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Searching in Safari app on iOS 12.3.1 redirecting me to spam site

Shortly after updating to iOS 12.3.1, I did a rather innocuous search (something or other about product development success metrics) using the address/search bar at the top of the Safari app. One of the initial results, maybe the fifth or sixth one down, once tapped wound up being a spam site that loaded a pop-up and hijacked my browser. So I force quit the app immediately. Just to be clear here, I did not click any "DOWNLOAD NOW" links or any other obvious stuff like that, I simply went to a google search result and landed on what wound up being a nefarious page that had a very high SEO rank for the search I made, and did not interact with it at all. I am also saying this may not necessarily be the issue 100%, but it's the only time I ever landed on a site like this and the subsequent problem only occurred after it happened, so it's extremely likely.


Ever since then, whenever I do a specific search in Safari on my phone using the address/search bar (does not matter which search engine I have set to default, so long as it's done via the Safari address/search bar), it immediately redirects to a completely different website, in my case snapstream or something or other. Also in my case, it happens when I do a search in Safari for "Twitter search" (bc I deleted the Twitter app a while ago yet sometimes I search on that site to see what certain folks are saying…it's probably one of my most common searches). Not the biggest problem on its own so far but I have no idea what else this adware/malware is doing and am very nervous about having this on my device and want it off ASAP. I've always been pretty cautious with my devices and handling security, but as I said, this seems to stem from just tapping a pretty high up there search result in google that was indistinguishable from any of the other search results.


This is Safari, not Chrome. I already tried the Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data > Remove All Website Data that I've seen with similar results. I set Safari to Block All Cookies. Still happens. I went as far as resetting my phone to factory settings the other day when I first saw it, and starting from scratch (not a backup), which seemed okay for about twenty four hours, but I just tried it again a little bit ago and sure enough, the exact same thing happens. Same search term, same redirect spam site. Apparently something is installed that will not remove regardless of what I've done so far, even a factory reset, so looking to see what options I have from here.


iPhone SE, iOS 12

Posted on Jul 6, 2019 4:04 PM

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13 replies

Jul 7, 2019 7:18 AM in response to pmorty

Did you tried to use iPhone in another network , it seems the network settings are not secured in your internet service provider router , factory reset it and create a password for it , do the settings as automatic , if you use air port express see this article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT208753

  • WPA2 Personal (AES) encryption, which is currently the strongest form of security available in a Wi-Fi router.Read this also

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT202068

Avoid viewing suspicious websites see this https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/safari/sfri40697/mac

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/iphone/iphf60a6a256/ios


Jul 7, 2019 5:56 PM in response to pmorty

Update 3: Bit the bullet and went nuclear with a factory reset from iTunes (as opposed to just from the phone, this way it truly is a factory reset and the update needs to redownload). Issue no longer occurs and was tested repeatedly after downloading each app I used to have with the exception of the AdGuard app and MalwareBytes. I'm sure the former caused the issue. Anyway, make sure you keep up on your apps before you update folks.

Jul 7, 2019 7:03 AM in response to Eric Root

Yep, did this before and after I resetting my phone. Nothing doing. Going to post an update though, problem doesn’t happen if I set ‘limit access to adult websites” (never go to them but the redirect never happens) and I notice I have a section in general settings called “profiles” that is blank and then disappears when I close it, but seems to reappear when I redo the search.

Jul 7, 2019 7:08 AM in response to pmorty

Update: Still happening, but with some testing I noticed that the redirect doesn’t happen if I set content restrictions to limit adult websites (never go to them (yes, I promise!) even though the spam website isn’t “adult” per se.


Another thing is that I read elsewhere to check under Settings > General to see if I have a section called “Profiles”, which I do, but when I go to it, it’s blank, and when I go back to the General page, it disappears sometimes. If I redo the search and check again, Profiles is back.

Jul 7, 2019 7:14 AM in response to Eric Root

I mentioned that there is no profile, the page is blank, so nothing to delete unfortunately. I have installed Malwarebytes after the fact but not realizing there isn’t really a way for these apps to scan and remove malware from an iOS device...I will likely try another factory reset and install that first thing. I was using AdguardPro before but I guess that’s been discontinued.


Pretty soon gonna straight up avoid using the Internet at all lol.

Jul 7, 2019 12:52 PM in response to pmorty

Update 2: So, after a call with support this morning and tinkering with some settings, it seems the only other thing that prevents the redirect is Settings > Safari > Safari Suggestions. That Snapstream site just so happens to be the the Top suggested Result for "Twitter Search" regardless of which device is being used (tested on my work phone, which I've never had an issue on, and the support tech I spoke with earlier said he had the same result as well). However, on mine, it happens that typing it in and hitting "Go" loads that result instead of the search results of the query you entered. If you disable Safari Suggestions, this doesn't happen. Why it happens on this search query + suggestion and no others though, is what is perplexing to me. I tried just entering & re-entering a different search term until it became common and it would still only ever


Anyway, we thought it might be an app issue because I was using AdGuard before, and from what I understand that is discontinued. So I tried a reset again, and this time without installing anything, I went straight to Safari and tried "twitter search" again, and the first few times it loaded Google, but afterward it started redirecting to the Snapstream site again. Starting to wonder if this is just some extremely specific bug, or if something got installed deep into my phone by some extremely good hackers and the thing is basically an adware vector now. Going to test on my work phone to see if I get the same result. after doing twitter search a bunch.

Jul 8, 2019 3:26 PM in response to pmorty

Update 4: OK, thought this was resolved but it happened again but with a different search term. However, now just think this is actually a 12.3.1 bug. Tested this on my home phone, which the problem originally resided, my work phone, where I've installed nothing but Outlook, and a coworker's personal phone, all up to date on 12.3.1.


Do a Safari search for "news" (without misspelling, otherwise you have to delete all of it and retype it again), unless you did some tinkering it should say CNN as the Top suggestion. For each device, hitting "Go" on the keypad redirected immediately to CNN. If you delete characters and have to retype, it goes to your chosen Search engine's search result for "news". Not sure if there are other redirects but typical behavior is you should be directed to the search engine result of the query you typed.

Searching in Safari app on iOS 12.3.1 redirecting me to spam site

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