Rocket Speed Booster browser hijacker (virus) - Free Instructions

What is Rocket Speed Booster browser hijacker?

Rocket Speed Booster by Andre Squires is spread using deceptive techniques

Rocket Speed Booster injects ads into the browser

Rocket Speed Booster is a browser hijacker that changes the main settings, like the homepage, new tab address, and search engine. It does this to monetize users' activity by injecting ads in the search results and redirecting them to promotional pages. Ads that start showing up are not always trustworthy and as a result, can lead to monetary losses, installations of other PUPs^[1] (potentially unwanted programs), or even malware.

This extension is specifically created to infect people who use Mozilla Firefox as their browser. That the add-on is fake, indicates different promotional selling points on different sources. On one page it says “Tired of websites loading slowly? Time to update them!” and on the other one, it says that you will be able to enjoy ad-free browsing. These are two completely different functions.

Usually, legitimate extensions have only one ability that they try to perfect. This could be providing users with automatic ad and dangerous page blocking or the best coupon code application while shopping online. If you see many claims, this should raise a red flag immediately.

Browser hijackers belong to the PUA category and it is a growing problem on the Internet. The first issue is that it is hard for web stores to decide what is an unwanted application. One user could find the program useful in some ways, and the other one might think that it is a virus. That is why users sometimes infect themselves with hijackers even from official web stores.

Distribution techniques

The hijacker is promoted by fake Firefox update alerts. A separate website – gpughomzxuvg.com is used to spread the add-on. A prompt is shown on the page which says that an “Important Firefox update” is available. Shortly after that, a second prompt appears as a “Message from Firefox Browser”:

Firefox Browser recommends to add Rocket Speed Booster to your browser.

As a result, your Firefox Browser will be completely ads free.

Please follow the instructions to install the extension immediately. This way you will say good-bye to ads forever.

Fake plugins just like this one, often have dedicated websites that are meant to be spread around the Internet to promote it. Usually, they are placed on unregulated websites like illegal streaming platforms^[2] that are full of deceptive ads and sneaky redirects. Fake prompts often fool less IT-savvy people that do not know about phishing^[3] methods that fraudsters use online.

Rocket Speed Booster is promoted to Mozilla Firefox users

Sometimes these promotional sites redirect users straight to official web stores, which makes everything look legitimate. But as we mentioned above, hijackers can be found there also. Users have to take matters into their own hands and do their own research. Try to find reviews, ratings, press about the application. See if you can find any information about who developed it. Often, there is not much you can find about these types of applications and that is definitely a thing you should look out for.

Remove the extension that causes advertisements to appear

An extension is attached to the browser when users click "Add"

When you are adding a plugin to your browser, you should pay attention to the prompts. Often, they will give all the information about what the app will do, and what permissions you need to grant it. As you can see in the picture above, before the installation, the prompt says that the extension will have permission to access your data for all websites and access browser tabs.

Another thing you should do is read the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use if they are available because often, these types of applications not only inject ads and generate revenue from pay-per-click advertising,^[4] but also by collecting browsing-related data and selling it to advertising networks.

They use cookies to do that, and the good news is that you can delete them anytime. Many users do not know the dangers that cookies^[5] could pose and many forget that they exist and never clear them. That is why we recommend getting a tool like FortectIntego to do it for you. The next thing you need to do is go to your browser settings, disable and remove the unwanted extension:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click on the Menu (three horizontal lines at the top-right of the window).
2. Select Add-ons.
3. In here, select unwanted plugin and click Remove.

Reset the homepage:

1. Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
2. Choose Options.
3. Under Home options, enter your preferred site that will open every time you newly open the Mozilla Firefox.

Clear cookies and site data:

1. Click Menu and pick Options.
2. Go to Privacy & Security section.
3. Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
4. Click on Clear Data…
5. Select Cookies and Site Data, as well as Cached Web Content and press Clear.

Reset Mozilla Firefox

If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
2. Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.
3. Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox…
4. Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.

Scan your system to find PUAs

If the previous removal method did not work, you most likely have a potentially unwanted program operating in your system and it is not simply an extension problem. In that case, simply removing it and changing your settings back, will not work. They will get reverted again until you completely eliminate the intruder operating in the background.

Manual removal of a PUA can get a little complicated if the program is not named the same. You might delete the wrong apps if you attempt to do this on your own. SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner or Malwarebytes are great professional security tools that can automatically scan your machine for suspicious processes, and eliminate them completely with all the related files. If you still want to do this yourself, you can follow the step-by-step instructions for Windows and Mac operating systems below:

Windows 10/8:

1. Enter Control Panel into Windows search box and hit Enter or click on the search result.
2. Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
3. From the list, find the entry of the suspicious program.
4. Right-click on the application and select Uninstall.
5. If User Account Control shows up, click Yes.
6. Wait till uninstallation process is complete and click OK.

Windows 7/XP:

1. Click on Windows Start > Control Panel located on the right pane (if you are Windows XP user, click on Add/Remove Programs).
2. In Control Panel, select Programs > Uninstall a program.
3. Pick the unwanted application by clicking on it once.
4. At the top, click Uninstall/Change.
5. In the confirmation prompt, pick Yes.
6. Click OK once the removal process is finished.

Mac:

1. From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
2. In the Applications folder, look for all related entries.
3. Click on the app and drag it to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash)

To fully remove an unwanted app, you need to access Application Support, LaunchAgents, and LaunchDaemons folders and delete relevant files:

1. Select Go > Go to Folder.
2. Enter /Library/Application Support and click Go or press Enter.
3. In the Application Support folder, look for any dubious entries and then delete them.
4. Now enter /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders the same way and terminate all the related .plist files.

You may remove virus damage with a help of FortectIntego. SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner and Malwarebytes are recommended to detect potentially unwanted programs and viruses with all their files and registry entries that are related to them.