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DuckDuckGo bug or virus?

CelticRose

Graduate Poster
CelticRose
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
1,617
Location
Mesa, AZ
Within the past few days I've noticed an intermittent problem with DuckDuckGo in Firefox. I'm not sure if it's a problem with DuckDuckGo itself or if my computer has a virus. I'm running Windows 7 and whatever the latest version of Firefox is. I have DuckDuckGo set as my homepage.

When I open Firefox and start entering a search, sometimes it autocompletes with a spam phrase (e.g. domino's when I try to type something beginning with d, or pizza hut if I try to type something beginning with p) and won't let me erase it and type what I want to type. If I close the browser and then reopen it, it starts behaving normally, although it can take a few tries.

It doesn't do this every time. Most of the time when I try to use DuckDuckGo it behaves normally.

I've run scans with both McAfee and Windows Defender and didn't find anything. Other than this, my computer is running normally. Firefox seems to be running normally too. I tried using DuckDuckGo in Chrome & IE on my PC and the DuckDuckGo app & Chrome on my Android tablet and couldn't replicate the error, but due to the intermittent nature of the problem that doesn't really tell me anything. I normally use Google when I use Chrome, and I seldom use IE at all.

After much Googling and DuckDuckGoing, the only mention of the problem I could find is a thread with no replies on the DuckDuckGo forum.
https://duck.co/forum/thread/13719/somethings-wrong-here-at-the-initial-ddg-search-w

Has anybody else experienced this?

Any ideas on what to do about it?

Thanks. :)
 
Sounds like some semi-malicious add-on in Firefox. You should take a good hard look at the list (Menu->Add-ons->Extensions or something like that) and remove everything that you haven't consciously installed. If that doesn't help, try to deactivate some you have installed (if any) to see if they might be the culprit.
 
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Childlike Empress said:
Sounds like some semi-malicious add-on in Firefox. You should take a good hard look at the list (Menu->Add-ons->Extensions or something like that) and remove everything that you haven't consciously installed. If that doesn't help, try to deactivate some you have installed (if any) to see if they might be the culprit.
Click to expand...
Okay, I just checked and there's nothing there that shouldn't be. I haven't installed any add-ons. There's nothing in there but the standard stuff, i.e. Microsoft, McAfee, etc.
 
Childlike Empress said:
Microsoft, McAfee? As Firefox add-ons? That doesn't sound right. Are you sure you looked inside Firefox? I mean like this.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's where I checked. And I just double-checked and my homepage has the correct URL.

These are my plugins. I'm confident that none of them are malicious. The names don't look exactly like they do in the Add-ons Manager because Firefox has protected that and you can't copy and paste from that page. I clicked on "Check to see if your plugins are up to date" and copied and pasted from the resulting page.

Adobe Flash Player
Shockwave Flash 18.0 r0

Java Runtime Environment
NPRuntime Script Plug-in Library for Java(TM) Deploy

Adobe Reader
Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape

QuickTime Plug-in
The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.

Java Runtime Environment
Next Generation Java Plug-in 11.45.2 for Mozilla browsers

Silverlight Plug-In
5.1.40416.0

WildTangent Games App V2 Presence Detector (v. 4.0.5.19)
WildTangent Games App V2 Presence Detector

Citrix Online Web Deployment Plugin 1.0.0.104 (v. 1.0.0.104)
Citrix Online App Detector Plugin

Shockwave for Director (v. 12.1.8.158)
Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 12.1.8.158

McAfee SecurityCenter (v. 14.0.1029.0)
McAfee MSC FF plugin DLL

Microsoft Office 2010 (v. 14.0.4730.1010)
Office Authorization plug-in for NPAPI browsers

McAfee Virtual Technician (v. 7.5.0.3093)
McAfee Virtual Technician plugin

Google Update (v. 1.3.27.5)
Google Update

Windows Live™ Photo Gallery (v. 15.4.3538.513)
NPWLPG
Click to expand...

Everything there is from companies that I'm familiar with. The WildTangent plugin is for games that HP installed on my computer. The Citrix plugin is for a webinar host.
 
Those are plug-ins, not add-ons. Try the entry "Extensions" (I think, mine speaks German) two above "Plug-Ins" in the sidebar to the left of the add-ons Manager, like in the screenshot in my link (which speaks Dutch, though). The one with the green puzzle piece icon.
 
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Childlike Empress said:
Those are plug-ins, not add-ons. Try the entry "Extensions" (I think, mine speaks German) two above "Plug-Ins" in the sidebar to the left of the add-ons Manager, like in the screenshot in my link (which speaks Dutch, though). The one with the green puzzle piece icon.
Click to expand...
Ah, we seem to be separated by a common language here. In my Firefox, all plug-ins and extensions are collectively called add-ons and are accessed via the Add-ons Manager. If I click on Add-ons in the main menu it takes me directly to the plug-ins I listed above.

I only have 2 extensions: HP Smart Print and McAfee SiteAdvisor. Both of those are legit.

My other options under the Add-ons Manger are Appearance, where the only thing is the default theme, and Services, which is empty.
 
Hmm, well then it seems to be something else. But if it only appears in Firefox, it should have something to do with it, not with the DuckDuckGo website.

Just counted: I have 19 extensions running. :covereyes
 
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Childlike Empress said:
But if it only appears in Firefox, it should have something to do with it, not with the DuckDuckGo website.
Click to expand...
That may just be because the only place I normally use the DuckDuckGo site is on Firefox. I use the app, not the site, on my Android tablet. And I use Google when I'm using Chrome. I don't use IE.

FWIW, I've tested DuckDuckGo every time I've opened Firefox since I started this thread, and it's behaving itself. But since this only happens once in a while, I can't really tell if the problem has gone away or not.
 
Damien Evans said:
I'd bet McAfee is the problem. Awful, awful program.
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I've never had any problems with it, and I've been using it for years. This current plug-in was installed in April, and the DuckDuckGo problem didn't start until a few days ago.

Also, I can't imagine how a McAfee plug-in designed to block malware would create spam in a search engine. I really don't think McAfee is that desperate to make me search for "Pizza Hut coupons" or "Domino's coupons". :p

Really, if you're going to knee-jerk hate on a particular brand, at least do so in a logical manner.

And, no, I don't want a Mac. :p
 
CelticRose said:
I've never had any problems with it, and I've been using it for years. This current plug-in was installed in April, and the DuckDuckGo problem didn't start until a few days ago.

Also, I can't imagine how a McAfee plug-in designed to block malware would create spam in a search engine. I really don't think McAfee is that desperate to make me search for "Pizza Hut coupons" or "Domino's coupons". :p

Really, if you're going to knee-jerk hate on a particular brand, at least do so in a logical manner.

And, no, I don't want a Mac. :p
Click to expand...

:confused: I've never even owned anything by Apple. Mcafee is well known for being awful. The first thing that comes up as a suggestion when you type Mcafee is into google is "Mcafee is a virus".
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/mcafee_antivirus.html
http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-mcafee-is-still-at-the-top-of-my-not-recommended-list/
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/mcafee-c292724.html
https://ericolon.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/10-reasons-not-use-mcafee-antivirus/
http://blog.sfgate.com/ybenjamin/2010/04/21/mcafee-the-anti-virus-that-mutated-into-a-virus/
 
Looks like one of the government servers all duckduckgo traffic goes through to report it to the NSA got hacked.
 
Dancing David said:
CelticRose, if it doesn't resolve I would suggest a few cleaners
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/

They do a reasonable job on adware
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'll keep those in mind.

For now, I'm not worrying about it too much. I haven't had it happen again since the OP, and when it has happened it's just been a minor annoyance. Right now I think I'll just wait and see what, if anything, happens.
 
And it's back.

I looked at Dancing David's suggested cleaners, and I don't think they fit my situation. Both of them seem to be designed to clean up the junkware that you get if you don't uncheck the boxes when you download a program. I haven't downloaded anything recently, and I always uncheck the boxes. The second one, Junkware Removal Tool, is mentioned in a couple of threads on Bleeping Computer where folks say that after running the tool Firefox won't launch, so I definitely don't want to use that one.

So, I downloaded the free version of AVG and ran a full scan (and uninstalled it afterwards; I'm not running more than one antivirus program at a time), and it found nothing.
 
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