Legivenestatery Virus

Browser Hijacker
by Violet George
January 30, 2023

Legivenestatery

Legivenestatery acts as browser add-on and is designed to generate online ads in the browsers of web users. Due to its invasive nature, Legivenestatery is categorized as a browser hijacker.

Legivenestatery

As you can tell from the name of this type of software, it basically hijacks your Chrome, Firefox, Edge or other browsing program and takes over its settings in order to turn it into your very own, personal browsing platform.Though its activities can sometimes come across as suspicious and nearly always appear to be very annoying, we should calm you down right now and point out that this is not a malicious program. Browser hijackers like Legivenestatery, Captcha Fair, Total ReCaptcha are classified as potentially unwanted at worst, but that’s about it. This isn’t some virus that will try to steal your files or corrupt your whole system.

Legivenestatery is primarily there in order to get you to see (and preferably also click on) as many popups, banners, in-text links and other ads as possible. Furthermore, if it’s set to promote certain pages, it will be sure to redirect you to them smack in the middle of your browsing session. And if the promoted website happens to also be a search engine, that you can be sure it will set it as your default one and maybe even as the browser homepage. And to top it all off, you won’t be able to do anything about these intrusive changes to your settings until you’ve actually removed Legivenestatery from your system. But since it doesn’t come with a designated uninstallation button like most software does, you will have to be a little smarter about this. And we have a special removal guide designed to aid you in the process – located just below this post.

The Legivenestatery Virus

Yes, we know the Legivenestatery virus is a browser hijacker and we know that it generates ads. But then what? Well, the things is that the developers of programs like the Legivenestatery virus tend to earn revenue from all the paid ads and sponsored messages that appear on your screen. And typically this activity is tied to remuneration systems such as Pay Per Click and Pay Per View.

 SUMMARY:

NameLegivenestatery
Type Browser Hijacker
Danger LevelMedium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
SymptomsUsually accompanied by a vast number of online ads such as popups, banners, box messages, in-text links, and others.
Distribution MethodProgram bundles obtained from dubious download sources such as file-sharing platforms, torrent sites, and similar.
Detection Tool

Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Legivenestatery!

How to remove Legivenestatery

  1. First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
  2. Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find Legivenestatery in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select Legivenestatery from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

What we suggest you do first is, check the list of programs that are presently installed on the infected device and uninstall any rogue software that you find there:

  • From the Start Menu, navigate to Control Panel ->>> Programs and Features ->>> Uninstall a Program.
  • Next, carefully search for unfamiliar programs or programs that have been installed recently and could be related to Legivenestatery.
  • If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Legivenestatery.
  • If a notification appears on your screen when you try to uninstall a specific questionable program prompting you to just alter it or repair it, make sure you choose NO and complete the steps from the removal wizard.

Remove Legivenestatery from Chrome

  1. Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
  2. Go to more tools
  3. Now select extensions
  4. Remove the Legivenestatery extension
  • Once you open Chrome, click on the three-dots icon to open the browser’s menu, go to More Tools/ More Options, and then to Extensions.
  • Again, find the items on that page that could be linked to Legivenestatery and/or that might be causing problems in the browser and delete them.
  • Afterwards, go to this folder: Computer > C: > Users > *Your User Account* > App Data > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data. In there, you will find a folder named Default – you should change its name to Backup Default and restart the PC.
  • Note that the App Data folder is normally hidden so you’d have to first make the hidden files and folders on your PC visible before you can access it.

How to get rid of Legivenestatery on FF/Edge/etc.

  1. Open the browser and select the menu icon.
  2. From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
  3. Look for the Legivenestatery extension
  4. Get rid of Legivenestatery by removing it from extensions

If using Firefox:

  • Open Firefox
  • Select the three parallel lines menu and go to Add-ons.
  • Find the unwanted add-on and delete it from the browser – if there is more than one unwanted extension, remove all of them.
  • Go to the browser menu again, select Options, and then click on Home from the sidebar to the left.
  • Check the current addresses for the browser’s homepage and new-tab page and change them if they are currently set to address(es) you don’t know or trust.

If using MS Edge/IE:

  • Start Edge
  • Select the browser menu and go to Extensions.
  • Find and uninstall any Edge extensions that look undesirable and unwanted.
  • Select Settings from the browser menu and click on Appearance.
  • Check the new-tab page address of the browser and if it has been modified by “Legivenestatery” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

How to Delete Legivenestatery

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the Legivenestatery process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete Legivenestatery
  • Access the Task Manager by pressing together the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys and then selecting Task Manager.
  • Open Processes and there try to find a process with the name of the unwanted software. If you find it, select it with the right button of the mouse and click on the Open File Location option.
  •  
  • If you don’t see a “Legivenestatery” process in the Task Manager, look for another suspicious process with an unusual name. It is likely that the unwanted process would be using lots of RAM and CPU so pay attention to the number of resources each process is using.
  • Tip: If you think you have singled out the unwanted process but are not sure, it’s always a good idea to search for information about it on the Internet – this should give you a general idea if the process is a legitimate one from a regular program or from your OS or if it is indeed likely linked to the adware.
  • If you find another suspicious process, open its File Location too.
  • Once in the File Location folder for the suspicious process, start testing all of the files that are stored there by dragging them to our free online scanner available below.
  • Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy
    This scanner is free and will always remain free for our website's users.
    This file is not matched with any known malware in the database. You can either do a full real-time scan of the file or skip it to upload a new file. Doing a full scan with 64 antivirus programs can take up to 3-4 minutes per file.
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    • If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, return to the Processes tab in the Task Manager, select the suspected process, and then select the End Process option to quit it.
    • Go back to the folder where the files of that process are located and delete all of the files that you are allowed to delete. If all files get deleted normally, exit the folder and delete that folder too. If one or more of the files showed an error message when you tried to delete them, leave them for now and return to try to delete them again once you’ve completed the rest of the guide.

    How to Uninstall Legivenestatery

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for Legivenestatery in there
    4. Uninstall Legivenestatery from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Legivenestatery-related entries from the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to open the Registry Editor app (type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter) and then open a Find dialog (CTRL+F key combination) where you have to type the name of the threat. 
    • Perform a search by clicking on the Find Next button and delete any detected results. Do this as many times as needed until no more results are found. 
    • After that, to ensure that there are no remaining entries lined to Legivenestatery in the Registry, go manually to the following directories and delete them:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory. 
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Random

    Is Legivenestatery dangerous?

    But this is what breeds other processes and activities that aren’t directly visible to the end user. For instance, you may not know that browser hijackers can often track your browsing patterns and keep tabs on the type of content you interact with online. This data is stored and analyzed in order to optimize the flow of ads on your specific screen. That way, when you’re presented with products and service according to your personal preferences, you will be more likely to click on their ads and maybe even purchase them.
    However, this may go against your understanding of privacy, especially if you didn’t knowingly consent to the installation of Legivenestatery in the first place. And on top of that, it won’t help knowing that all of this collected information could easily be sold on to other parties for marketing purposes and you can find yourself directed with tailored ads from each and every direction.


    About the author

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    Violet George

    Violet is an active writer with a passion for all things cyber security. She enjoys helping victims of computer virus infections remove them and successfully deal with the aftermath of the attacks. But most importantly, Violet makes it her priority to spend time educating people on privacy issues and maintaining the safety of their computers. It is her firm belief that by spreading this information, she can empower web users to effectively protect their personal data and their devices from hackers and cybercriminals.

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