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Sunday, October 04, 2015

DNS Unlocker malware on Android Phone

This took me months to get rid of, and to find something of use on the internet. Searching "DNS Unlocker Malware" would just find posts to remove it from desktop machines.  As such I thought I'd post what finally worked for me.

Obviously at some point I acquired the DNS Unlocker malware on my PC which re-directs links and feeds unwanted spam Advertisements to the browser.  I used one of the numerous tools to remove it: http://malwaretips.com/blogs/ads-by-dns-unlocker-removal/

This managed to get rid of it on my PC.  A few days later I started noticing my phone was getting similar ads showing up.  I ran just about every Adware/Malware/Virus scanner for android to try and remove it, but none of them would detect any issues.  I found I got some reprieve by clearing the data on chrome:

Settings-->Apps-->Chrome-->Storage-->Clear Data

But that on its own was not enough to eliminate it.  Then finally it clicked, the tool had managed to infect my Chrome profile.  So as soon as I logged back in it would sync the malware straight back to my Phone.

The Solution:
On ALL your devices, that use your Chrome Profile - Reset/clear data.

Android:
Settings-->Apps-->Chrome-->Storage-->Clear Data

Desktop:
chrome://settings/
Advanced Settings-->Reset Settings

After this I was finally able to click a web page on my phone without getting a redirected Ad!

I hope this helps someone else!