Firefox starts of its own accord at start-up

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
guycruls
Posts: 10
Joined: October 10th, 2006, 2:35 pm

Firefox starts of its own accord at start-up

Post by guycruls »

when I restart my machine, Firefox starts of its own accord and goes to this website:

http://www.home.ro/no_user.phtml

The problem started after my DVD drive on my laptop stopped responding.

Anybody knows what this is?

Thanks
teoli2003
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Joined: November 10th, 2005, 2:54 am
Contact:

Post by teoli2003 »

Check your computer for malware.

See if this site is not in your startup items.
guycruls
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Joined: October 10th, 2006, 2:35 pm

Firefox starting of its own accord

Post by guycruls »

teoli2003 wrote:Check your computer for malware.

See if this site is not in your startup items.


Thanks for feedback.
I have up to date Norton Antivirus and I have run spybot for spyware.
In Firefox internet options, my homepage remains Google, but still, Firefox starts of its own accord and goes to that website...
Adrian Bell
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Joined: September 3rd, 2005, 8:34 am
Location: Darlington, UK
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Post by Adrian Bell »

Go to "Start > Run" type in "msconfig" and press "OK", look in the startup tab for anything to do with Firefox, or any URLs.
guycruls
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Joined: October 10th, 2006, 2:35 pm

Firefox starting of its own accord.

Post by guycruls »

Adrian Bell wrote:Go to "Start > Run" type in "msconfig" and press "OK", look in the startup tab for anything to do with Firefox, or any URLs.


Thanks Adrian,
Ran msconfig and went to startup, looked up programmes automatically started.
A number of these are completely cryptic and could be anything. Impossible to untick programmes that might be essential to the system.
Still, I was able to untick a couple of pesky utils that don't need to run at start-up.
This Firefox starting up and going to that website is doing my head in!!!
hary uk
Posts: 38
Joined: April 19th, 2006, 1:36 pm

Post by hary uk »

If your AV and Spyware checks found nothing, HJT should find whats causing this.

Read the instructions and download from http://s89223352.onlinehome.us/mirror/hjt/ and then post in a HJT forum here.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Malware_ ... e-f37.html
sheehan
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Joined: March 30th, 2004, 4:07 pm
Location: Canada

Post by sheehan »

I think it is more likely that this is just cruft in a startup folder / process that is launching the default web browser, rather than a full-blown malware case.

guycruls, have you checked the startup folder in your start Menu? Find anything odd there? Are any of the Commands in the MSCONFIG Startup tab a web location rather than pointing to a file? When Firefox starts up, does it go directly to home.ro or is there a delay and then it finds the page? -Maybe a google re-direct or something?
OneRook
Posts: 1
Joined: October 11th, 2006, 7:43 pm

Post by OneRook »

I have found similar issues on a couple different clients' machines. ](*,) Both have current Norton AV and SpyBot running at all times.
Apparently a Worm.Feeb varient infected these. This article gives a great decription and some indicators to look for in the troubled "toaster".

http://www.virusbtn.com/Session-5f8add9 ... 0604-feebs

One was able to be cleaned the others entailed a format/u to fully eliminate the problems. :D
Bowling Green, KY <br>
Home of the only American Sportscar
guycruls
Posts: 10
Joined: October 10th, 2006, 2:35 pm

Firefox starts of its own accord at startup

Post by guycruls »

Thanks hary, sheehan and OneRook for helpful posts.

1. OneRook: this stuff is a bit to technical for me to dig I'm afraid. Thanks all the same.
2. sheehan: Firefox goes straight to the website - no delay. Here's a list of some of suspected programs in startup via msconfig.exe:

hkcmd
igfxpers
jusched
Ifrmewrk
isuspm
issch
ccApp
mcregwiz
MSKDetct
Igfxtray
ehtray
dumprep 0 –k
PWRISOVM
svchost

See anything suspicious in that list?

3. hary uk: I've done as you suggested. I've posted the log on the 'internet and browsers' forum at Geeks to Go.

Thanks again to all for supportive posts.

Cheers

Guy
Racer
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Joined: November 18th, 2002, 11:07 am

Post by Racer »

Just to test, I suggest you change your default browser back to IE, and restart Windows. If IE now comes up, then you know for certain it is a startup entry that is simply opening a URL in the default browser.
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the-edmeister
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Joined: February 25th, 2003, 12:51 am
Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Post by the-edmeister »

This problem sounds like the one that RenegadeX and I have been following thru a number of MozillaZine threads. He has posted the results of his research here:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 75#2520175
His thread isn't identical to what is being discussed here, but I think it is close enough to warrant looking at and thinking about.

I have 7 different threads bookmarked that have very similar complaints about Firefox running upon startup of the OS or PC, or there being multiple Firefox.exe processes running (one at startup and another when the user starts Firefox themself).


Ed
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Mine has wandered off and I'm out looking for it.
rtk
Posts: 275
Joined: January 17th, 2005, 4:33 pm

Re: Firefox starts of its own accord at startup

Post by rtk »

@guycruls:

You definitely have an infection.... the give-away is the svchost in your startup (as shown in msconfig). You will (and should) have one or more svchosts running on your system, but none of them should be showing up in the startup group. A variety of malware has used the name svchost (in a unique location, the real one is in %windir%\system32) as a way to avoid detection on casual inspection. See here for a little more info.

I'd recommend making your way over to the spywarewarrior.com (or equivalent) forums for assistance with removing the infection.

Edit: most malware nowadays is self-repairing, so simply unchecking that svchost most likely will not yield any benefit.

Edit2: @OneRook: Format is never necessary to clean a system, it's "easier" sometimes, but never strictly necessary.
rtk
old FatJohn
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Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Re: Firefox starts of its own accord at startup

Post by old FatJohn »

rtk wrote:Format is never necessary to clean a system, it's "easier" sometimes, but never strictly necessary.
rtk, MS disagrees with you there http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/05 ... mea_culpa/
rtk
Posts: 275
Joined: January 17th, 2005, 4:33 pm

Re: Firefox starts of its own accord at startup

Post by rtk »

FatJohn wrote:
rtk wrote:Format is never necessary to clean a system, it's "easier" sometimes, but never strictly necessary.
rtk, MS disagrees with you there http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/05 ... mea_culpa/

Simply a case of a reporter taking a statement out of context, plus we were talking about a single system, not a corporate network of thousands of machines that needs to be cleaned yesterday. That's where the "easier" part comes in.

Plus, it's hardly "MS" that said it, it was a PM at a dog and pony show. If one looks hard enough, they could probably find reports that even a format isn't good enough, and incineration of the entire system is the only sure way.

When the experts at the various spyware forums recommend a reformat, it's because it'd be too time consuming to do otherwise, particularly for an "average user" seeking help on a forum, and will normally be restricted to instances where multiple backdoor trojans have been active for a lengthy period of time (the real risk isn't from the trojan, it's from anyone using the backdoor, in which case identity theft is the real issue, and a format won't really help you there either).

Anyway, I stand by my suggestion that the svchost entry in his startup group is highly suspect, and the original problem is not really an Fx issue, and that his specific infection is probably not that severe to bring up reformatting anything.
rtk
old FatJohn
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Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by old FatJohn »

Well, we definitely agree that it's not a Firefox problem... :mrgreen:
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