Cicens.live Ads Virus. How to delete?

Written by Valdis Koks

Cicens.live search hijacker is a type of malware that infuses into your WIndows, and after that modifies the search engine settings in your web browser to one which it is paid for. It also makes some unwanted modifications that can lead to private data leaks, in addition to other malware penetration. In this post, you will see the guideline of Cicens.live hijacker removal in several options, as well as also the technique of making your browser just as good as new.

icon hijacker - Do I really need it?

Cicens.live Info

Name Cicens.live extension
Type Browser hijacker1
Short Description The unwanted software that amends important browser settings without the user’s permission.
Symptoms The Cicens.live hijacker replaces the browser parameters set by the users and replaces these settings with its own values.
Distribution Method Bundling with Freeware or Shareware, misleading pop-up ads produced by adware.
Detection Tool Inspect If Your System Has Been Affected by the Cicens.live hijacker.

The ways of injection of Cicens.live search hijackers are numerous. Most of them come from the malware dispersing through the malvertising or malevolent links of various internet sites. Sometimes, your system might be contaminated with this virus through the trojan-downloader, which is utilized to disperse different other malware. There is a solitary form of this undesirable program – browser plugin that might build into any web browser which supports the add-on installation2.

You will not likely install this plugin on your own, because their names are pretty suspicious, and also the usefulness is really controversial. The “creators” of Cicens.live hijacker normally specify that it can save the .doc/.docx documents from the web pages already to .pdf format, or to download the whole website on your disk. It is pretty tough to picture if someone may be needed in such features in 2023, when the Internet access is not time-limited and every PC has the ability to open the needed .docx files at Google Docs.

Nevertheless, besides their impracticality, they can effortlessly be located in the Chrome Web Store. Naturally, virus experts sound the alarm regarding such spam right into the official source of browser extensions, requiring the Google reaction – getting rid of these extensions from their site. But they are still not hurrying to deal with that safety issue.

Icon - Your PC hijacker

Is the Cicens.live virus?

At the first blush, you can believe that these redirects are only irritating, but not dangerous. Because of this factor a great deal of users are just playing for time as opposed to eliminating this malware, obtaining more and more chances of being contaminated with numerous other viruses, which are much more major than Cicens.live is.

Besides the altered search engine or search results, you may additionally see various advertisements even on those internet sites that do not have any kind of promotions on it by default. And you may easily misclick while shutting off the ad, and begin the downloading of an unfamiliar file, which may be a malware, or a potentially undesirable application, or perhaps ransomware – whatever the maintainers of this hijacker want.

If your browser is damaged due to the Azorult trojan activity, the system may begin malfunctioning in the near future – this symptome is just one of the most typical in case of trojan injection.

Icon - remove Cicens.live hijacker

How to remove Cicens.live?

First, let me say several words about prevention the Cicens.live virus penetration. It is extremely simple to discuss the tactics of shielding your system from such annoying items as browser hijackers, but it is really easy to be caught on this lure perhaps even being a qualified user. As it was pointed out above, this virus may hide after the eye-catching (at the first sight) promotion, or in packs with various other adware you may get in dozens of ways. However, despite the typical intricacy of the infiltration approaches, it is really easy to prevent the Cicens.live hijacker appearing in your system:

  • Do not follow the dubious links;
  • Restrict the usage of pseudo-free software (one which is offered as free, but has an additional unwanted programs in its pack);
  • Leave the habit of clicking advertisements on the web. If you need to buy something, it is better to google it;
  • Avoid downloading the files from dubious sources, like forums or file sharing websites.

Preparation before removing Cicens.live.

Before starting the actual uninstall procedure, we recommend that you do the following introductory milestones.

  • See to it you have this hand-operated tutorial constantly ready to utilize.
  • Perform a back-up of every one of your information, consisting of the kept logins, passwords and also various other credentials. You should support your info with a cloud back-up service and also make sure your files are shielded from any type of type of loss, even from the most severe infections.
  • Wait until the long-lasting backup procedure is over.

Step 1: Uninstall Cicens.live and related software from Windows

Here is a method in few easy steps that should have the ability to uninstall most applications. Either you use Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, these milestones will work well. Moving the app or its folder to the Trash can be a very wrong idea. In case you do that, remnants of the app may remain, and that can cause the unstable performance of your system, malfunctions with the file type associations and other unpleasant behavior. The effective solution to get an app off your device is to remove it manually. To do that:

1. Keep holding the Windows Logo Button and “R” on your keyboard. A Pop-up window will soon arrive.

Windows keyboard R

2. In the field that appeared, type in “appwiz.cpl” -1  and choose OK – 2.

Run appwiz.cpl

 

3. This will open a window with all the apps available on the device. Choose the app that you want to get rid of, then choose “Uninstall

Follow the steps above and you will successfully get rid of most unwanted apps.

Step 2: Get rid of Cicens.live from all your available browsers.

Mozilla FirefoxGoogle ChromeInternet ExplorerMicrosoft Edge

1. Launch Mozilla Firefox. Go to its menu window

2. Choose the “Add-ons” icon in the menu.

3. Find the unwanted extension and select “Remove

Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Remove

4. Upon deleting the extension, reload Mozilla Firefox, closing it with the help of a red “X” button in the upper right corner and start it again.

1. Launch Google Chrome and go to its drop menu

Google Chrome drop menu click

2. Click on “Tools” and then in the extended menu select “Extensions

Google Chrome Tools select Extensions

3. In the “Extensions” menu find the unwanted extension and apply the “Remove” button related to it.

Google Chrome Extensions Remove

4. As soon as the extension is deleted, reload Google Chrome by closing it by means of the red “X” button at the top right corner and launch it again.

1. Launch Internet Explorer

2. Click on the gear icon marked ‘Tools’ to open the drop menu and choose ‘Manage Add-ons’

Manage-add-ons

3. In the “Manage Add-ons” window, locate the extension you want to delete and then click “Remove”. A pop-up window will come up to inform you that you are about to delete the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and choose “Remove”.

Internet Explorer extension removal

4. Once the unwanted extension is deleted, reload Internet Explorer by shutting it down from the red “X” button located at the top right corner and launch it again.

1. Launch Edge

2. Access the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.

3. From the drop menu choose “Extensions”.

Microsoft Edge menu Extensions

4. Locate the suspected dangerous extension you want to delete and then click on the Remove button.

Microsoft Edge Extensions Remove

Step 3: Clean any registries that could be added by Cicens.live on your device.

The usually attacked registries of Windows machines are the following:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

You can access them by going to the Windows registry editor and getting rid of any values added by Cicens.live. Follow the steps below:

  1. Start the Run Window command once again, type “regedit” and click OK.Window command regedit
  2. As soon as you open it, you can freely go to the Run and RunOnce keys, whose locations are displayed above.Window command Run and RunOnce keys
  3. You can delete the value of the virus by right-clicking on it and deleting it.Window command regedit delete the value virus

Tip: To locate a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and select “Modify” to find which file it is set to run. If this is the malware file location, delete the value.

Step 4: Scan for Cicens.live with Loaris Trojan Remover

1. Click on the “Download” button to proceed to Loaris Trojan Remover download.

It is recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by Trojan Remover. Click on the corresponding links to check License AgreementPrivacy Policy.

2. Click “Install” to start.

Loaris Trojan Remover Install

There were 4 scan types suggested:

  • Standard Scan.
  • Full Scan.
  • Custom Scan.
  • Removable Scan.

 

3. After the installed has finished, click on the ‘Scan’ tab. Click on ‘Full Scan’.

Loaris Trojan Remover Full Scan

4. Once the scanning is started, Loaris will initiate the thorough analysis of your device and may soon identify specific threats currently slowing down the performance of your system. Make sure to wait until the scanning is completed to let the software fully evaluate the safety of your workstation.

Loaris Trojan Remover - scan in process

5. After Loaris Trojan Remover has finished scanning your PC for any files of the associated threat and found them, you can try to get them removed automatically and permanently by clicking on the ‘Apply’ button. There were options to move the files to quarantine, ignore or delete them.

Loaris Trojan Remover - show viruses

If any threats have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart your PC.

 

  1. About browser hijackers on Wikipedia
  2. Possible danger of free browser extensions

About the author

Valdis Koks

Security engineer, reverse engineering and memory forensics

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