Q: I purchased microsoft office mac in 2004 and suddenly I get an error message. It won't launch. I click reopen and it does the same ... I purchased microsoft office mac in 2004 and suddenly I get an error message. It won't launch. I click reopen and it does the same thing. I get a long message in the panel. It tells me it will send a report. I still can't access any microsoft item - word more
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Helpful answers
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Apr 2, 2012 4:18 PM in response to fire badby fane_j,fire bad wrote:
I downloaded MacScan to keep these things out.
MacScan (or any other A/V utility so far) is not going to keep these things out.
Disable Java (not JavaScript, which is a different animal) in all your browsers.
IMHO, the only safe way to get rid of this thing is to erase your hard disk and restore it from a backup dating to a point prior to the infection. If you don't have such a backup (you should), back up, then erase the disk, re-install the OS, re-install the apps, and restore your documents (documents only, not apps nor prefs or config files).
Then go to any account you've accessed since the infection (this forum included, but especially related to money matters) and change the password.
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Apr 2, 2012 4:37 PM in response to fane_jby Grant Lenahan,If this is in fact the culprit, it also kinda contrdicts the advice someone gave here that macs never get viruses and therefore virus protection is not required.......whcih i found a little arrogant
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Apr 2, 2012 4:41 PM in response to Grant Lenahanby stevejobsfan0123,Understand the difference between virus and trojan horse.
Even if you did have AV software it wouldn't catch these, which is why AV software is worthless. -
Apr 2, 2012 4:49 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123by Grant Lenahan,Why? Most malware protection suites monitor for both...to most people virus=malware
Are you waying no mac packages monitor for intusion by trojan horses?
Seems odd if true.
Grant
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Apr 2, 2012 5:05 PM in response to X423424Xby cassidy3,"DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES" = "/Users/Shared/.libgmalloc.dylib";
This is what showed up. Now I'm scared. OMG. I do not want to lose everything. What does this mean? What do I do now?
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Apr 2, 2012 5:53 PM in response to X423424Xby cassidy3,OK. I did this again but this time I pasted the
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment in the right place. I hope anyway. I went to the top and got the pull down menu and went to new command. I pasted the bolded part above and thankfully it said
Domain ~/.MacOSX/environment does not exist.
So maybe this is good news. And then I downloaded the VirusBarrier X6 to try to avoid this trojan horse problem. I am not very tech smart. I hope this solves my problem. Thanks to all who posted comments. This was helpful although alarming. I do not want a trojan horse. -
Apr 2, 2012 5:59 PM in response to cassidy3by X423424X,★Helpfulcassidy3 wrote:
"DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES" = "/Users/Shared/.libgmalloc.dylib";
This is what showed up. Now I'm scared. OMG. I do not want to lose everything. What does this mean? What do I do now?
I apologize for "scaring" you with my last post to you but when you posted that you ran out and replaced Office I had no choice but to tell you why fane_j was asking you to do what was asking. He didn't want to scare you either which is why in this and (many, ever growing) other posts the request is done without specifying why it is being requested. If the results are negative then needless worry is avoided. Only when its positive is the trojan mentioned.
So read fane_j's post above and my "standard" post about this, and follow the link there particularly to the page 7 of the thread which has a fairly good discussions about this and what you should be doing about it (in summary basially waht fane_j says above).
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Apr 2, 2012 6:02 PM in response to cassidy3by X423424X,★Helpfulcassidy3 wrote:
OK. I did this again but this time I pasted the
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment in the right place. I hope anyway. I went to the top and got the pull down menu and went to new command. I pasted the bolded part above and thankfully it said
Domain ~/.MacOSX/environment does not exist.
So maybe this is good news. And then I downloaded the VirusBarrier X6 to try to avoid this trojan horse problem. I am not very tech smart. I hope this solves my problem. Thanks to all who posted comments. This was helpful although alarming. I do not want a trojan horse.Well now you have me confused. Which defaults is correct? All you have to do is copy/paste the bolded command line into a open terminal window and hit return.
Did you already follow the instructions about deleting (rm command line in terminal) the environment.plist?
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Apr 2, 2012 6:16 PM in response to Grant Lenahanby fane_j,Grant Lenahan wrote:
macs never get viruses
That is technically correct (almost). There are currently no known viruses which affect Mac OS X. Whether there will never be any viruses for Mac OS X is beyond anyone's capability to say.
Most malware protection suites monitor for both
There is considerable difference between a virus, a Trojan Horse, and a worm, although there is also some overlapping. The fact that people don't take the trouble to educate themselves (although information is widely available) and mistake one for the other is no excuse not to be precise and specific.
No A/V tool, of any kind, on any computer system, can protect against new threats, be they viruses, Trojan Horses, or anything else. It can only protect against what was known when it was last updated. This strain seems to have appeared in the last week or so.
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Apr 3, 2012 1:29 AM in response to X423424Xby cassidy3,Well now you have me confused. Which defaults is correct? All you have to do is copy/paste the bolded command line into a open terminal window and hit return.
The first time I went to utilities folder, found a box shaped icon that says terminal. I dbl clicked and a little square popped up that says Terminal - bash - 80x24 came up. Inside the box it says last log in and my name. So I pasted the defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment into that box and hit return.
The DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES" = "/Users/Shared/.libgmalloc.dylib"; appeared.
But then I explored more and thought what about the top of tool bar...I clicked on shell. Drop down menu appeared that had the option new command. I selected new command and a little box appeared so I pasted the defaults read squigly stuff in there. And then I got this:2012-04-03 03:24:06.406 defaults[91500:40b]
Domain ~/.MacOSX/environment does not exist
[Process completed]
And since that was what somebody said was possible, I decided maybe that was what I should have done in the first place.
Did you already follow the instructions about deleting (rm command line in terminal) the environment.plist?no. I did not do this yet. Should I?
Thanks for taking the time to help me with this. I do appreciate it. -
Apr 3, 2012 2:42 AM in response to cassidy3by X423424X,I dbl clicked and a little square popped up that says Terminal - bash - 80x24 came up. Inside the box it says last log in and my name. So I pasted the defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment into that box and hit return.
The DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES" = "/Users/Shared/.libgmalloc.dylib"; appeared.
That was all I ever said to do (and you can grow that "little square" 80x24 window to any size you want just like any other window).
But then I explored more and thought what about the top of tool bar...I clicked on shell. Drop down menu appeared that had the option new command. I selected new command and a little box appeared so I pasted the defaults read squigly stuff in there.
I never even ever noticed that New command... menu in all the years I've used the shell. Not even sure why its there. So I don't know what it was interpreting as the home directory when you used it (~, tilda, means the pathname to your home directory).
But you did the first operation correctly so it looks to me you have a strain of the trojan.
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Apr 3, 2012 4:21 AM in response to cassidy3by fane_j,cassidy3 wrote:
I selected new command
Ah! That explains it.
When we use Terminal, we don't normally interact directly with the operating system; rather, we do so through the medium of a shell (in your case, bash). Shells make life easier in various ways; one of them is the shortcut "~" (tilde). In most shells, this means the user's home directory, which otherwise would have to be written as "/Users/your_short_user_name/". Thus, the command
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment
when sent to a shell, means,
"tell the programme named 'defaults' to open and interpret the file named 'environment.plist' located in a hidden folder named '.MacOSX', which is located at the root level of this user's home folder".
But, when you use Shell > New Command…, the command is sent directly to the system (unless you check the "Run command inside a shell" checkbox). Which means that the tilde is going to be interpreted literally, rather than as a shortcut for your home folder. Therefore, by running the command as you did, you told the defaults programme to open something located in the "~" folder—which doesn't exist. Had you entered the command as
defaults read /Users/your_short_user_name/.MacOSX/environment
then you'd've obtained the same result as running
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment
in the Terminal window (ie, within a shell).
All of which means that, unfortunately, you've been infected by the Trojan Horse, and you need to act accordingly. Read carefully and make sure you understand the instructions in the links provided by X423424X(who has unravelled this thing with admirable patience in another thread) and others. I've already expressed above my opinion on what needs to be done
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Apr 3, 2012 4:33 AM in response to cassidy3by Shootist007,cassidy3 wrote:
Well I did not find a fix and with a pressing deadline and no time to troubleshoot or wait for these responses, I purchased the 2011 office mac package. Good news is that I can access all my documents. Bad news is I had to pay $150 for it. But I guess that was the plan Microsoft had.
This is not a Microsoft plan. It was not Microsoft that removed the ability to run Office 2004 on Macs with OS X Lion or the reason for your problem with Office 2004 on Mac Snow Leopard 10.6.X.
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Apr 3, 2012 4:37 AM in response to fane_jby Grant Lenahan,I stopped following this as you waded deeper into trojan horse removal. But... did you simply try waht i suggested and trash:
1. the program's folder in apps
2. its prefs inthe library
3. its support folders in docs
then re-insatll frm the original CD...?
?? I would imagine that might have doen the trick.
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Apr 3, 2012 5:12 AM in response to Grant Lenahanby fane_j,Grant Lenahan wrote:
I stopped following this
If you have stopped following, then it might be better to read and understand what has been posted, and only then post your own comments.
This problem is not related to MS Office 2004 itself, and affects all PPC apps. They crash due to the activity of the Trojan Horse, probably because Intel code is injected into PPC code upon execution. Removing the respective configuration in environment.plist solves the crash issue (it does not, however, remove the malicious code from the infected machine).