Antivirus Needed - October 2023

[Kevin Perez]

Either one of the above will suit your needs if you change your mind and put questionable files to share on usb with a Windows user.
I have never infected my wife's work windows gear with malware.

Also. I am the best anti-virus by my computer usage and browsing habits. The space between my shoulders handle that job quite nicely.

After doing a search for "free antivirus software" on this forum, I found https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/on-to.../#msg29699. Then I tried to comment on this topic. I received a warning that I ought to be quite sure I want to reply to a post that is 120 days old. Hence my creating this new topic. There are two goals I have in mind, the short term is to get rid of the pop-ups on my computer, which only seem to appear each time I open a Chrome window, and learn how to post a jpeg screenshot or other image to this post. The long-term is to follow "rokytnji", as I believe (thanks to his platinum member status) possesses the knowledge necessary to make antivirus software nearly obsolete.

Now for my awkward introduction, even when I know better, I sometimes act in something other than my best interest. I am pretty sure this is why the attached screenshot became a problem. I will do my best to prevent the above from happening as not only I, but those who read this thread, learn to listen to Roky. Hopefully, it is okay if I call him him. (Please note, the main reason I use this pronoun is that Roky is a masculine sounding name.) My awkwardness is a mixed blessing. It is great for spotting bugs. Its curse is my computer frequently suffers performance wise as it succumbs to malware. If you are patient with me, it may also teach us how to recover from them. There seems to be two cycles involved when it comes to the pop-ups. The first is what I call the broad-brush strokes, and the second is the narrow strokes. Before the two cycles my posts key:
[ . . . ]      - button or link.
. . .          - text inside the button or link.
Open        - If a screenshot depicts a window, then it is open.
Active        - The window I am currently interacting with.
Inactive    - Any window that is not currently active.

Broad:
1. If I turn off my desktop, then turn it back on:

1. Open Chrome
   
2. See a screen full of attached pop-ups:
   
   
3. Imagine there is only that white space between each pop-up.
   
4. To get rid of the notifications, I click anywhere other than the two included buttons.
   
5. The two buttons are [Activate] and [Settings]. Whereas the link (shown in the second attachment) is [stabledstreaming.com].
   
6. Turning off or restarting and then opening Chrome resumes the broad cycle.
   

Narrow cycle

1. If I leave the Chrome window active, for 2.5 to 3 minutes, then the pop-up reappears.
   
2. If it is inactive, for 2.5 to 3 minutes, then the pop-up still reappears.
   
3. At your request, I will test whether they reappear

     

1.      
2. if I don't open Chrome upon rebooting Linux Lite
        
3. if I have closed Chrome using the [ x ], [alt + F4], or killed it with Task Manager
        

[/list]

How would you recommend I proceed?

[stevef]

How would you recommend I proceed?

I don't use Chrome and your description is not clear (to me) but could it be a browser hijack ?
Try the support pages at Chrome - this might be a starting point.
https://support.google.com/chrome/topic/...2688937-EU

[The Repairman]

I'm just a Linux user.

I suggest using Firejail default settings are good enough imo.

https://firejail.wordpress.com/

The user is usually the weakest link so common sense and safe browsing habits are the best defense.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a download for "Common Sense".

[Kevin Perez]

How would you recommend I proceed?

I don't use Chrome and your description is not clear (to me) but could it be a browser hijack ?
Try the support pages at Chrome - this might be a starting point.
https://support.google.com/chrome/topic/...2688937-EU

It is a browser hijack. Your solution has stopped the pop-ups from happening. Unfortunately, at aroudn teh same time as the pop-ups were a problem, I received an email requesting a ransom. Is there a way of finding out how much of my computuer's data is now in hijacker's meta hands?