Virus on my macbook

from my experiences, when a computer starts to run slow or act maliciously, the viruses are active. I not have a salution to your problem because I do not have enough experience on mac. I will say that you are probably a victim to the virus. Just my assumption. The virus IS affecting your MacBook by making it run slow. If it was on windows, I would tell you to buy spyware doctor because demos don't work. However, I have not seen a legit program that works on maC. Sorry I do not have a definite answer though.

pickey--
Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Seriously, you don't have anything to worry about with "hacktool."
If you've been using Norton on your Mac, that could very well be your entire problem right there.

Did you used to use PeeCee's?
Because even though there may be technically a virus on your Mac,
it can't open, unless you specifically give it permission by entering your Admin Password first.

Can you give us more info on your "slowness" problem?

~Bee wrote:
pickey--
Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Seriously, you don't have anything to worry about with "hacktool."

Yes he does. Why is it getting into his computer in the first place and secondly the rootkit may be propagating via his Mac even though he is just a "carrier." It is a problem.

If you've been using Norton on your Mac, that could very well be your entire problem right there.

What?

Did you used to use PeeCee's?

He's on a school network. Anything can happen on a school network.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

pikeymick wrote:
Well I'm 29 and going back to school. I live in my own place, but when i go to school i carry documents on a flash drive. Which has now twice been found with a virus on it by the school computers. My computer becomes slowed down, I presume, when the virus becomes active over the network as unix/linux systems are great carriers for an infection point for any computers on a network with windows computers. I need to find a way to ensure that I have removed the source of the virus, and or blocked its route for re-infection, if anyone has any ideas.

When you connect to the school LAN, be sure to set your firewall to not allow all incoming connections. Turn off all sharing.

You should also install "LittleSnitch" to see what's going on under the hood.
Also run the Activity Monitor and see what programs are running and from where.
Some malware can morph into a different format/name etc and hide from some A/V programs.
My guess is that you have not removed it or that your firewall/security settings are too loose.

I think it is safe to say that we need more information, if you have or can get it. What exact type of virus are you being warned about?

Are you running Windows on your Mac by any chance? You could have a Windows virus that is causing problems.

Do you have any anti-virus software on your computer? If not, you might want to consider it. I haven't been terribly impressed with any of the offerings on the market from Intego or Symantec, although Symantec is definitely better in my book. Another alternative comes from the makers of Avast! Antivirus...they have a Macintosh version of their product. I tried an early preview release and thought it looked promising at the time.

To get this cleaned up, you might need to scan your computer's disk from a known clean machine so all the problems can be removed when they are not active. This does carry some risk of transferring the virus, but it can work better than trying to battle a "live" virus when it's in your software and doesn't want to let go.

If you find that the so-called "hacktool" you have picked up is a member of a software family known as a "rootkit", well, it's time to erase your computer, reinstall your software from trusted media (that isn't infested) and restore your data files after making sure they are not infested. Rootkits are (typically) malicious programs that go to great lengths to conceal themselves by patching the operating system to hide their presence. You may never be able to completely remove one once you have it.

Hacktool--after spending time looking around on the Symantec site--appears to be a Windows-specific rootkit or virus depending upon what variant you might have.

Which version of Norton Anti-Virus do you have--are you running it with Windows or Mac OS X?

I would not rule out the possibility of a false positive. You might try restoring the file from Quarantine and seeing what its real name is. False positives do happen--I've struggled with this recently with Symantec Corporate Anti-Virus 10 for Windows, which developed a sudden bad habit of tagging a distributed computing program as a virus.

Norton + Mac OS = no no no no no no.

Norton has probably caused this problem. As others will also probably advise you, I suggest you remove *everything that has anything to do with Norton* off your computer. You don't need it.

I agree with ~Bee and Tom about Norton on the OS X side. AFA viruses, there may well be one on your disk. It will do no harm in OS X but you could pass it on to PCs via their network.

I'd suggest ClamXav a mac friendly freeware app. I think what is slowing you down is Norton scanning.



-mj

Message was edited by: macjack

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.computing.net/answers/mac/hacktool-virus/10972.html


Specifically post number 27 which reads:

All:

+To anyone who is experiencing crashing/hanging+
problems:

+This is NOT because you are infected with anything! NAV+
+is trying to inappropriately remove/"quarantine" your+
+swapfile, and that action itself is what is causing the+
+issues. You are virtually guaranteed to get a hard freeze+
+or kernel panic if the swapfile is tampered with.+

+Symantec released new virus definitions yesterday to clear+
+up this confirmed issue with the previous version of the+
+definitions. You are NOT infected; it was NAV itself that+
+was giving this false positive, and trying to remove the+
+swapfile is what was causing the issue.+

I'd agree...if Norton is trying to remove a Swapfile that had code that bore a similarity to a virus, then your computer is likely going to crash.

Anyway...read through the entire thread...

Bob