detections this Month: 801
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