MTLCompilerService - 18 Processes found in Activity Monitor

I had already found the meaning of MTLCompilerService. However, I am wondering if anyone has multiple of these same processes in their Activity Monitor. Currently I have 18 (that I’ve counted so far) I’ve had a history of hacking (yes on my MacBook Pro, older iMac and currently MacBook Air M1, so I’m wondering if this would be a cause for concern. Also currently running wireshark and I’m sure I’m going to be flooding the community with questions.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.6

Posted on Feb 20, 2024 6:22 AM

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Posted on Feb 20, 2024 7:35 AM

You have apps using Metal, which is quite normal.


Multiple apps using Metal is also quite common.


Build GPU binaries with Metal - WWDC20 - Videos - Apple Developer


Postings from folks featuring “am I hacked?”, and usually including benign logs, benign telemetry, or some utterly benign screenshots or such are also common, too. I’ve yet to encounter one of these “am I hacked?” postings here that had anything malicious, though there have been a few with buggy apps.


Based on available information, exploits are targeted, or the user has gone and overridden security and loaded the exploits. We don’t know your value as a target. We don’t know what you’ve been loading. There are folks here that are investigative journalists, political dissidents, with access to sensitive or classified data, that have somehow annoyed some very rich folks, or with access to great wealth. Most of us aren’t targets. Are you? We don’t know. (And if you are, you probably don’t want us to know that.)


Nor do we know what “security” or “cleaning” apps have been installed, nor what problems those added apps might be or are sometimes causing.


More generally, we cannot prove a negative. No one can prove you’re not hacked.


What happens here next? Usually nothing. Digital forensics require direct access, and ~nobody is going to perform forensics for free. Not without some good evidence of exploits. Which means those concerned about having been exploited get to learn how to secure their environments, about partitioning their digital data, how to collect evidence, or pay for forensics, or learn about and perform their own forensics. Jonathan Levin's New OS X internals book (three volumes) is a good starting resource for learning about the innards of macOS.


As for that Metal shader chatter, eh, at worst it’s likely a buggy app, or a tangled-up Safari tab. But can anybody prove that? Nope.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 20, 2024 7:35 AM in response to BodiesXWix

You have apps using Metal, which is quite normal.


Multiple apps using Metal is also quite common.


Build GPU binaries with Metal - WWDC20 - Videos - Apple Developer


Postings from folks featuring “am I hacked?”, and usually including benign logs, benign telemetry, or some utterly benign screenshots or such are also common, too. I’ve yet to encounter one of these “am I hacked?” postings here that had anything malicious, though there have been a few with buggy apps.


Based on available information, exploits are targeted, or the user has gone and overridden security and loaded the exploits. We don’t know your value as a target. We don’t know what you’ve been loading. There are folks here that are investigative journalists, political dissidents, with access to sensitive or classified data, that have somehow annoyed some very rich folks, or with access to great wealth. Most of us aren’t targets. Are you? We don’t know. (And if you are, you probably don’t want us to know that.)


Nor do we know what “security” or “cleaning” apps have been installed, nor what problems those added apps might be or are sometimes causing.


More generally, we cannot prove a negative. No one can prove you’re not hacked.


What happens here next? Usually nothing. Digital forensics require direct access, and ~nobody is going to perform forensics for free. Not without some good evidence of exploits. Which means those concerned about having been exploited get to learn how to secure their environments, about partitioning their digital data, how to collect evidence, or pay for forensics, or learn about and perform their own forensics. Jonathan Levin's New OS X internals book (three volumes) is a good starting resource for learning about the innards of macOS.


As for that Metal shader chatter, eh, at worst it’s likely a buggy app, or a tangled-up Safari tab. But can anybody prove that? Nope.

Feb 20, 2024 10:28 AM in response to BodiesXWix

BodiesXWix wrote:

I’m wondering if this would be a cause for concern.

It would not.

Also currently running wireshark

Please don't do that.

I’m going to be flooding the community with questions.

Please don't.


Uninstall Wireshark. You aren't being hacked. I've seen posts like this hundreds of times. The only potentially malicious software on your computer was something you installed on purpose. Should any such software be identified in the course of any discussions, you would refuse to remove it.

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MTLCompilerService - 18 Processes found in Activity Monitor

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