LookupDisplay

LookupDisplay may try to pass itself as a useful application but, in reality, it is little more than yet another PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) targeting Mac users. In fact, most users may not even realize that LookupDisplay is being installed, due to the underhanded methods employed by the application. Infosec researchers have observed this PUP being distributed as a fake Adobe Flash Player installer.

If LookupDisplay manages to avoid being noticed by the user successfully, it will activate and start acting as both adware and a browser hijacker. Users will be subjected to an influx of questionable advertising materials that may lead to dubious or unsafe third-party websites. At the same time, the browser hijacker part of LookupDisplay will take over installed Web browsers and change their settings.

The homepage, new tab page, and the default search engine may all be set to open the address of a fake search engine. Such engines lack the ability to generate any results on their own. Users will, instead, notice that their searches are being redirected to a legitimate engine such as Yahoo, Bing, and Google, or being taken to another unfamiliar and mostly dubious engine. 

However, PUPs have more intrusive abilities that must be taken into account. A common trait of these applications is that they can track the user's browsing activities. Device details including the IP address and geolocation could be packaged alongside the entire browsing and search histories and uploaded to a remote server. The operators of the specific PUP could then decide how to exploit the acquired information according to their own goals.