Fw: [WEB4LIB] Xupiter Hijacks Browsers

[Donna]

This is almost impossible to get rid of. I had to reformat my (personal)
hard drive a few months ago after it hi-jacked my browser. None of the fixes
posted on the Web would work-it lodged itself into the registry and could
not be removed.The new version of Ad-Aware will find it and take care of it.
You will not even  know  you have it until you reopen your browser and it
has become your home page-it's called a drive-by download and  is riding in
on other Websites.. Going back under Tools-Internet Options and changing
back to your original home page will work only temporarily, if at all. If
you put it in a Google search you will see how much and how long it has been
a menace.The following is from Spywareinfo at
http://www.spywareinfo.com/newsletter/archives/september-2002/09212002.php.
Please note that none of the uninstalls worked and actually may do more
harm.
A new "drive-by downloader" has come onto the scene recently. Xupiter.com's
browser toolbar has been finding its way onto the computers of countless
people via activex installation, and people all over the net have been
running around in circles trying to figure out what to do with it. There is
an enormous thread at the message boards about this which nearly broke the
record for replies to a single topic, and smashed the record for page views
with nearly 7,000 hits. [Edit Dec. 14. It's now had over 20,000 views]

Spybot S&D will soon be updated to handle this software and the other
spyware removal companies have been sent the relevant information. If your
company produces spyware/adware/hijacker/<insert term here> removal software
and you haven't already been receiving notification of potential new targets
from me, please contact me to give me an appropriate contact address.

If you have this thing installed and wish to get rid of it now, the manual
instructions are as follows (with apologies to Tony Klein for snitching his
instructions):

Donna Muse

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Sullivan" <rsullivan at sals.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 3:26 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Xupiter Hijacks Browsers


> According to a story in Wired (mentioned on Eric Meyer's site),
>
> <http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57467,00.html>
>
> Xupiter is a browser toolbar which changes home page and search settings
> to Xupiter's site.  We have had infestations of similar pests in our
> Gates PC lab.  This one sounds like it's particularly hard to get rid
> of.
>
> Bob Sullivan  <rsullivan at sals.edu>
> Schenectady County Public Library (NY)  <http://www.scpl.org/>
> Schenectady Digital History Archive
> <http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>
>
>