Tricked to an attack page. What to do now? [Solved]

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CressAlbane
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Tricked to an attack page. What to do now? [Solved]

Post by CressAlbane »

I followed a link (obvious trick in retrospect) that led to a page with a disturbing image and a disturbing tendency to open windows of my browser. I was using the most recent Mozilla Firefox. I freaked out and powered off my computer with the power switch within seconds of loading the page. When I booted it back up, chkdsk was launched. I'm not sure if it found anything, as I went away for some time and Windows (7 64-bit Home Premium) was at the login screen when I returned. I don't have much experience with chkdsk.

Anyway, I launched Firefox and I was redirected to the same attack page! I immediately closed the browser (alt+f4) as soon as I saw the domain name in the bar. As soon as I could, I launched the Task Manager to check for suspicious processes. I found one, but it may have been harmless. I terminated it. Then, I uninstalled Mozilla Firefox and reinstalled it by downloading another installer. Internet Explorer did not seem to have any symptoms when I used it to download Firefox, although this was after I closed the unfamiliar process. Currently, Firefox seems to be working fine. I'm running a whole system scan with a recently-updated AVG 2014.

I'm also planning to (in senseless paranoia) disable wireless on my computer and leave it on overnight. I don't want to turn it off if booting will encounter issues.

What should I be doing to prevent damage to my computer? The scan hasn't found anything yet.
Last edited by CressAlbane on Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tricked to an attack page. What to do now?

Post by Twilight_Warrior »

CressAlbane
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Re: Tricked to an attack page. What to do now?

Post by CressAlbane »

Right. I've already got that program on my computer, although I do need to update it.

Can I assume all is well if Malwarebytes finds nothing?
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Re: Tricked to an attack page. What to do now?

Post by Twilight_Warrior »

A lot of tech people I know, including myself, will swear by the power of malwarebytes. So yes, after running a malwarebytes scan (and it probably will find something if you haven't run it in a while, even if its something minor and unrelated to this specific issue), you can probably rest easy knowing it's not malicious software.

If the problem persists, though, you may need to completely remove Firefox from your machine and reinstall it fresh.
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Re: Tricked to an attack page. What to do now?

Post by guru »

Spy bot is helpful and free as well. Between those I bet it gets found.
CressAlbane
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Re: Tricked to an attack page. What to do now?

Post by CressAlbane »

Malwarebytes found two issues and removed both. After a restart, nothing seems to be wrong with the disk. All seems to be well. Thank you both for the help!
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