How to delete com.kaspersky.kav.sysext.systemextension on macOS Monterey?

I am trying to completely remove Kaspersky Anti-Virus. I am down to one file that I can't delete - com.kaspersky.kav.sysext.systemextension. How can I get rid of it?

It shows up as a system extension under Privacy -> Full Disk Access. I try to remove it and it keeps coming back. It also shows up in the Activity Monitor Process List and reappears no matter how many times I quit the process.

I have also spent about an hour trying to delete the underlying file including:

Finder Delete
Finder Command-Delete

I always get the error - The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.

I then tried to delete from Terminal using:

sudo rm -rf Contents

and it get ...

rm: Contents/CodeResources: Operation not permitted

rm: Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources: Operation not permitted

rm: Contents/_CodeSignature: Operation not permitted

rm: Contents/MacOS/com.kaspersky.kav.sysext: Operation not permitted

rm: Contents/MacOS: Operation not permitted

rm: Contents/embedded.provisionprofile: Operation not permitted

rm: Contents/Info.plist: Operation not permitted

rm: Contents: Operation not permitted

Mac mini, macOS 12.3

Posted on Mar 26, 2022 1:07 PM

Top-ranking reply

steve626

Level 6

13,791 points

Posted on Mar 26, 2022 8:33 PM

diesel_dad wrote:

I have contacted Apple Support. Their brilliant answer was to reformat the drive and install MacOS from scratch as being the only way to remove the file.

Given what Etresoft has indicated, it seems that only a certified installer/uninstaller can access some of these files, apparently including the one you want to remove. Perhaps Kaspersky has such an uninstaller, but if Kaspersky itself is not trustworthy, would I use their uninstaller? I have actually done a full disk erase and reinstall in the past, it is not that hard and it will result in a clean operating system, not a bad thing. Make sure you have at least two backups, preferably two different types (e.g. Time Machine, clone, cloud-based, etc.) that you have tested, and when you migrate your files back make sure you migrate only user accounts and files, nothing else, so you don't bring that file back. By the way, there could be more than just that one file that you know about, in which case you are better off with the clean reinstall anyway, possibly.

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How to delete com.kaspersky.kav.sysext.systemextension on macOS Monterey?

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