How to remove Safebrowse.io

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What is Safebrowse.io?

Safebrowse.io is a legitimate site that Mac users get redirected to whenever they are about to visit an unsafe web address. Safebrowse.io warns users that the site they are trying to visit might be unsafe and that opening it could compromise their system and privacy. 

If you have recently experienced a problem where you get rerouted to a site called Safebrowse.io that contains the following warning message: this site might compromise your device or contain dangerous content, whenever you try to visit some other site, then, in this article, you will find details about this issue, information about what causes it, and a way to resolve the problem so that you can get to the site you’ve been actually trying to visit.

The Safebrowse.io Virus

The Safebrowse.io virus is a possible threat that may be contained inside a webpage that you are trying to visit. If you see a Safebrowse.io virus warning before visiting a certain site, it is advisable that you do not try to go to that site.

The first reaction of many users when they get redirected to Safebrowse.io is to panic, thinking that they are dealing with a virus on their computer that keeps them from getting to the desired site. In reality, it is the exact opposite. The purpose of the Safebrowse.io is to keep you safe from the content that may be awaiting you on the page you’ve been trying to reach so if you see the Safebrowse.io virus warning message inside your browser, know that there is no need to worry because your computer is safe. The best you could do in such a scenario is stop trying to visit the site you’ve been warned against.

What if the site I am trying to visit is trusted?

Unfortunately, the Safebrowse.io virus protection feature isn’t flawless and it seems to oftentimes give false positives, i.e., tell you that a particular site, which is otherwise safe, hides potential dangers. Many users are annoyed by this as the Safebrowse.io virus warning prevents them from visiting important sites that they need for their work or studies. In such cases, it is important to override the warning and proceed to the desired website. On the Safebrowse.io warning page – the one that stops you from proceeding – there is a button labeled Proceed Anyway but users have reported that clicking on it seems to have no effect whatsoever. If you are in a similar situation and clicking on Proceed Anyway will still not allow you to get to the site you want to visit, below is a suggestion on what you can try to circumvent this irritating obstacle.

The short guide we will show you next will let you know how it might be possible to override this malware warning. However, it is strongly advisable to only proceed if you are absolutely certain that the site you are attempting to reach is indeed safe. If you are attempting to enter a website you aren’t very sure is safe, then it is better to not try to override the warning. Remember that Safebrowse.io is trying to protect you and even if it sometimes gives false positives, it’s still unwise to ignore its warnings unless you have a solid reason to believe that your desired site does not contain harmful elements. Keep in mind that even legitimate and reputed sites could get hacked and become filled with malware so it’s best to first try to research the site you want to visit and see if there is any news about it getting hacked. Only after you can confirm that there’s indeed no reason to think that the site in question might be dangerous should you proceed to the next guide.

Bypassing the Safebrowse.io virus warning

1. First, go to the site of your Internet provider. Most users who have complained about the Safebrowse.io virus warning seem to be using Xfinity Internet and so we will use this as an example in this short guide. If you are subscribed to another Internet provider, the next steps might vary, but they should still be similar.
2. After you go to the Xfinity website, enter your account and select the Wi-Fi icon from the toolbar. Alternatively, you can directly go to this link: https://internet.xfinity.com.
3. Next, select the More option and then go to My Services.
4. Now, you should be at the xFi Advanced Security page and there should be an enable/disable toggle button – set this to disable and wait for about 10 minutes for the changes to come into effect.
5. Try visiting the desired site once again and see if the problem is resolved

A possible alternative solution

If for some reason our main fix suggestion did not work out for you, another possible (albeit less elegant) solution would be to try using a VPN. We understand that getting a VPN for such a minor inconvenience might be a bit overkill but if nothing else you’ve tried has worked, you might as well give a try to the VPN option. If you are interested in finding out which VPN might be the best one for you, you can go here to check some of our VPN reviews to make your choice easier.

What to do if you have been infected by a Safebrowse.io virus

If you manage to bypass the Safebrowse.io warning screen and visit the site that you want, it is possible that you may get targeted by different types of malware if the site in question turns out to have been hazardous after all. In such a scenario, it is important to know what to do in order to protect your computer from any potential threats that may have gotten on it. For that, we have prepared another set of instructions down below. This time, the goal of the guide is to help you find any hiding malware inside your system and remove it before it manages to cause irreparable damage. If you have any suspicion that your machine may not be secure, we strongly recommend that you go through the guide and carefully complete its steps in the order they are given.

SUMMARY:

How to remove Safebrowse.io 

We get asked this a lot, so we are putting it here: Removing a malware manually may take hours and damage your system in the process. We recommend downloading SpyHunter to see if it can detect the malware for you.

More information on SpyHunter, steps to uninstall, EULA, Threat Assessment Criteria, and Privacy Policy.

The removal of Safebrowse.io starts with Quitting your Safari browser or Force Quitting it (⌘+Option+Escape keys>>>Force Quit Applications>>>Safari>>>Force Quit) if it doesn’t want to get closed the normal way. Once this is done, you can proceed to the next steps.

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

Now, start by launching the Activity Monitor. For that, go to Finder and navigate to the following directory: 

Once the Activity Monitor opens, you will see a detailed list of all the processes that are runnin on your machine. Look at all of them and try to locate the process or processes that could be linked to Safebrowse.io. Highlight each of them by taping on it and select the information (“i”) button found at the top. The dialog that looks like this will open:

Hit the Sample button at the bottom of the dialog box to run a sample of the process in question:

Do this for every process that you suspect could be related to Safebrowse.io. Save the sample files and upload them to our online virus scanner below. Delete the files that have been flagged as malicious and end their processes:

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After you have completed the instructions in step 2, launch your Safari browser safely. For this, press and hold the Shift key while opening Safari. By doing this, you will stop the browser from loading pages that have been previously opened. 

Important! In some cases, users may face a trouble with different scripts that keep opening unwanted pages in Safari. If this is your case, Force Quit Safari and do the following:

• Turn off your Wi-Fi connection from your Mac’s Menu>>>Wi-Fi off.
• Or, unplug the cabple for your Ethernt connection in case you are using a cable Internet.

After you have disconnected from the Internet in one of the above-mentioned ways, launch Safari again by holding the Shift button.

 Once Safari has launched, go to its Menu and click on Preferences. 

After that, select the Extensions tab to check for any browser extensions that could be linked to Safebrowse.io and could be causing you issues.

Sometimes, programs like Safebrowse.io may install different components inside the users’s main web browser in order to faciliate their activities. Your job here is to carefully screen through the list of extensions and uninstall everything that looks unfamiliar, suspicious or unwanted.

If you are using other browsers, the threat may have added some unwanted components to them as well. Thats why, make sure that you apply the instructions below to all browsers that you are actively using.

For Safari, go to the Safari Menu, select Preferences and click  on the Privacy tab,

Select Remove All Website Data, (please not that this will delete all your stored website data, including passwords and login credentials) and confirm the action by clicking on Remove Now. 

Once you are done with this, go again to the Preferences menu and select the General tab.

Head to the Homepage section and check if the homepage address has been changed or it is the one that you have set. If you see a different URL than the one that you desire, set it to a homepage address that you prefer. 

Finally, go to the History menu and select Clear History. This will delete the links to problematic pages from your history tab and will prevent you from accidentally loading any them. 

 How to Remove Safebrowse.io virus From Firefox in OSX:

For Firefox, launch the browser and head to its Menu icon at the top right corner  . You need to go to the Add-ons section and select the Extensions tab from the left panel.

Similarly to what we did in Safari, seek for questionable or unfamiliar extensions that could be related to Safebrowse.io and remove them. After that, refresh Your Firefox Settings.

How to Remove Safebrowse.io virus From Chrome in OSX:

 A similar thing should be done in Google Chrome. Simply launch the browser and go to its Menu by taping on the icon . After that, select More Tools and locate the Extensions tab from the left panel. Go through the list of extensions and if you detect anything that you belive is unwanted or is causing you issues,   select  icon to remove it.

 After you are done with the extensions, head again to the menu icon and, this time, navigate to Settings>>>Search. Next, select Manage Search Engines to check if your search engine has been hijacked.  If you detect any unwanted third-party search engines, delete them and leave only the search engines you  use. Finally, Refresh Your Chrome Settings for the changes to take place.

If you have any questions about any of the steps in this guide, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment in the comments section under this article. We will be glad to help!