Beware of HotBar Adware Toolbar

by Frank Jovine on 04/07/2009 in Fake Antivirus, Security

Adware.Hotbar was just recently published today April 7, 2009. We recommend that users stay clear from this site. If you’re a member of WOT (Web of Trust), this site deserves a red rating for Adware. This is also considered a Misleading Application.

Publisher: Hotbar.com
Risk Impact: High
Systems Affected: Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Adware.Hotbar adds graphical skins to Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and Outlook Express toolbars and also adds its own toolbar and search button. These custom toolbars have keyword-targeted advertisements built into them.

When Adware.Hotbar is executed, it creates the following folders:

* %ProgramFiles%\Hotbar
* %ProgramFiles%\ShopperReports
* %ProgramFiles%\HbTools
* %UserProfile%\Application Data\Hotbar.
* %UserProfile%\Application Data\ShopperReports.
* %UserProfile%\Application Data\HbTools

It then creates the following files:

* HbInstIE.dll
* hotbar.exe
* HBCORESRV.DLL
* HBINST.EXE
* HbToolbar.dll
* HBHOSTOE.DLL
* HBHOSTOL.DLL HB

More Technical Details can be found here.

Norton from Symantec offers step by step removal instructions by going here.

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2 Responses to “Beware of HotBar Adware Toolbar”

  1. Colin

    Apr 7th, 2009

    Thanks Frank,
    Stumbled this one, it’s a real nasty that users need to keep well away from.

    • Frank J

      Apr 7th, 2009

      Colin,

      Thank you for passing it on. Hope all is well!