Sneaky Toolbar Hijacks Browsers
Before you try anything else, first (if you
have Windows XP or higher) try a System Restore.
You can find System Restore by following the
following path: START MENU / Programs / Accessories / System Tools /
System Restore. If you have never used System Restore, you
should open the item and Create A Restore Point so that the system does this
regularly.
It's the most evil thing on the Internet, according to some of its victims.
But it's not a virus, a scam or a raunchy porn site.
It's a browser toolbar that some swear is doing "drive-by
downloads" -- installing itself without users' permission -- then taking
over their systems and making it impossible to uninstall. "When I find the
[expletive deleted] who programmed this thing I'd be happy to castrate them with a pair of
dull pinking shears," fumed one of Xupiter's many unhappy victims in a
newsgroup posting.
Xupiter is an Internet Explorer toolbar program. Once active in a system, it
periodically changes users' designated homepages to xupiter.com, redirects all
searches to Xupiter's site, and blocks any attempts to restore the original
browser settings.
The program attempts to download updates each time an affected computer boots
up, and has been blamed for causing system crashes. Several versions of Xupiter
also appear to download other programs, such as gambling games, which later
appear in pop-up windows.
Some said that Xupiter has taken over their browsers.
"Random words and characters now appear when I attempt to enter info on
search sites or other forms. It's as if there's a ghost in my machine," New
York resident Beth Vanesky said.
Xupiter.com is registered to a company called Tempo Internet, in Gyongyos,
Hungary. Calls and e-mails to Tempo were not returned.
Xupiter offers an uninstall utility, but
many said that it didn't work, and in some cases made things worse.
"I ran the Xupiter Uninstall, and now every time I try to launch
Explorer I get error messages saying 'Xupiter is not installed properly, please
reinstall,'" said Manny Abrams of Chicago.
Xupiter has spawned long
message threads on some tech support sites, as users wrestle to reclaim
their machines from the terrible toolbar.
"When Xupiter first appeared, we spent a week trying to figure it
out," said Mike Healan, of SpywareInfo.
"There's a monstrous
thread with over 26,000 page views where a couple dozen of us tested it
until we figured what it did and how to deal with it."
But Healan said that every time people sort out what Xupiter is doing,
Xupiter's programmers tweak its code. It also appears that Xupiter may be
selling its "service" to other websites.
"About once every month or two this software starts hijacking people to
a new site," Healan said. "And every time a new version comes out, it
adds a different startup entry, uses a different method to change the search
function and is basically a bigger pain to remove."
Xupiter's site claims the toolbar isn't installed without express permission,
but many insisted that they had not agreed to install the program.
"Xupiter is the worst thing I've ever personally encountered on the
Internet," said Ed Olexa. "You only realize that it has been installed
when you start your browser and see that Xupiter's search page is now your
homepage."
Olexa had to manually edit his system registry to remove Xupiter.
"Xupiter seems to have the ability to reinstall itself if each and every
component is not removed," Olexa said. "Computer novices might never
really get rid of it."
Healan recommended Spybot Search &
Destroy to eradicate the program.
Healan said some installations probably occurred when people clicked
"OK" in a pop-up box without really knowing what they had agreed to,
or when they meant to close the pop-up window.
Xupiter is also being bundled along with at least one peer-to-peer
file-sharing program. And the toolbar will install itself automatically when
Internet Explorer's security settings aren't set to the highest level.
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Information Source: http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57467,00.html
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