Help Malware or Virus Problem?

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Level 1

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Help Malware or Virus Problem?

Hi,

I have recently started to suffer from a problem whereby Safari windows will open by themselves and put out randon searches onto Yahoo, Google and Bing. I have tried running the following Virus programmes but all come up clean;

i) Virus Barrier Express

ii) ClamXav

iii) Virus Barrier X6

I also get the same problem with new email messages open with no addresses entered but similar random text in the message body.

The problem has also spread from my Macbook Pro to my Mac Mini either through my USB stick or perhaps because they are both on the same network sometimes.

I assume the problem arose becasue my Macbook was operating with the firewall turned off and I logged into public WiFi networks a couple of weeks ago when I had a problem with the data connection on my phone. Don't know how my Mabook came to have the firewall turned off.

As I'm typing this message my Macbook has just tried to carry out an unrequested search on iTunes, this is a new development!!

Example of the text in an unrequested email - Shameless management. You can regret what impact is usually because of the 300 and although it was a lovely example… Lay Gilbert and Reuters but the new girl so you can now record that was the look answer well the top of the way they can I think the man is alleged of all target compounds the angle is out causes of global but was later EE (if you are and you then since there is not a is great) a map and you wouldn't with that which will listen. And the year since most of you have about FFFF is €11 going to land on

And a search put out on one of the search engines - http://www.google.com/search?q=Your%20is%20true%20the%20close%20of%20the%20time% 20that%20the%20above%20the%20visit%20of%20the%20UK%20has%20limited

%20global%20list%20pollutants%20of%20anybody%20who%20got%20silver%20spoon%20some where%20that%20the%20care%20service%20you%20are

%20at%20the%20what%20is%20goals%20is%20for%20you%20and%20I%20hope%20that%20you%2 0are%20and%20you%20are%20what%20you%20eat%

20at%20a

Any help much appreciated as whilst not malicious this is getting annoying.

Thanks

Steve

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 5, 2011 2:37 AM

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Answer 1

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thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Dec 5, 2011 3:55 AM in response to Stevet9964

This sounds like a problem with Dragon that has suddenly started being reported here in the last week or so. Have you got Dragon installed?

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Dec 5, 2011 3:59 AM in response to thomas_r.

BTW, on the topic of malware, I'd advise you to consider removing VirusBarrier, as it has been known to cause problems for some people. You can choose to keep it if you like, as some/many people use it just fine, but if you start having crashes, that ought to be one of your first suspects. If you do choose to keep it, you should remove ClamXav, as having two different AV packages installed is not a good idea.

You may want to consider reading my Mac Malware Guide as well:

http://www.reedcorner.net/guides/macvirus

(Note that my pages contain links to other pages that promote my services, and this should not be taken as an endorsement of my services by Apple.)

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Answer 3

Stevet9964 Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 5, 2011 4:18 AM in response to thomas_r.

Hi Thomas,

Thankyou very much, you are correct I installed Dragon Express a few weeks, this also explains why I have the problem on my Mac Mini as it also has the software on it ang why the virus software found nothing.

Thanks again,

Steve

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Answer 4

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,221 points

Dec 5, 2011 10:43 PM in response to thomas_r.

Thomas A Reed wrote:

...you should remove ClamXav, as having two different AV packages installed is not a good idea.

Actually, the only AV packages which conflict with ClamXav are one of the other applications that use the clamav engine (ProtectMac, OTIC ClamAV® and Lion Cache Cleaner). In general, AV applications in their manual scan mode don't conflict with one another. The problem comes when background processes are included which do real-time scanning. They tend to compete over who gets to go first when a new file is introduced to the hard drive which usually brings other applications to a screeching halt. In that case of Snow Leopard and above, anybody using a third party AV package is duplicating some of that which Apple's XProtect system already does for the user.

I did stumble accross a situation once in which an AV scanner trashed or quarantined Norton's signature file which immediately disabled the latter.

So I think there are occassions when having more than one AV system to supplement or backup another can be appropriate, if used correctly by those who feel such a need. I'm still on the side of those who don't feel a continuous, multi-level protection is required for the type of computing I do, but I suspect that will change sooner or later.

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Answer 5

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Dec 6, 2011 10:15 AM in response to MadMacs0

Actually, I saw a report about a year ago or so that one of the major AV packages (I forget now which one it was, but it wasn't one of the three you mentioned) trashed portions of ClamXav.

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Answer 6

Jan 2, 2012 9:15 AM in response to thomas_r.

I'm having this problem and I have Dragon Express installed - has this been confirmed anywhere? Sounds like a major issue, especially considering it's a Mac App Store app!

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