Redirect

Overview

BrowserModifier:Win32/Redirect is a highly generic classification used to describe a wide variety of adware and browser hijackers that forcefully alter a user's web traffic routing. The primary goal is financial gain through affiliate marketing fraud, forcing the user to visit sponsored portals, advertising networks, or fake tech support scams.

Understanding Redirect
To an end-user, a Redirect infection is infuriating. When they attempt to visit Google or type a query into the address bar, they are instantly whisked away through a chain of unknown URLs, eventually landing on a low-quality search engine or a malicious popup. For security analysts, Redirect malware is a high-volume nuisance that relies on aggressive persistence mechanisms to lock the browser configuration, ensuring the attacker receives continuous pay-per-click revenue.

Execution and Hijacking Mechanics
Redirect variants are typically installed silently via software bundling (`T1189`) or malicious websites. Once executed, they employ multiple strategies to hijack the browser. The most common is the silent installation of malicious browser extensions (`T1176`). However, more advanced variants modify the Windows Registry (`T1112`) to alter the system's proxy settings (`T1090`), forcing all HTTP/HTTPS traffic through an attacker-controlled proxy server. They may also alter the local `hosts` file (`T1562.001`) to map popular domains (like facebook.com) to malicious IPs, or hijack the `.lnk` shortcut files on the desktop (`T1546`).

Indicators of Compromise & Impact
The primary impact is a degraded user experience, loss of productivity, and potential exposure to more severe malware via malvertising. Incident responders will observe anomalous DNS and HTTP traffic routing to known ad-tracking networks or rogue proxy servers. EDR logs will flag unauthorized modifications to the Windows Proxy registry keys (`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings`) or the creation of local Group Policy Objects (GPOs) enforcing rogue extension installations.

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Observed techniques used by this family, mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework:

Generated Detections (Boilerplate)

These YARA and Sigma rules are auto-generated based on the family name and aliases. They must be heavily tuned before deployment in a production environment.

YARA Rule

rule MALWARE_WIN_REDIRECT {
    meta:
        description = "Detects Redirect (advanced_threat)"
        author = "SystemHelpdesk Boilerplate Generator"
        date = "2026-07-06"
    strings:
        $s1 = "redirect" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and any of them
}

Sigma Rule

title: Suspicious Redirect Activity
id: f17ca2c829680ada2fec9fc87bc5f606
status: experimental
description: Detects generic indicators of the redirect malware family.
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\cmd.exe'
            - '\powershell.exe'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - "*redirect*"
    condition: selection
level: medium

Containment & Response Steps

Ordered checklist for responders. Adapt to your environment and engage professional support for active incidents.

1. Open the Windows Internet Options and manually check the LAN Settings to disable any rogue proxy configurations established by the malware.
2. Use enterprise endpoint management tools to forcefully remove all unrecognized browser extensions and reset the default search providers.
3. Audit the properties of all browser shortcuts (`.lnk` files) on the user's Desktop and Taskbar to remove any appended malicious URLs.
4. Check the local `hosts` file (`C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts`) for unauthorized DNS mappings and restore it to default.

What to Avoid

Common mistakes during response to this family that can destroy evidence, spread the infection, or worsen recovery.

1. Do not rely solely on the browser's internal 'reset' button; if a system-level proxy is set, the browser reset will not fix the redirection issue.
2. Avoid assuming the infection is harmless; aggressive redirect chains often end at Exploit Kits that can drop ransomware or banking trojans.

References & External Analysis

• Search "redirect" on VirusTotal (External Analysis)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Families (Category: advanced_threat)

Explore other malware families in the same category:

• Shyape
• Kaymundler
• Smal
• Webdialer
• Bunndle

Machine-readable

Get this profile as JSON: https://jordanricky1604-ship-it.github.io/malware-families-catalog/api/redirect.json

Ecosystem & Interactive Environments

This profile is part of the Malware Families Catalog, a public dataset of 2,899 malware families. The catalog is also published across our ecosystem: Hugging Face, Kaggle, Zenodo, Replit, StackBlitz, CodeSandbox, and CodePen.