Threat Database Adware ArchiveRemote

ArchiveRemote

ArchiveRemote is another PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) targeted at Mac users. PUPs often describe themselves as useful or convenient tools but, in reality, they are designed to generate monetary gains for their operators solely, by performing various intrusive actions on the victim's systems. Naturally, users are extremely disinclined to download and install such applications willingly. That is why PUPs are almost never spread via the normal distribution channels. On the contrary, they rely on questionable and deceptive methods such as bundling to establish a presence on the computer system or device without attracting the user's attention.

ArchiveRemote, in particular, is capable of acting both as adware and a browser hijacker. The adware functionality is responsible for delivering numerous intrusive and unwanted advertisements to the device. The advertisements can take various forms - pop-ups, banners, in-text links, and more, and can be injected into unrelated sites in an attempt to appear as if they originate from there. Users should be extremely careful when interacting with ads from such dubious sources or risk being taken to suspicious or outright unsafe pages.

The browser hijacker part of ArchiveRemote will establish control over several settings of the user's Web browser. The goal is to force the browser to open a promoted address, typically a fake search engine. By modifying the homepage, new tab page, and the default search engine, the PUP ensures that significant artificial traffic will be generated for the promoted page.

Finally, while users may be preoccupied with dealing with these more obvious consequences of the PUPs actions, the application may be spying on their browsing activities in the background. PUPs are known for collecting data including the device's IP address, geolocation, ISP, browser model, etc. The user's browsing history, search history, and all clicked URLs also could be packed and transmitted by the PUP.

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