{"id":580,"date":"2017-03-04T05:57:54","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T05:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.my-proxy.com\/blog\/?p=580"},"modified":"2019-06-30T07:20:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T07:20:04","slug":"fix-proxy-settings-locked-spigot-malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/free-proxy-list.net\/blog\/fix-proxy-settings-locked-spigot-malware","title":{"rendered":"Fix the Proxy Settings Locked by Spigot Malware"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently one of our customers had a strange problem. Some program locked his proxy settings. It was one kind of browser hijacking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We could not change the proxy settings from the Internet Options<\/strong> dialog. There was an error message “Some settings are managed by your system administrator.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

\"IE
IE Proxy Settings Locked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our product My IP Hide failed to work because of it. It showed the error message “You are using the unencrypted regular proxy 127.0.0.1. Your real IP address may leak.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"MyIPHide<\/a>
MyIPHide Not Working<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reset Internet Explorer Settings<\/h2>\n

We tried to reset his Internet Explorer settings by clicking its menu Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Reset.<\/strong> But it didn’t work. We have to try other methods.<\/p>\n

\"Reset
Reset IE Settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Change Proxy Settings in Control Panel<\/h2>\n

Then we modified the proxy settings in the control panel. But it will be reverted to 127.0.0.1:8080<\/strong> immediately.<\/p>\n

\"System
System Proxy Settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, we didn’t find any program listening on (managing) the 8080 port. It caused the browsers could not open any page.<\/p>\n

Found the Suspect: Spigot<\/h2>\n

Then we try to find what program was changing the proxy settings. Finally, we found a suspicious program “PreferencesManager.exe” by Process Monitor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PreferencesManager.exe\"
PreferencesManager.exe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That program belonged to a company named Spigot Inc.<\/strong> It produces many Adware<\/a> and potentially unwanted programs<\/a> (PUP). They compulsively redirect users to their advertiser’s sites to earn money. It will cause a lot of problems for the user’s system.<\/p>\n

Manually Fix the Windows Registry<\/h2>\n

We removed the Spigot<\/strong> program YTD Toolbar<\/strong> from the Control Panel. But it didn’t solve the problem. The proxy settings are still locked. We tried to fix it by manually changing these Windows Registry entries which control the system proxy settings.<\/p>\n

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Internet Settings<\/code>
\nHKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Internet Settings<\/code><\/p>\n

Use Anti-Virus\/Malware Programs<\/h2>\n

However, it still could not solve the problem. It was too hard for us to fix all the corrupted registry keys manually. Thus We decided to use a professional tool to fix it. We tried these anti-virus programs.<\/p>\n