Oksearch.org Redirects - How to remove

Oksearch.org is a search engine associated with the OKsearch New Tab extension, a new tab enhancer that promotes the Oksearch.org site. It doesn’t look too suspicious at first sight, but there is a huge problem lurking.

Many users of the Microsoft Edge browser noticed that their web search was being interrupted by Oksearch.org redirects. This search hijacking behavior was caused by a number of infected browser add-ons on the Edge Add-ons store. The known infected add-ons have been removed from the store.

If you experience Oksearch.org redirects, disable your browser extensions until you find those that are causing the redirects.

About Oksearch.org redirects:

Threat type	Browser hijacker.
Infection symptoms	Random, unexpected redirects to Oksearch.org after clicking a link in web search results.
What causes Oksearch.org redirects	Browser add-ons that appear unrelated to Oksearch.org but are infected with malicious code that causes the redirects.
How to stop Oksearch.org redirects	Find and remove the add-ons causing the redirects, do it manually or with an anti-malware program (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, Malwarebytes, others).

What is Oksearch.org?

Search engine and new tab

Oksearch.org is a search engine. It works with the help of CodeFuel and Verizon. Codefuel offers monetization solutions for browser extensions, apps, and search engines; Verizon is the owner of Yahoo.com, a site commonly used by search hijackers.

It’s a functional search engine on its own, although it lacks a lot of features that are expected of a search engine, such as filtering by date or result type. It’s related to a browser extension that replaces your new tab page which can be abused, however, it doesn’t seem problematic in Oksearch.org’s case.

Search engines usually make money from advertising in their search results. Search engine sites can very easily target ads to people’s searches, which is valuable for advertisers. If only Oksearch.org can get more people to use it, it can still make some money.

This behavior reminds me of hijackers like Shoptogether.xyz and Historyorganizer.xyz: they would randomly redirect to Bing or another site, as well as open unexpected pop-up windows.

Search hijacker in fake browser extensions

The problem with Oksearch.org is that some Edge users were forced to visit it against their will.

It turned out that a bunch of browser extensions, quite a few VPN add-ons, were infected with code that caused people’s web search results on Google and other search engines to occasionally redirect to Oksearch.org.

According to an Edge community manager, these add-ons have been removed from the Edge Add-on store:

• NordVPN
• Adguard VPN
• TunnelBear VPN
• The Great Suspender
• Floating Player – Picture-in-Picture Mode
• Ublock Adblock Plus
• Go Back With Backspace
• Wayback Machine
• friGate CDN – smooth access to websites
• Greasemonkey
• Full Page Screenshot
• One Click URL Shortener

If you see some names of familiar brands in there, don’t panic. Legitimate businesses haven’t gone to the dark side and adopted the ways of scammers and cybercriminals; the extensions are fake. It’s not unusual for scammers to create a malicious browser add-on and use the name and logo of a trusted browser extension, tricking users into installing it.

Fake extensions can still be functional – it’s easy to steal the source code of a browser add-on and use it for your own project. It is also easy to inject a few lines of malicious code in there. If enough users install a browser add-on, then just a few intermittent redirects to Oksearch.org or another ad-supported site can generate a lot of revenue for scammers.

How to avoid Oksearch.org redirects

If your browser is being redirected to Oksearch.org, then it’s likely that a malicious add-on has been installed on your browser, too. It needn’t be a new installation, it could be an old extension that was recently updated.

You could use an anti-malware application, such as Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, Malwarebytes, and others. But they don’t always recognize the latest malicious browser add-ons, so you may need to do this by hand.

Disable all of your extensions and see if the Oksearch.org redirects disappear. Enable your extensions one-by-one and observe your search results. You could also look at the source code of each extension and look for references to “Oksearch.org”. Then, remove the bad add-on and report it on the extension store.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted extensions

How to remove Oksearch.org Redirects from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings

• Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.

• Choose Manage search engines.

• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.

• Go back to Settings. Open On start-up.
• Delete malicious search websites at Open specific page or pages by opening the three-dot menu and clicking Delete.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Oksearch.org Redirects, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings

• Click on Edge's menu button and select Settings. Click on the Reset Settings button on the left.
• Press the Restore settings to their default values option.

• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopHow To remove Oksearch.org Redirects from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Oksearch.org Redirects, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.