What is Genieo and why did it appeared misteriosouly on my MacBook Pro?

Note that this discussion is over 4-1/2 years old and eighteen pages long! That's almost as long as Genieo has been in the business of installing Adware on unsuspecting users.

Apple just updated it's XProtect detection yesterday to detect OSX.Genieo.G so that will protect you from now on (assuming you have not disabled automatic security updates) for seven different versions of Genieo, but I suspect there are even more than that.

Genieo has partnership agreements with many software distributors who include this unwelcome package along with 3rd party software. Avoid downloading anything from C|Net's download.com, MacUpdate (unless you are signed in), and other such distributors. Always use either the App Store or the developer's web site to download the apps you need. That's still not a guarantee, so when you install them, be sure to carefully read everything the installer is telling you or you will probably miss the opportunity to opt-out of installing such things.

Not sure exactly what your "concern" is, but hopefully I've touched on that.

I would interrogate your brother first.

You should check your logs, the IP address issue is local network related.

There is no malware involved here. Genieo appears to be legitimate software:

http://www.genieo.com

There is no indication that I can find that this is anything remotely malicious, so I'm not sure what "hijacker virus" you're referring to. As to how it got on your Dock, someone must have downloaded it and put it there.

As to the alert about someone using the same IP address, that is simply an error caused by some machine on your network having been configured incorrectly to have a self-assigned IP address. Your wireless router is responsible for deciding which machines get which IP addresses, and if a machine is assigned a fixed IP address in the range of addresses that the router uses, there can be a conflict. You need to figure out which machine that is and change its network settings so that it is assigned an IP address using DHCP.

Javier --

Did you recently installed Firefox?

Apparently,Genieo comes with it.

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/924785

Javier23gol wrote:

Thomas nobody downloaded it. I search in google and some people have the same problem as I http://www.mywot.com/en/forum/25962-genieo-com-browser-hijacker

It appeared misteriosouly.

Javier23gol,

I have read the posts on this site you have linked and can not come to a conclusion that this genieo software was in anyway malicious and cannot discern from information provided that is invades or hijacks your computer, as you have previously stated a password has prevented installation of software malicious or not malicious onto your macbook, be thankful that you are using OSX and not another vulnerable operating system.

This being said however does not rule out that someone other than yourself has had access to your computer or has introduced an altered or unaltered copy of what seems to be legitimate software to your local network which could be infact malicious.

I can only see one outstanding issue from your original post in this thread is the issue with the IP conflict on your macbook and whether this has been resolved.

Ciao

Sidonsoft

Thomas nobody downloaded it.

Yes, someone downloaded it. It sounds like it comes bundled with some software, like Firefox. Though you may not have installed Firefox, you (or someone else) definitely installed something that included Genieo.

I search in google and some people have the same problem as I http://www.mywot.com/en/forum/25962-genieo-com-browser-hijacker

That is a forum post from one single person, whose opinion is not particularly valid without corroboration.

There have been a number of positive reviews of Genieo, some fairly recent. Further, I have been tracking Mac malware for a number of years now, and Genieo has never come to my attention in any way. There is no anti-virus engine that identifies this software as malware. (I just checked that using VirusTotal.) It is simply a misunderstood product that has garnered a small amount of ill will due to two things: 1) people reading too much into what it does and 2) being bundled with other software.

Today is my 2nd time uninstalling Genieo and that wasted another 45min of my time as I research how to remove it. I am the only one who has access to my iMac and I know I have not installed it even the 1st time. Question is how it got back in again??? GRRRRRRR. Can anyone suggest what to setup to prevent it from downloading by itslef again? Thought Mac was supersafe in this area though I have never experienced this with Mac in my 8 years history. I really dont wanna waste more time/effort on continuous uninstall. PLEASSSSSSEEEEE HELPPP!!

BTW, whatever one may call it malicious or derogatively "forth coming", installing a software without my consent is hijacking.

Thanks in advance.

It cannot install itself without your active participation. However, Genieo has been known to come bundled with other software in the past. (Generally crap software, in my opinion.) You need to pay close attention to what you are installing and what baggage it carries along with it. That may explain how it got installed the first time. As for the second time, perhaps you just didn't get it removed properly the first time, or perhaps you downloaded something else that had Genieo bundled with it.

Ya I was wondering about that. Kinda backdorr install. Guess what. As I removed Genioe yest, this afternoon I page with its search engine page appeared on my Chrome out of no where. shock the bit of me into place. lol scary.

Please read the second para of that link you posted:

"Genieo is not part of Firefox. We don't have anything to with it."

That from Mozilla support.

Maybe this will help.

In finder go to Utilities, then Activity Monitor, then when you see Genieo select it, then select the RED quit button. It will ask you if you "really want to quit Genieo" then simply quit.

Then quit Activity Monitor.

After that, go into your Application folder and drag Genieo to the trash. Then empty trash.

If you are using Safari and it opens to the Genieo page, in the Safari drop down, select preferences, General Tab.

You can then see what is set as your Safari home page. If that page shows Genieo then change it. You may have to go within Safari to what page you want as a home first in order to make it your current page, then select Set to Current Page and that will become your web page when you first open Safari.

I do not know if this will remove all Genieo files. Hope this helps!

Mendis, my apologies if my post construed any relationship Genioe have with Mac. Wasnt meant to be. Was just stumped how it got back in since last time and was looking for permanent solution. I went to their website and read about them sure. The only possible channel I think was when Firefox upated recently and perhaps it laid dormant and something triggered it. Thanks anyhow.

BZ-LA : thanks for teh pointer. I checked but nothing of Geneio there but next time I know where to look. This is great info and after 8 years of using Mac, its the first time I have had to check this. Haha.... guess a +ve thing came out from it. Also I dont use Safari anymore as there is a major page reload problem that lost my days of research before........cheerrs