I have something attached to firefox called vostaren search. is that you? or have i been hacked?

Question

I downloaded firefox. Later I tried to download open office, using firefox, then found something called vostaren search when I opened the firefox icon, so I removed firefox entirely from my computer, then waited a few days then re-downloaded firefox. Still have the vostaren attached to firefox. Iis that a legitimate part of firefox. or have I been hacked? Is there now a cookie that will cause firefox to direct me immediately to vostaren when I open firefox?

Answer 1

hi friendmozilla, no this is no legitimate part of firefox and sound like an issue with adware that might have been bundled with a download. in order to resolve that please perform all these steps:
# [[Reset Firefox – easily fix most problems|reset firefox]] (this will keep your bookmarks and passwords)
# afterwards go to the firefox menu ≡ > addons > extensions and in case there are still extensions listed there, disable them.
# finally run a full scan of your system with different security tools like the [http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free free version of malwarebytes] and [http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/ adwcleaner] to make sure that adware isn't present in other places of your system as well.
[[Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware]]