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Malware message on iMac

I have a new iMac purchased June 2023 running Sonoma 14.0. The only download I put on this computer is Quicken for Mac which I have used on other iMacs for many years with no issues. I am attaching a copy of the message I am receive approximately every 10 seconds. I searched the computer and can't find anything with this name. If I click on show in finder nothing happens. Any suggestions for finding and eliminating would be appreciated.

Posted on Oct 21, 2023 10:55 AM

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Posted on Oct 21, 2023 12:06 PM

Searchmaster is a browser plugin that hijacks your browser homepage and search engine. You may have inadvertently gotten it when browsing somewhere on the internet. Regarding Quicken, did you obtain it directly from quicken.com or from some other place?


I suggest installing & running Malwarebytes, which you can use for free. It should take care of searchmaster. Malwarebytes is a trusted app, regularly recommended here in the forums. I use it myself on my Macs.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 21, 2023 12:06 PM in response to BuzbyBerkley

Searchmaster is a browser plugin that hijacks your browser homepage and search engine. You may have inadvertently gotten it when browsing somewhere on the internet. Regarding Quicken, did you obtain it directly from quicken.com or from some other place?


I suggest installing & running Malwarebytes, which you can use for free. It should take care of searchmaster. Malwarebytes is a trusted app, regularly recommended here in the forums. I use it myself on my Macs.

Oct 24, 2023 6:22 AM in response to John Galt

John Galt wrote:
There is never a need to download and install anything to fix something else you dowloaded and installed.

That may or may not be true.


There is no way at present to know the OP's level of expertise and with something like the apparent browser hijacker the OP reported, it is far easier and safer for the OP to use a utility like Malwarebytes than to go digging around the hidden user Library and risk damaging or deleting something that shouldn't be touched.


If the OP is appropriately skilled, your linked instructions (which are very well written) will be useful. But there are simpler solutions to his/her stated problem.

Malware message on iMac

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