Random Restarts 10.15.4

rayanfromsydney wrote:

Is there any other antivirus software you would recommend?

No.

• At best the anti-virus packages do nothing.
• At medium, they steal CPU, Battery (aka power you are paying for), ISP bandwidth (you are paying for), and do not find anything, or if they find something, it turns out it is for Windows, which cannot hurt your Mac.
• At worse, they panic your system. There is one vendor that has been panic'ing Macs for years, but they never seem to fix it.

Read the following:

Effective defenses against malware and other threats

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8841>

Today, there are no self-propagating viruses for the Mac.

The Mac does have issues with Trojans where the user gets tricked into doing the install. Mostly this is adware that steals CPU and network bandwidth. But there are a few malware items out there that steal your information, or perform crypto mining on your Mac.

Being tricked is the user downloads software from a download aggregation site, and the site puts its own installer around the package. During the install a Side-Load is performed containing adware that the download site was paid to include. The adware may use your Mac to perform money generating clicks on websites, or it may hijack your search engine and direct it to another engine or insert ads, etc...

Sometimes it is the software developer that gets paid to side-load adware.

Malware often comes from sites that offer paid apps for free, or offer an app that entices and does just enough to get someone to try it, and they install their malware at that time. Or they put an ad on a webpage that looks like a big green download button, and if you went to that page to download something, that ad looks just like what you were looking for. And when you get the package, you install it because that is what you were trying to do.

Again, all tricks.

Apps from the Apple App Store, and reputable software vendors are generally safe.

The 2 apps that have helped the most for detecting these is MalwareBytes (free version) and EtreCheck. The forum tends to use EtreCheck when helping to diagnose issues, and was written by a long time Apple Discussions forum contributer. The MalwareByes Mac version was originally written by another long time contributor to these forums. Both authors have a lot of credibility with the volunteers here.

Anyway, you are not going to get any viruses, malware, adware is you are not installing anything, so running an anti-virus 24/7 is a waste of resources.

If you acquire software from a less than reputable site, then download and manually run the free MalwareBytes version. You can uninstall it when you have a clean scan, and not run it again, until you install something else.

MajorJohnsonRS wrote:

What about this one I get 100 times a day that Apple said they couldn't replicate

panic(cpu 1 caller 0xfffffff00e6ef7b4): x86 CPU CATERR detected

Point of order:

To begin, you are "Thread-Jacking" rayanfromsydney post.

And your panic is not the same panic rayanfromsydney is having so it does not contribute to a solution for rayanfromsydney.

Trying to help multiple users in the same thread becomes difficult, confusing, as well as impolite to the person that started the thread.

At the top of the this page, please click "Post" and select "Discussions" to start your own post and ask for help. Include the word 'Panic' in your title, as well as anything else that will catch the eye of someone trying to help. You get 1 shot at catching someone attention, do not hide it at the bottom of your post.

In your new post include the entire panic report in an "Additional Text" box

You can find the entire panic report at

Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder -> /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

Thank you for understanding.

One of the following kernel extensions is most likely not following Safe kernel programming rules.

com.avast.PacketForwarder 2.1

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp 6.0.12

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt 6.0.12

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB 6.0.12

com.avast.FileShield 4.0.0

org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv 6.0.12

com.jft.driver.PdaNetDrv 1.0.64

com.metakine.handsoff.driver 4.4.2

Since the kernel backtrace shows

com.metakine.handsoff.driver(4.4.2)

is where the panic happened, I would say that is the root of your problem.

i don’t like the anti-virus package either, if for no other reason that they collected customer information and sold it.

But the panic kernel backtrace clearly shows the guilty party. Panic reports rarely do that, but this one just screamed who done it.

What about this one I get 100 times a day that Apple said they couldn't replicate

panic(cpu 1 caller 0xfffffff00e6ef7b4): x86 CPU CATERR detected

Debugger message: panic

Memory ID: 0xff

OS version: 17P4281

macOS version: 19E287

Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 19.4.0: Mon Mar  2 20:38:56 PST 2020; root:xnu-6153.101.6~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8010

Kernel UUID: 3695E9D9-323E-350E-9A6E-65819BE397D7

iBoot version: iBoot-5540.105.2

secure boot?: YES

x86 EFI Boot State: 0xd

x86 System State: 0x0

x86 Power State: 0x0

x86 Shutdown Cause: 0x5

x86 Previous Power Transitions: 0x10001000100

PCIeUp link state: 0x68473614

Paniclog version: 13

Kernel slide:     0x00000000066b8000

Kernel text base: 0xfffffff00d6bc000

mach_absolute_time: 0x40c1f672852

Epoch Time:        sec       usec

  Boot    : 0x5e967bd9 0x000c28fe

  Sleep   : 0x5eab93ca 0x0003f640

  Wake    : 0x5eab943b 0x000594e6

  Calendar: 0x5eab9718 0x000417c8

Panicked task 0xffffffe00081b000: 3156 pages, 192 threads: pid 0: kernel_task

Panicked thread: 0xffffffe000b46a40, backtrace: 0xffffffe01635b4b0, tid: 389

  lr: 0xfffffff00df80764  fp: 0xffffffe01635b4f0

  lr: 0xfffffff00df805c0  fp: 0xffffffe01635b560

  lr: 0xfffffff00e09ae7c  fp: 0xffffffe01635b610

  lr: 0xfffffff00e54962c  fp: 0xffffffe01635b620

  lr: 0xfffffff00df7ff28  fp: 0xffffffe01635b990

  lr: 0xfffffff00df80280  fp: 0xffffffe01635b9e0

  lr: 0xfffffff00edb6934  fp: 0xffffffe01635ba00

  lr: 0xfffffff00e6ef7b4  fp: 0xffffffe01635ba30

  lr: 0xfffffff00e6e0be4  fp: 0xffffffe01635baa0

  lr: 0xfffffff00e6e2b0c  fp: 0xffffffe01635bb50

  lr: 0xfffffff00e6e031c  fp: 0xffffffe01635bbe0

  lr: 0xfffffff00e6a7780  fp: 0xffffffe01635bc10

  lr: 0xfffffff00e4b6abc  fp: 0xffffffe01635bc50

  lr: 0xfffffff00e4b6340  fp: 0xffffffe01635bc90

  lr: 0xfffffff00e554514  fp: 0x0000000000000000

Yikes... Avast Matey!

https://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8854&p=116651#p116651