Mystery Popup

I am placing this in this forum because I consider it a security issue. The below box "Enter Your Search Term" randomly appears in the center of the page when using Edge and Firefox. When you right or left click there is no response. Does not always appear, just at random. It does not "popup" just present at center of page.

A scan with WD, ESET free online scanner, and AdwCleaner was negative. No other performance issues. Thoughts ?

dalchina said:

Hi, does it occur if you use those browsers in their 'safe mode'? (Edge does have a sort of safe mode - Google to find out how if unsure).

Is this related to any particular site or sites?

Does this occur if you visit the same site with, say, IE or Chrome?

Haven't tried Safe Mode. Haven't identified any particular sites, perhaps news sites, e.g., news.google but other sites as well. Only use FF and Edge, not tried Chrome or IE.

As I type this morning, it has not made an appearance. As stated, random but consistent.

dalchina said:

Thank you for your reply. N.B. the browser's safe mode, not Windows'.

Yes, I understood. If it continues may try a System Restore.

Thanks for your reply !

Will mark as solved, though no known answer. Notice only appeared once in the last 3 days. Appears to be related to the Edge browser.

MikeMecanic said:

You could try next time to block the pop-up with the Ramond Hill extension. The screenshot shows how to block it with Adguard.

In order to help other users, It is also possible to report this isuue so that it goes into the database of your extension.

For further investigation, you could also try entering the browser console or browser task manager to get the name of the process.

As I indicated in original post, I described it as a "popup" but it does not have same characteristics, i.e., it does not popup like a notification, etc. When you open the browser to a website, it has been present.

But as I indicate, it has not been present for the last 3-4 days on Edge or FF. The last time I was using Edge.

Point understood about browser console though not sure of chance it would be identified since it appears to be an outlier. What is meant by database of extension ?

pericles said:

As I indicated in original post, I described it as a "popup" but it does not have same characteristics, i.e., it does not popup like a notification, etc. When you open the browser to a website, it has been present.
Point understood about browser console though not sure of chance it would be identified since it appears to be an outlier. What is meant by database of extension ?

When you block a popup, if you send the screenshot, it may or may not be blocked after. Thus the Adguard database gets updated to block it. It is important to know the name of the process to dive deeper.