by lliam » Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:21 am
To all you Firefox users:
I've received the following news from a friend concerning the above browser virus, I hope this is useful to anyone using Firefox plus 2 more troubleshooters.
Published: Monday 2nd July 2012
Our topics today:
Firefox Flaw Puts Your Security at Risk
Clear a File Stuck in the Recycle Bin
Remove the FUNMOODS Browser Hijack
Firefox Flaw Puts Your Security at Risk
Dear Lliam,
Internet Explorer may be losing market share to alternative browsers, but it is still widely used, meaning that hackers target IE more than other browser, trying to infect PCs with viruses and other malware.
This has given IE a bad reputation in terms of security. But, while IE6 might have had lots of security vulnerabilities and weaknesses, the latest production release, IE9, comes with many security improvements which make the browser much more secure, such as SmartScreen filtering.
Unfortunately, the damage to Internet Explorer's reputation will likely take a long time to repair, and many IT professionals will tell you to switch to a more secure alternative, such as Mozilla Firefox.
While Firefox is a good all-round browser, it is by no means perfect in terms of security. If you're a Firefox user, a recently uncovered glitch brings home the fact that no piece of software is 100% secure.
The latest bug discovered in Firefox is more serious than most. The latest version of the Mozilla browser, Firefox 13, comes with a tabbed browsing feature that shows a list of recent websites when you open a new tab.
No problem with this you might think - Chrome and Internet Explorer do the same. But the problem with the implementation on Firefox is that the website thumbnails show pictures of secure websites.
And this means that they can display online banking and webmail sessions for example, complete with account numbers, balances, subject lines and so on. This can happen even if you are logged out of the sites in question, meaning that a snooper can take a look at important sensitive data just by opening a new browser tab.
Firefox is designed to automatically update itself, so if you're a Firefox user you most probably already have the bug ridden version installed on your system.
Mozilla have admitted that this is a problem and that they shouldn't be creating copies of this information from secure sites and storing them on your PC. Such sites are secure for a reason after all.
So, if you're a Firefox user you should expect a patch from Mozilla which fixes the problem.
But until that happens, you can turn the thumbnail view off to stop the problem from happening. Here's how: In the Firefox, press [Ctrl] + [T] to open a new tab.
In the address bar, type about:config and press [Enter].
Double-click on the option browser.new tab page.enabled to set the Value field to false.
Close the tab.
Turn tab thumbnails off to boost security
Clear a File Stuck in the Recycle Bin
A reader wrote to me last week who was having a problem with the Recycle Bin on her system. It seems that there was a persistent file stuck in the Recycle Bin, and whenever she tried to clear the bin out an error message popped up and the file wouldn't budge. Even after using System Restore and checking her hard drive for errors, the file remained.
In this situation, I would always resort to the command line to fix the problem. To do so:
Click Start > All Programs > Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator (XP users just click Command Prompt).
Type CD \ and press [Enter] to switch to your C: drive's root folder.
Type CD .bin and press [Enter].
Type del /F /S *.* and press [Enter].
If prompted, press [Y] to confirm the deletions.
Type EXIT and press [Enter] to close the Recycle Bin.
Delete stubborn files at the command prompt.
Remove the FUNMOODS Browser Hijack
A reader wrote to me last week with two annoying pieces of malware on his system that he wants rid of. The two infections, called FUNMOODS and SEARCHNU, are browser hijackers which take over your web browser and infect your search results, redirecting you to sites you don’t want to visit.
These are both quite complicated infections to remove, so in this newsletter I will show you how to remove FUNMOODS, and next time I’ll cover getting rid of SEARCHNU.
FUNMOODS is a browser extension. To get rid of it, follow these steps: Click Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features (Windows 7/Vista) or Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP).
Select Funmoods and click Remove or Uninstall.
Open Internet Explorer.
Press the [Alt] key then click Tools > Add-ons to open the add-ons window.
Select Funmoods and click Remove or Disable.
Close Internet Explorer
Click Start > Control Panel > Internet Options.
In the Address bar, replace the home page set by FUNMOODS with the home page you’d like to use (e.g. google.com).
Click OK.
If you have Internet Explorer 7 or above, open IE then click the down arrow next to the search bar and choose Manage Search Providers or Change Search Defaults.
Select the search engine you’d like to use by default, then click Close or OK.
Reset your default home page from the one imposed by FUNMOODS
PS: For more information on removing browser hijackers and other malware, take a look at my book, Windows Internet Security: The Essential Guide. You can order your copy by clicking here.
All the best lliam,
Stefan.
Lliam.
I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted - George Best
