The edge browser hacked through m-dns ?

[William Gaatjes]

Hi all, one of the reasons my sickness is prolonged, is the fear i have since my computer has been hacked.
That is troublesome for my already constantly elevated cortisol levels which i have since i first got SARS-CoV2 around 2020 and my alopecia universalis happened end of 2020, extreme tiredness, brainfog and other symptoms.
My mother who deceased 2 years ago was also very ill. That was also very bad for my cortisol levels.

Anyway, probably stealing my personal information.
Stealing my electronic and software ideas, which is stupid because i share most of my ideas often as common open source or public available.
I suspect my personal facial images of myself and girlfriend or dates at the time have been used to create deepfake photos or deepfake videos. I know it is possible now with consumer desktop systems.

I have a strong indication that several computers in my neighbourhood around Purmerend are hacked through edge or through having local access.
Mine was hacked too in 2022 . Perhaps because of physical access by using copies of my housekeys.
I am still working on it with the police who for a reason unknown to me make a lot of mistakes while listening to me and writing down the statement.
Something i am still working on.

Or the the hack was through the service provider, perhaps because the service provider was hacked or the perpetrator works for the service provider. Which is a strong gutfeeling from me.

But anyway, i have the feeling that something is wrong with edge.
Like there is some hidden administrator feature in windows 10 or windows 11.
Or that there is something hidden going on with my pc.
I had contact with an external ICT company who checked my pc.
I had contact with the virus scanner suite manufacturer who i allowed remote access to check my machine.
But i still feel something is wrong.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I get instances of MS Edge running in the background, with a number like (5) after them (process count?) varying.

Then if I open edge, I get another named instance.

It's very wierd. I get black squares that flash on my screen, after a boot/reboot or resume. Often, three of them, like CMD windows flashing by.

 

[lantis3]

You can disable Edge running in the background

Why Is Microsoft Edge Running in the Background? | Microsoft Edge

Notice Microsoft Edge running in the background even when the browser isn’t open? Find out why this happens, how it benefits your browsing, and what to do about it, if anything.

www.microsoft.com

 

[mikeymikec]

You also get additional edge processes running in the background if widgets.exe (I think that's what it's called) is running.

 

[pmv]

I'm getting slightly paranoid about Edge - there's definitely some weird stuff that MS are getting up to, with trying to force your non-Edge browsers to use Bing. Seems to relate to Edge updates, not sure.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm getting slightly paranoid about Edge - there's definitely some weird stuff that MS are getting up to, with trying to force your non-Edge browsers to use Bing. Seems to relate to Edge updates, not sure.

I've seen that once or twice on my customers' computers (out of hundreds). I assume user 'error' until I have more information.

 

[pmv]

I've seen that once or twice on my customers' computers (out of hundreds). I assume user 'error' until I have more information.

Well, my firewall/security thing has for months been periodically telling me that something is trying to change my browser settings for Chrome - it was BGAUPsell that was the culprit, then it was BingChatInstaller. As far as I can make out, it seems to be Microsoft's doing.

What is BGAUpsell.exe

My firewall/security software said this executable was trying to modify my browser settings. It happened immediately after Microsoft Edge asked to update. The very name of this thing sounds highly suspect. When I google it there aren't many hits, and several claim it's a virus, but at least...

forums.anandtech.com

But I'm feeling a bit paranoid myself these days.

There's this, the fact that I keep getting a friend request from a complete stranger on Epic games (and I've barely installed anything from that platform, certainly don't engage with any on-line games there, only have an account for the single-player freebies), and this weird ongoing problem with my PC clock being frozen (which seems to be a motherboard-related hardware fault), and a general backdrop of what seems to be an epidemic of scammers and fraudsters in this country (I don't even count the regular phishing attempt phone calls I get - "This is the security department of your bank"...literally, word-for-word, that''s what they say "your bank" meaning "we don't know what the name of the bank we work for is, but whatever it is it's the one you use").

 

[mikeymikec]

@pmv

Interesting. From Linux I did a quick search of my Windows install for that file name but didn't find it. Admittedly I don't have Google Chrome installed. I wonder why MS would only target Chrome (or Chromium-based software); sure it's the most used browser but surely there has to be more reason than that.

 

[WelshBloke]

Aren't you supposed to be able to uninstall edge in the EU now?

I'm very much hoping that the UK is included in this.

 

[pmv]

@pmv

Interesting. From Linux I did a quick search of my Windows install for that file name but didn't find it. Admittedly I don't have Google Chrome installed. I wonder why MS would only target Chrome (or Chromium-based software); sure it's the most used browser but surely there has to be more reason than that.

Found many discussions of it on the web, but didn't find any definitive answers as to what it's about.

e.g.

https://www.reddit.com/r/computerviruses/comments/149x25h/bgaupsell_what_is_this_bing_popup

I do worry that maybe it's a symptom of something malicious on this computer (that is, something more malicious than Microsoft's usual evil behaviour). But no anti-virus scan seems to find anything and most references I've found to it seem to blame MS.

I did what this comment suggested (though I added '...ANDDIE', for emphasis - I expect that will increase the effectiveness). But then it happened again with BingChatInstaller.

Just had this crop up on my PC for the first time. I dealt with it by killing BGAUpsell from Task Manager, going to C:\Windows\Temp\MUBSTemp, renaming the file to BGAUpsell.exe.FUCKOFF, taking security ownership of that folder, disabling security permission inheritance on that folder, and recursively removing SYSTEM level access to that folder or the files in it.

 

[mikeymikec]

Found many discussions of it on the web, but didn't find any definitive answers as to what it's about.

e.g.

https://www.reddit.com/r/computerviruses/comments/149x25h/bgaupsell_what_is_this_bing_popup

I do worry that maybe it's a symptom of something malicious on this computer (that is, something more malicious than Microsoft's usual evil behaviour). But no anti-virus scan seems to find anything and most references I've found to it seem to blame MS.

If the executable is signed by Microsoft and it wants you to use Bing, let's call a spade a spade

I'm doing some clean installs on new laptops over the next day or so, I could try installing Chrome on one and see what happens. I've set it as the default to just to up the ante. When configuring Chrome, a thought occurred to me with Google's recent extra ad-targetting settings, maybe bgaupsell is trying to head that effort off?

 

[William Gaatjes]

What is really weird and reminds me of the old days : Internet explorer during the windows 95,98se, w2000 and windows XP, days with all security flaws. The time that the Opera browser, a virus scanner and a good ol' software firewall with all features like sygate at the time...
I do have to say that this also works with firefox and probably also chrome...

If you click the link below the image, when clicking on open color setting, the settings (cogwheel) menu window will open from windows 10 and probably windows 11 as wel.
Is this not a security flaw ? Or a possible vector ? If i have the right vocabulary ?


See image,

change taskbar color windows 10 site:microsoft.com - Bing

Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.

www.bing.com