I hope this is just a Firefox problem, but...

Hönö

I have already contacted F-Secure support about my Browsing Protection problem, but they have not responded yet, and I have a nagging feeling that there's more to it than just BP misconfiguration in Firefox.

The situation started on Fri 17th Feb, evening time. I was watching a video from a web site that is generally reliable, and I have no reason to believe that website had anything to do with the episode that followed. Anyway, I suddenly saw a pop-up, an error message about failing to save a pdf file in some TEMP location. I could not understand what application could be running in the behind, and the pop-up gave me no clues. I clicked OK and the pop-up went away. Next day (18th Feb) I updated some apps like Firefox, Thunderbird, Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, and the like. I also ran F-Secure full scan, almost to the end - I wanted to pause it, but there is no pause button, so it stopped, and then I had not time to wait and see it go though the whole scan again, so I went to bed. On Sunday, 19th Feb, when I opened my PC (from sleep) strange things started to happen. First, F-Secure asked me if it's OK to let "SweetIM Setup" to modify my system. I said no, and had to repeat that several times, possibly up to ten times altogether. Then I started up Firefox, and got a notice about a new add-on, "SeetIM Toolbar". I said no, I don't want it, but when I opened the list of add-ons, it was there, disabled. I closed FF and looked up the folder in which the add-on was in my personal Extensions folder. I wanted to delete that folder, but by accident, deleted the whole Extensions folder. I started up FF again, but the malware had already taken it over - instead of my homepage, I saw a hovering pop-up saying I have won an iPhone, and the SweetIM Toolbar was also there. I didn't touch anything in the winodw, or the window itself. Instead, I opened Task Manager and killed the Firefox process. Then I started FF with option -safe-mode. That didn't help any; it was still taken over. Oh, and at some point during all this, I also ran the full scan again, and a few times more, but it always took a suspiciously short time.

My next decision was to restore my computer to an earlier, safe state. After that, I started doing the apps updates again. What installers I had lost I downloaded on my work PC and moved to my home PC via USB stick. I didn't do any (much?) web browsing before I had them all reinstalled. Anyhow, when I started Firefox, I could not see Browsing Protection there. It is listed in the extensions list, but I cannot see the icons anywhere, not even if I open Customize. The whole BP toolbar is gone too. The only place where I can see the add-on is in the Extensions list, where it shows up as active. I checked F-Secure web site to find a download for the add-on, but instead found the new F-Secure Internet Security 2012, so I downloaded and installed it. However, the installation did not fix the Firefox BP problem at all. There is also another extension, a helper program provided by my ISP, that has the same problem. Besides, when I open F-Secure settings, the subscription key is not the same I had before the upgrade. How come the installer changes my subscription key without telling me about it? Also, a full scan still takes suspiciously short time.

Now, with all these details piling up, I am very unsure if my computer is safe. Can you please tell me which parts do not seem all that worrying to you, and which parts do?

klauzser

I am certain that it is. Try downgrading your Firefox to 3.6 version. That is how I fixed this type of problem.

MJ-perComp

Hi, can you please check in the GUI from Download if yll updates got installed propperly?

Hönö

I do not see anything out of order.

 

Since my first posting, the BP extension has become disabled. However, when it still was marked active in extensions list, and I could not find icons anywhere, there was one tiny little spec of it left in the toolbar: there was a small triangel, which I could click and it showed me a menu; the menu associated with one of the icons. I am saying this to explain that I have not bothered to read through th eother thread about BP, because it seems clear to me that my problem is quite separate from that discussion.

MJ-perComp

You need to check from the F-Secure GUI not in Firefox!

Hönö

I can't imagine why you'd think I checked it in Firefox.

Hönö

Support has finally replied - to give the standard instructions on how to use the rescue CD to check the computer, nothing about the BP problem I reported to them. Great.

Now, BP and the other extension that are now in a non-working state are both third-party extensions that I have not installed myself, not directly anyway. F-Secure installs BP and an application provided by my ISP installs the other extension. So I do not have much control over them, other than allowing them to exist. Only these two are in a bad state; all extensions installed via Mozilla site are working fine. In other words, Mozilla folks cannot help me. Only F-Secure can help with BP, but F-Secure support completely ignored what I said about BP.

 

What can I do?

 

Since F-Secure now has BP disabled, I suppose I can't do anything, except wait - wait until it becomes enabled again, and the problem with missing icons reappears. And then I have to start asking the same questions again. Here and from support. Is that all I can do?