SafeBrowse Chrome/Firefox Miner Removal

Can’t Remove SafeBrowse hijacker virus? This page includes detailed SafeBrowse Removal instructions!

The SafeBrowse infection is mining for Bitcoins. In other words, it takes advantage of your machine to help cyber criminals gain profit. This program has been classified as a browser hijacker. Instead of providing accurate search results, the parasite exposes you to more infections. Forget all about the bogus functionalities SafeBrowse Miner promised. You’re stuck with an obsessive, tricky cyber infection. As soon as you spot its unwanted presence on board, you have to take measures. Get rid of the hijacker before it manages to cause you serious harm. Hijackers are extremely problematic but they are also secretive. That means SafeBrowse Miner mainly works in silence and behind your back. The hijacker leaves you oblivious to the fact your browsers have been modified. What modifications are we talking about? For starters, both your search engine and homepage get altered. They are now replaced with the parasite’s domain which is anything but reliable. Thanks to the hijacker’s persistence, you’re forced to use this domain when surfing the Web. Whether you want to use it or not is absolutely irrelevant. Crooks are only focused on gaining profit through the infamous pay-per-click mechanism. Hence, your browsing experience doesn’t matter. Your safety or the fact you’d get redirected to unsafe websites don’t matter either. You’re practically turning into a sponsor of crooks by keeping their virus on board. As mentioned, SafeBrowse Miner is immensely problematic. The parasite uses your PC resources thus testing out the limits of your patience. Your modified browsers now crash and freeze on a daily basis. Your PC speed is significantly slowed down. You might witness the Blue Screen of Death on occasions too. To top it all, you have to watch out for sponsored commercials. The hijacker redirects you but it might also generate some fake, corrupted pop-up ads. If you click the wrong commercial, you’ll worsen your already pretty bad situation. Is that a risk you’re willing to take? There are plenty of infections out there which are more destructive than a browser hijacker. To protect your machine from further threats, delete this program now.

How did I get infected with?

The most commonly used tactic has nothing to do with your permission. Hackers don’t waste their time waiting for your hep. On the contrary, they rely on your haste and distraction online. That is all it takes to download a vicious parasite – one wrong move. Needless to say, a single moment of negligence could cause you quite the damage. Unless you’re very careful, you may download a whole bunch of viruses in the blink of an eye. Pay attention when you deal with freeware or shareware bundles. Those offer all sorts of viruses a quick and easy infiltration method. We’d recommend that you opt for the Custom or Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. Rushing the installation gives you no information about the programs you download. To be in charge of the process, you have to take your time. Trust us when we say, having to remove infections would surely take more time than that. Deselect every single additional program you may spot in the bundle so it doesn’t end up on board. Remember, your caution will pay off in the long run.

Why is this dangerous?

All your browsers fall victims to the hijacker. That means you’re left unable to use any of them to surf the Web. Furthermore, SafeBrowse Miner adds a certain extension or a plugin to your browsers. It may flood your PC screen with sponsored commercials and various ads. The nuisance also takes up a lot of CPU memory so your machine underperforms. As if that wasn’t enough, SafeBrowse Miner might even generate some sponsored (and fake) software updates. Stay away from all web links you may stumble across due to the parasite’s presence. Clicking its search results, commercials or other pop-ups would be a mistake. To make the mess complete, the virus also steals your personal information. It spies on your browsing history, usernames, passwords. Your IP addresses get monitored also. That means hackers get free access to some incredibly sensitive, private details. By selling your data to third parties, crooks could easily gain more revenue. However, you may get involved in some financial fraud or even identity theft. To delete the virus for good, please follow our detailed manual removal guide down below.

How to Remove SafeBrowse virus

The SafeBrowse infection is specifically designed to make money to its creators one way or another. The specialists from various antivirus companies like Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Norton, Avast, ESET, etc. advise that there is no harmless virus.

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to remove the SafeBrowse infection. Please, follow the procedures in the exact order. Please, consider to print this guide or have another computer at your disposal. You will NOT need any USB sticks or CDs.

STEP 1: Track down SafeBrowse related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate SafeBrowse startup location

STEP 3: Delete SafeBrowse traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down SafeBrowse related processes in the computer memory

• Open your Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys simultaneously
• Carefully review all processes and stop the suspicious ones.

• Write down the file location for later reference.

Step 2: Locate SafeBrowse startup location

Reveal Hidden Files

• Open any folder
• Click on “Organize” button
  
• Choose “Folder and Search Options”
• Select the “View” tab
• Select “Show hidden files and folders” option
• Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”
• Click “Apply” and “OK” button

Clean SafeBrowse virus from the windows registry

• Once the operating system loads press simultaneously the Windows Logo Button and the R key.

• A dialog box should open. Type “Regedit”

• WARNING! be very careful when editing the Microsoft Windows Registry as this may render the system broken.

Depending on your OS (x86 or x64) navigate to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

• and delete the display Name: [RANDOM]

• Then open your explorer and navigate to: %appdata% folder and delete the malicious executable.

Clean your HOSTS file to avoid unwanted browser redirection

Navigate to %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/host

If you are hacked, there will be foreign IPs addresses connected to you at the bottom. Take a look below:

STEP 3 : Clean SafeBrowse traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the SafeBrowse by clicking on the little recycle bin
• Reset Google Chrome by Deleting the current user to make sure nothing is left behind

• Open Mozilla Firefox

• Press simultaneously Ctrl+Shift+A
• Disable the unwanted Extension
• Go to Help
• Then Troubleshoot information
• Click on Reset Firefox

• Open Internet Explorer

• On the Upper Right Corner Click on the Gear Icon
• Click on Internet options
• go to Toolbars and Extensions and disable the unknown extensions
• Select the Advanced tab and click on Reset

• Restart Internet Explorer

Step 4: Undo the damage done by SafeBrowse

This particular Virus may alter your DNS settings.

Attention! this can break your internet connection. Before you change your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS for SafeBrowse, be sure to write down the current server addresses on a piece of paper.

To fix the damage done by the virus you need to do the following.

• Click the Windows Start button to open the Start Menu, type control panel in the search box and select Control Panel in the results displayed above.
• go to Network and Internet
• then Network and Sharing Center
• then Change Adapter Settings
• Right-click on your active internet connection and click properties. Under the Networking tab, find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Left click on it and then click on properties. Both options should be automatic! By default it should be set to “Obtain an IP address automatically” and the second one to “Obtain DNS server address automatically!” If they are not just change them, however if you are part of a domain network you should contact your Domain Administrator to set these settings, otherwise the internet connection will break!!!

You must clean all your browser shortcuts as well. To do that you need to

• Right click on the shortcut of your favorite browser and then select properties.

• in the target field remove SafeBrowse argument and then apply the changes.
• Repeat that with the shortcuts of your other browsers.
• Check your scheduled tasks to make sure the virus will not download itself again.

How to Permanently Remove SafeBrowse Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your whole system or network and let all doors wide open for many other infections. To make sure manual removal is successful, we recommend to use a free scanner of any professional antimalware program to identify possible registry leftovers or temporary files.