Safari Hijacked by Bing

[Tannis Wightman]

Whenever I enter a search term in Safari, instead of searching Wikipedia my Safari inevitably switches to MS Bing which I don't want to use. How can I fix this? My Mac and Safari are the latest updates as of June 26, 2021.

 

[RadDave]

Whenever I enter a search term in Safari, instead of searching Wikipedia my Safari inevitably switches to MS Bing which I don't want to use. How can I fix this? My Mac and Safari are the latest updates as of June 26, 2021.

Hi Tannis - not sure what you mean by 'searching Wikipedia'? But if you open Safari Preferences (see attached pic) and click on the 'Search' tab, the available search engines are shown in the drop-down menu; I'm assuming that you want 'Google' and your selection is likely 'Bing', so take a look. Dave
.

 

[Tannis Wightman]

Hi Tannis - not sure what you mean by 'searching Wikipedia'? But if you open Safari Preferences (see attached pic) and click on the 'Search' tab, the available search engines are shown in the drop-down menu; I'm assuming that you want 'Google' and your selection is likely 'Bing', so take a look. Dave
.
View attachment 34230

Yes you're right. I meant Google. I have checked my Safari settings and they are correct. Google is selected. A further note is that when I enter a search the Google page does comes up briefly and then is replaced by the Bing page. If I then click the back arrow in the Safari menu bar the same thing happens. Google comes up briefly and is immediately hijacked by Bing

 

[RadDave]

Yes you're right. I meant Google. I have checked my Safari settings and they are correct. Google is selected. A further note is that when I enter a search the Google page does comes up briefly and then is replaced by the Bing page. If I then click the back arrow in the Safari menu bar the same thing happens. Google comes up briefly and is immediately hijacked by Bing

Well, appears that you've gotten some 'malware' that is causing the Bing redirects - one of the malware apps suggested on this site is DirectX Swift - download and run; if still not effective, take a look HERE at an article that addresses this issue specifically w/ a lot of suggestions. Good luck - Dave

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Whenever I enter a search term in Safari, instead of searching Wikipedia my Safari inevitably switches to MS Bing which I don't want to use. How can I fix this? My Mac and Safari are the latest updates as of June 26, 2021.

It sounds exactly like you have "CrossRider" adware:

New Crossrider variant installs configuration profiles on Macs - Malwarebytes Labs

To get rid of it, go into System Preferences.
See if there is a preference pane for "Profiles".
If there is, open it and delete all profiles.

Next download and run:

DetectX Swift (free)
DetectX
and delete any malicious files that it flags.

Then all that you have to do is go into your browser and correct the settings for your default search engine and start page.

Just FYI, the way that this Trojan is spread is that you were on the Web and something popped up that told that you had to install or update Adobe Flash, and you clicked on Okay, and it downloaded and you installed it. However, the alert was bogus, and the software that you downloaded wasn't Flash at all, it was a Trojan Horse.

 

[Jim40]

I don't trust Google. See why Does Google Spy on People? Here's How to Protect Yourself

 

[Jim40]

It sounds exactly like you have "CrossRider" adware:

New Crossrider variant installs configuration profiles on Macs - Malwarebytes Labs

To get rid of it, go into System Preferences.
See if there is a preference pane for "Profiles".
If there is, open it and delete all profiles.

Next download and run:

DetectX Swift (free)
DetectX
and delete any malicious files that it flags.

Then all that you have to do is go into your browser and correct the settings for your default search engine and start page.

Just FYI, the way that this Trojan is spread is that you were on the Web and something popped up that told that you had to install or update Adobe Flash, and you clicked on Okay, and it downloaded and you installed it. However, the alert was bogus, and the software that you downloaded wasn't Flash at all, it was a Trojan Horse.

Thanks for the "heads up" on DetectX Swift. Whow it is fast !!