Edit: Folks, I keep telling you it’s VERY unlikely to be malware.
I’ll update you and apologize to each if my credit card gets wiped or something but I’m quite sure I’m safe, don’t worry.
Also sorry for blaming Microsoft for what is apparently my fault.
I accidentally clicked Microsoft Edge on my work computer with Windows 10 and couldn’t close it — it just keeps reopening. It takes File Shredder to stop it from opening again, at least until the computer restarts.
Notice the ads, most are extremely sketchy (my frequent reload in previous takes caused the ad server + my work VPN to rate limit me):
- China warns:
%user.currency%is dead! (Yeah, sure. Obvious propaganda. Generic pictures or faked images of a worthless banknote giveaway.) - 63-year-old figured out! (Does not say what but a pic of obviously young-looking feet.)
- Make boatloads of money with AI! (aka auto-trade very uncompetitive options, no guarantees on withdrawals of any wins)
- Save money using solar! (The company is legitimate but the deal on panels is probably not great)
- Buy yourself a great new FPCEILPTBSP! (You can’t tell what it is and neither can we! (Apparently TV wall mount))
- Losing hair?
- Millionaire has genius method you can try (but give us money first, making his pic transparent so we can put him in front of
%user.country.flag%was difficult) - Game! Yay! (Microtransactions galore!)
- Get EVERYTHING in your car fixed (by a stock photo mechanic!)
Definitely something wrong with your computer, not normal behavior
This is textbook browser takeover activity. Is your enterprise level world renown AV setup correctly?
Who is it by the way. Just curious
Edit: by the way the freeware tool you downloaded to remove edge which “didn’t work” sounds like it did work and it took over your browser.
Well, my default browser is Firefox and
EdgeRemover(oops, misremembered the name) MSEdgeRedirect (which is FOSS of course, would not install such thing otherwise) does work, in a way – all Help pages, Start Menu searches etc. get redirected to Firefox and DuckDuckGo. I thought it would prevent Edge from opening at all. I don’t think it’s a browser hijacker.Okay, the company is using ESET’s highest tier and the computers are remotely managed so I’m not sure I would see detection notifications.
textbook browser hijacker
Is your textbook from the 1990s? Pretty sure modern malware is way more stealthy and not at all obvious.
And I’m pretty sure you have no idea what you’re talking about, and I have a career with this stuff.
Figure it out yourself now smart ass.
The ads are definitely garbage, but the respawning window is something very wrong. Are you sure you dont have some kind of malware that is respawning the window?
Yeah this sounds like OP has malware on the system, definitely.
It’s the cleanest Windows install I’ve ever done, less than a month old, and there is world-renowned, enterprise-level antivirus software running. Malware is pretty much out of the question.
I did install
EdgeRemover(edit: misremembered name) MSEdgeRedirectbut it apparently does not quite work.So yeah, it is caused by a kind of malware, which you pay Microsoft for. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other choice due to our required software.
Enterprise IT infrastructure admin here, I’ve imaged thousands of windows laptops over a decade and dealt with Edge since it was implemented, never seen anything like this. I’m sure you’re confident in your abilities but you messed something up real bad or have malware of some kind. No question about it, this is not typical for any version of Edge.
messed something up real bad
You see me power-deleting Edge (including WebView) in the video, which is obviously a bad idea. This is a somewhat experimental setup I have so I don’t mind screwing things up a little bit.
malware
Unlikely. I follow very strict precautions. I cannot afford to have malware on top of my existing computer trouble.
so I don’t mind screwing things up a little bit.
Which you clearly did, and are trying to blame Edge. There’s plenty of things to shit on Edge for but user error is not one of them.
world-renowned, enterprise-level antivirus software running
lol. better just use defender next time.
edit: or not use windows.
Yes, I use Linux on my personal machines, and I’m not advocating for Windows (in case you haven’t noticed). I can also assure you, the AV has better hit rate and user rating than Defender.
Edge doesn’t react this way m8. No chromium browser behaves this way doesn’t matter how sketchy a browser is it wouldnt shower you with pop ups and forcefully stay open. Uninstall all your cookies don’t sign into any new accounts erase windows from your hard drive scorched earth style and reinstall windows 10 then change all your account passwords espescally important stuff with your bank details on it
Just think about it this way even experts can mess up time to time nothing wrong to admit you messed up. If anything it’s a good thing You can learn from this
I’ve had a similar thing happen before, Firefox kept opening several blank tabs every second. That time, the cause was a little more obvious: it kept calling itself to open a PDF because I had misconfigured it. I suspect a similar thing happened here – I did try to remove Edge, which may have broken something.
Rather than reinstall and reconfigure everything, which takes 4 hours I’ll just do an ESET virus scan and reset some relevant config. I don’t do personal stuff or banking on that computer anyway so I don’t think I’m really in danger.
Whatever works for you although if I was put in a smiliar scenario it’s better to be safe than to be sorry
Thanks, finally someome who understands (I don’t mind that you disagree, lots of people IRL do)
This is actual malware behavior though, not Microsoft’s usual “pls use Edge” shtick. If it’s not malware, something has still gone very wrong.
I don’t disagree with you. I could have still messed up in a subtle way but at least the consequences don’t seem to be too serious.
Anyway, I don’t think it’s (third party) malware (that is, not by me or Microsoft) for another reason: viruses and trojans are not what they used to be. Unlike the 1990s, you won’t find much modern malware that does nothing but annoys the user (corporations, other users and freeware vendors do it plenty). People do it fir profit and they make adware, ransomware and cryptostealers, not some script kiddie’s batch file in the Startup folder that opens all executables in System32 simultaneously.
When Firefox started opening several blank tabs every second, I immediately knew it wasn’t malware but a misconfiguration: turns out it was trying to open a PDF in itself. I think this is another little mistake I made.
Along with my personal ones I have a few windows 10/11 machines at work I manage and haven’t seen this happen, where the window just instantly re-opens like that.
Have you tried clearing the edge appdata folders to fully reset all the settings? Maybe some setting got screwed up.
Also maybe AV going haywire as a cause, lots of third party AV likes to do all kinds of weird stuff with your browsers. Windows defender is the go-to best option for windows these days, so if it turns out to be your third party AV you can pretty safely just get rid of it and switch back to defender.
I haven’t seen this behavior either but companies do partial “feature” rollouts all the time so I assume this is something like that.
Looks like a known issue https://github.com/rcmaehl/MSEdgeRedirect/issues/315
Thanks. I should have checked earlier before making a fool of myself. A lesson for me, I guess.
Looks like this may be a known issue for some users.
Ah so you also have the fake “china says euro is dead” ads that promote a scam shitcoin. I thought it was a local scam only for my country. I always flag those ads but they always come back with a different URL. Zero control from Microsoft
I once got Top 7 Luxury Cruise in (Landlocked) Czech Republic from Microsoft. Also, The Flight Price From
%user.location%(village of 200 people) To New York Will Surprise You
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I dread it every time I open it by accident.
Task manager was faster than waiting + dialogs.Well, Task Manager nor attempting to delete the executable normally helped in my case. Power deleting Edge (including WebView) is obviously a bad idea but faster than finding whatever mistake I made that led to this behavior. I can afford to do dumb stuff because the job is temporary, and I never downloaded any malware (according to VirusTotal) that would cause further problems.
Be aware that the new explorer.exe seems to be dependant on some parts on edge.
I believe I saw flashes of edge in windows explorer during a crashThat’s exactly what Microsoft did in the 1990s after an antitrust lawsuit for hindering free browser selection: integrated Internet Explorer into Explorer to have an excuse for having it preinstalled.
The EU is taking similar steps but I tgink Edge WebView will stay essential. Removing it on a laptop broke biometrics (aka Windows Hello: fingerprint sensor and face recognition) and I had to use a restore point. Seems sketchy to use a browser engine for essential security features – at this point, I would hope I had triggered some OS tamper-detection because the alternative is an OS whose login system is infected with an unpopular browser not because it enhances security but out of spite, and I don’t think exploiting legal loopholes leads to most secure solutions.
You downloaded a suspicious file of the Internet
anyone can summit code to github and while that stuff does get reviewed alot of malcious stuff goes unnoticed especially on a project of a smaller scale like thjsthat is executing code which is doing maclious things to your Web browser I’m a dumbass on the internet and even I know that’s a textbook piece of malware opThat’s what 1990s malware does. Modern malware either shows its own ads in your face (adware) or is stealthy while it mines crypto, exfiltrates your passwords / credit card info or encrypts all personal files.
You’re like WestEnd in this thread. Don’t take ot personally, I don’t blame you for the confusion, there is a lot of misleading media about malware behavior.
your web browser
That would be Firefox, and it works fine.
I’m going by the information ive got on hand from what I know you’ve installed a suspicious file on github which uninstalls edge which means it almost certainly has administrator permissions. Ontop of this anyone can summit code to github projects and while most of those maclious actors get caught a few can slip on in and reek chaos I know for an instant that edge doesn’t behave this way as I use it almost daily on my personal computer I know most chromium Web browsers especially the big main ones don’t behave this way also. I also know that if this github project is executing code in this way and manner that means it is textbook malware
Even if I am wrong and this isn’t malware. Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry op to take the proper precautions that are necessary to avoid all the unnecessary stress and hardship
Thank you for your kind words.
Hardship is part of life. I have more than I would like right now but that’s just how I am. Dunno, maybe should place myself preventively on suicide watch.
At least it’s a temporary, below minimum wage job so I don’t mind too much if the computer goes up in flames and I get fired. It will get wiped for the next wagie anyway.
MSER does not uninstall Edge BTW
Dang bro sounds like you got alot of on plate at the moment gl and gl in your career and future careers. I seriously do hope you all the best
Thanks. Maybe I should go buy another emotional support Blåhaj, the big one this time.
Very wholesome thread for someone who could well be an IRL Joker and @ShitOnABrick@lemmy.world.
Oh, and I love the community you moderate. Better fuel Huel!
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