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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Occurs regardless of what network I'm connected to. Will update with further details, was on the phone with support. Starting to wonder if this is just some sort of general bug.