Since few days while visiting official websites with any browser I automatically get new tabs with advertising sites. Additionally when i move my mouse close to hyperlinks i get kind of pop ups with advertising messages.

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem.

2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.

There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.

3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to collect information about the state of the computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. However, you should be cautious about running any kind of program (not just a shell script) on the advice of a stranger. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.

Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:

☞ Copy a line of text in this window to the Clipboard.

☞ Paste into the window of another application.

☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.

☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.

The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time. Details follow.

4. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.

5. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.

6. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin; clear; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s\n\n%s\n'; Fr='\nRAM details\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='user %s%%, system %s%%'; AC="com.autodesk.AutoCAD com.evenflow.dropbox com.google.GoogleDrive"; H='^[[:space:]]*((127\.0\.0\.1|::1|fe80::1%lo0)[[:space:]]+local|(255\.){3}255[[:space:]]*broadcast)host[[:space:]]*$'; NS=networksetup; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ a -eq 0 ]]; }; BI () { $PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$1"; }; LC () { $2 launchctl list | awk 'NR>1 && !/0x|\.[0-9]+$|com\.apple\.(AirPortBaseStationAgent|launchctl\.(Aqua|Background|System))$/{print $3}' | grep -Fv "$1"; }; M () { find -L "$d" -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | egrep -lq XML\|exec && echo $f; done; }; AT () { o=`file -b "$1" | egrep -v '^(A.{16}t$|cann)'`; Ps "${1##*/} format"; }; Pc () { o=`grep -v '^ *#' "$2"`; l=`wc -l <<< "$o"`; [[ l -gt 25 ]] && o=`head -n25 <<< "$o"`$'\n'"and $((l-25)) more line(s)"; Pm "$1"; AT "$1"; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=`sed -E '/^ *$|CSConfigDot/d;s/^ */ /;s/[-0-9A-Fa-f]{22,}/UUID/g;s/(ochat)\.[^.]+(\..+)/\1\2/;/Shared/!s/(\/Users\/)[^/]+/\1-/g' <<< "$o"` && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pp () { o=`$PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'`; Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o=`echo $o`; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; Pu () { [[ "$s" ]] || return; n=$((${#s[*]}-1)); c="${s[*]}"; s[$n]=${s[$n]%[.+-]*}; o=$((s[n]/$1)); o=$((o>=$2?o:0)); Ps "$3 used by process \"${c% ${s[$((n-1))]}*}\" with UID ${s[$((n-1))]} ($4)"; }; R () { o=; s=; [[ r -eq 0 ]]; }; SP () { system_profiler SP${1}DataType; }; id -G | grep -qw 80; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; SP Software | sed -n 's/^ *//;5p;6p;8p'; h=(`SP Hardware | awk '/ Id/{print $3}; /Mem/{print $2}'`); o=$h; Ps Model; o=$((h[1]<4?h[1]:0)); Ps "Total RAM (GB)"; o=`SP Memory | sed '1,5d;/[my].*:/d'`; [[ "$o" =~ s:\ [^EO]|x([^8]|8[^0]) ]] && printf "$Fr" "$o"; o=`SP Diagnostics | sed '5,6!d'`; [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm POST; p=`SP Power`; o=`awk '/Cy/{print $NF}' <<< "$p"`; o=$((o>=300?o:0)); Ps "Battery cycles"; o=`sed -n '/Cond.*: [^N]/s/^.*://p' <<< "$p"`; Ps "Battery condition"; for b in FireWire Thunderbolt USB; do o=`SP $b | sed -En '/:$/{s/ *:$//;x;s/\n//;/Apple|Intel|SMSC/d;s/\n.*//;/\)/p;};/^ *(V.+ [0N]|Man).+ /{s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/(.+: )(.+)/ (\2)/;H;}'`; Pm $b; done; o=`pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*C/C/'`; [[ "$o" =~ No\ th|pms ]] && o=; Pm Heat; o=`pmset -g sysload | grep -v :`; [[ "$o" =~ =\ [^GO] ]] || o=; Pm "System load"; o=`nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'`; Ps "boot-args"; o=; fdesetup status | grep -q On && o=On; Ps FileVault; a=(/ ""); A=(System User); for i in 0 1; do o=`cd ${a[$i]}L*/Lo*/Diag* || continue; for f in *.{cr,h,pa,s}*; do [[ -f "$f" ]] || continue; d=$(stat -f%Sc -t%F "$f"); [[ "$f" =~ h$ ]] && grep -lq "^Thread c" "$f" && f="$f *"; echo "$d ${f%%_2*} ${f##*.}"; done | sort | tail`; Pm "${A[$i]} diagnostics"; done; grep -lq '*$' <<< "$o" && printf $'\n\t* Code injection\n'; o=`syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'caug|GPU |hfs: Ru|last value [1-9]|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|proc: t|Roamed|rror|ssert|Thrott|timed? ?o|WARN' -k Message Ane 'SMC:' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""};1'`; Pm "Kernel log"; o=`df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'`; o=$((o<5120?o:0)); Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/eo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( `sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d'` ); [[ s[4] -lt 85 ]] && o=`printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}` || o=; Ps "Total CPU usage" && { s=(`ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'`); Pu 1 0 CPU %; }; s=(`top -R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt | sed '$!d'`); Pu 1 25000 Ports \#; R && s=(`sudo dtrace -n 'syscall::recvfrom:return { @[execname,uid] = sum(arg0); } tick-10sec { exit(0); }' | tail -1`); Pu 10240 0 Bandwidth KiB/s; sys=`pkgutil --regexp --only-files --files com.apple.pkg.* | sort | uniq | sed 's:^:/:'`; bi=`egrep '\.(kext|xpc)/(Contents/)?Info.plist$' <<< "$sys" | while read i; do [[ -f "$i" ]] && BI "$i"; done`; o=`kextstat -kl | grep -Fv "$bi" | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1`; Pm "Kernel extensions"; li=`egrep 'Launch[AD].+\.plist$' <<< "$sys"`; jl=`while read f; do [[ -f $f ]] && $PB\ :Label $f; done <<< "$li"`$'\n'"$bi"; R && o=`LC "$jl" sudo`; Pm Daemons; o=`LC "$jl"`; Pm Agents; o=`for d in {/,}L*/Lau*; do M; done | grep -Fv "$li" | while read f; do ID=$($PB\ :Label "$f") || ID="No job label"; printf "$Fb" "$f" "$ID"; done`; Pm "launchd items"; o=`for d in /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems; do M; done`; Pm "Startup items"; b=`sed -E '/^.+Lib.+\/Contents\/Info.plist$/!d;s/\/Info.plist$//;/Contents\/./d' <<< "$sys"`; l=`egrep '^/usr/lib/.+dylib$' <<< "$sys"`; p=`lsbom -pfc /var/db/*/*.BSD.bom | sed -En '/peri.+\/.+\./s/^\.\/[^/]+//p'`; [[ "$b" && "$l" && "$p" ]] && { o=`find -L /S*/L*/{C*/Sec*A,E}* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,iTu,Keyb,Mail/B,P*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Sec,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | grep -Fv "$b" | while read d; do i="$d"/Info.plist; [[ -f "$i" ]] || continue; ID=$(BI "$i") || ID="No bundle ID"; printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done`; Pm "Bundles"; o=`find /usr/lib -type f -name *.dylib | grep -Fv "$l"`; Pm "Shared libraries"; o=`find -L {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -exec cksum {} \; | awk '{print $3"\t"$1}' | grep -Fv "$p" | awk '{print $1}'`; Pm "Periodic scripts"; :; } || echo $'\nReceipts missing'; o=`for e in INSERT_LIBRARIES LIBRARY_PATH; do launchctl getenv DYLD_$e; done`; Pm "Inserted dylibs"; o=; defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate | grep -q 0 || o=On; Ps Firewall; o=`scutil --proxy | egrep 'Prox.+: [^0]'`; Pm Proxies; o=`scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'`; i=`route -n get default | awk '/e:/{print $2}'`; I=`$NS -listnetworkserviceorder | sed -En '/ '$i'\)$/{x;s/^\(.+\) //p;q;};x'`; n=`$NS -getdnsservers "$I" | awk '!/^T/{printf "not "; exit}'`; Ps "DNS (${n}from DHCP)"; o=`$NS -getinfo "$I" | awk '/k:/{if ($3 !~ "(255\.){3}0") print}; /v6:/{if ($2 !~ "A") print}'`; Pm TCP/IP; [[ "$I" =~ [AW]i ]] && { o=`/S*/*/P*/*/*/*/*/airport -I | awk '/lR/{print $2}'`; o=$((o<=-87?o:0)); Ps RSSI; }; R && o=`sudo profiles -P | grep : | wc -l`; Ps Profiles; f=auto_master; [[ `md5 -q /etc/$f` =~ ^b166 ]] || Pc $f /etc/$f; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; f=/etc/hosts; Pc hosts <(egrep -v "$H" $f ); AT $f; Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd*; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l); R && o=`sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook`; Pm "Login hook"; LD="$(`find /S*/*/F* -type f -name lsregister | head -n1` -dump)"; o=`for ID in $AC; do [[ "$LD" =~ $ID ]] && echo $ID; done`; Pm "App check"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed -E 's/(\..*$|-[1-9])//g'; o=`find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 \) | wc -l`; Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=`find .??* -path .Trash -prune -o -type d -name *.app -print -prune`; Pm "Hidden apps"; o=`SP Fonts | egrep 'id: N|te: Y' | wc -l`; Ps "Font issues"; o=`find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist | while read f; do plutil -s "$f" >&- || echo $f; done`; Pm "Bad plists"; d=(Desktop L*/Keyc*); n=(20 7); for i in 0 1; do o=`find "${d[$i]}" -type f -maxdepth 1 | wc -l`; o=$((o<=n[$i]?0:o)); Ps "${d[$i]##*/} file count"; done; o=; [[ UID -eq 0 ]] && o=root; Ps UID; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-

exec bash

9. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, press the key combination control-C or just press return three times at the password prompt. Again, the script will still run.

If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.

10. The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, there will be nothing in the Terminal window and no indication of progress. Wait for the line

to appear. If you don't see it within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report the results. No harm will be done.

11. When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.

If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.

12. When you post the results, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." It means that the forum software has misidentified something in the post as a violation of the rules. If that happens, please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.

________________________________

When you restart, you'll be prompted to go through the initial setup process in Setup Assistant. That’s when you transfer the data from a backup.

Select only users and Computer & Network Settings in the Setup Assistant dialog—not Applications or Other files and folders. Don't transfer the Guest account, if it was enabled.

After that, run Software Update.

If the problem is resolved after the clean installation, reinstall third-party software selectively. I can only suggest general guidelines. Self-contained applications that install into the Applications folder by drag-and-drop or download from the App Store are usually safe. Anything that comes packaged as an installer or that prompts for an administrator password is suspect, and you must test thoroughly after reinstalling each such item to make sure you haven't restored the problem.

I strongly recommend that you never reinstall commercial "utilities" such as "Magican."

Before installing any software, ask yourself the question: "Am I sure I know how to uninstall this without having to wipe the volume again?" If the answer is "no," stop.

Never install any third-party software unless you know how to uninstall it.

• It can be bypassed by some third-party networking software, such as BitTorrent clients and Java applets.
• It only applies to software downloaded from the network. Software installed from a CD or other media is not checked.

• It can easily be disabled or overridden by the user.
• A malware attacker could get control of a code-signing certificate under false pretenses, or could simply ignore the consequences of distributing codesigned malware.
• An App Store developer could find a way to bypass Apple's oversight, or the oversight could fail due to human error.

Apple has so far failed to revoke the codesigning certificates of some known abusers, thereby diluting the value of Gatekeeper and the Developer ID program. These failures don't involve App Store products, however.

• A telephone caller or a web page tells you that you have a “virus” and offers to help you remove it. (Some reputable websites did legitimately warn visitors who were infected with the "DNSChanger" malware. That exception to this rule no longer applies.)
• A web site offers free content such as video or music, but to use it you must install a “codec,” “plug-in,” "player," "downloader," "extractor," or “certificate” that comes from that same site, or an unknown one.
• You win a prize in a contest you never entered.
• Someone on a message board such as this one is eager to help you, but only if you download an application of his choosing.
• A "FREE WI-FI !!!" network advertises itself in a public place such as an airport, but is not provided by the management.
• Anything online that you would expect to pay for is "free."

• You open what you think is a document and get an alert that it's "an application downloaded from the Internet." Click Cancel and delete the file. Even if you don't get the alert, you should still delete any file that isn't what you expected it to be.
• An application does something you don't expect, such as asking for permission to access your contacts, your location, or the Internet for no obvious reason.
• Software is attached to email that you didn't request, even if it comes (or seems to come) from someone you trust.

I don't say that leaving the safe harbor just once will necessarily result in disaster, but making a habit of it will weaken your defenses against malware attack. Any of the above scenarios should, at the very least, make you uncomfortable.

• To recognize malware, the software depends on a database of known threats, which is always at least a day out of date. Research has shown that most successful attacks are "zero-day"—that is, previously unknown. Recognition-based malware scanners do not defend against such attacks.
• Their design is predicated on the nonexistent threat that malware may be injected at any time, anywhere in the file system. Malware is downloaded from the network; it doesn't materialize from nowhere.
• In order to meet that nonexistent threat, the software modifies or duplicates low-level functions of the operating system, which is a waste of resources and a common cause of instability, bugs, and poor performance.
• By modifying the operating system, the software itself may create weaknesses that could be exploited by malware attackers.
• Most importantly, a false sense of security makes you more vulnerable.

8. An anti-malware product from the App Store, such as "ClamXav," has the same drawback as the commercial suites of being always out of date, but it does not inject code into the operating system. That doesn't mean it's entirely harmless. It may report email messages that have "phishing" links in the body, or Windows malware in attachments, as infected files, and offer to delete or move them. Doing so will corrupt the Mail database. The messages should be deleted from within the Mail application.

A Windows malware attachment in email is usually easy to recognize by the file name alone. An actual example:

from the contextual menu.

If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

A folder should open with an item named "GenieoExtra.framework" selected. Move that item to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your administrator password.

  
 
    

   
  
     

       /Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.update.plist 
      
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.engine.plist 
      
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.plist 
      
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client.plist 
      
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client/u/usr/lib/libgenkit.dylib 
     
/usr/lib/libgenkitsa.dylib
   
  
     
/usr/lib/libimckit.dylib
   
  
     
/usr/lib/libimckitsa.dylib
  
 
    
  
 
    
~/Library/Application Support/com.genieoinnovation.Installer
  
 
    

     
  
   ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.download.plist
   
  
     
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.update.plist
  
 
    

If there are other items with a name that includes "Genieo" or "genieo" alongside any of those listed above, move them as well. There's no need to restart after each one. Some of these items will be absent, in which case you'll get a message that the file can't be found. Skip that item and go on to the next one.

Restart and empty the Trash. Don't try to empty the Trash until you have restarted.

Step 3

From the Safari menu bar, select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions

Uninstall any extensions you don't know you need, including ones called "Genieo" or "Omnibar," and any that have the word "Spigot" or "InstallMac" in the description. If in doubt, uninstall all extensions. Do the equivalent for the Firefox and Chrome browsers, if you use either of those.

Your web browser(s) should now be working, and you should be able to reset the home page and search engine. If not, stop here and post your results.

Make sure you don't repeat the mistake that led you to install this software. Chances are you got it from an Internet cesspit such as "Softonic" or "CNET Download." Never visit either of those sites again. You might also have downloaded it from an ad in a page on some other site. The ad has a large green button labeled "Download" or "Download Now" in white letters. The button is designed to confuse people who intend to download something else on the same page. If youever download a file that isn't obviously what you expected, delete it immediately.

You may be wondering why you didn't get a warning from Gatekeeper about installing software from an unknown developer, as you should have. The reason is that the Genieo developer has a codesigning certificate issued by Apple, which causes Gatekeeper to give the installer a pass. Apple could revoke the certificate, but as of this writing, has not done so, even though it's aware of the problem. It must be said that this failure of oversight is inexcusable and has seriously compromised the value of Gatekeeper and the Developer ID program. You cannot rely on Gatekeeper alone to protect you from harmful software.

Finally, be forewarned that when Genieo is mentioned on this site, the developer sometimes shows up under the name "Genieo support." If that happens, don't believe anything he says, but feel free to tell him what you think of his scam.