Q: I have a mackeeper virus and can't get rid of it

How to Remove MacKeeper

The Safe Mac » Beware MacKeeper

Helpful Links Regarding Malware Problems

If you are having an immediate problem with ads popping up see The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide and The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Tool. Open Safari, select Preferences from the Safari menu. Click on Extensions icon in the toolbar. Disable all Extensions. If this stops your problem, then re-enable them one by one until the problem returns. Now remove that extension as it is causing the problem.

An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.

Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.

See these Apple articles:

  Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection

  OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

  OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

  OS X Mavericks- Protect your Mac from malware

  About file quarantine in OS X

If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using ClamXAV. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for this recommendation.)

From user Joe Bailey comes this equally useful advice:

The facts are:

1. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.

2. There is no anti-malware that can detect anything targeting the Mac because there

     is no Mac malware in the wild, and therefore, no "signatures" to detect.

3. The very best way to prevent the most attacks is for you as the user to be aware that

     the most successful malware attacks rely on very sophisticated social engineering

     techniques preying on human avarice, ****, and fear.

4. Internet popups saying the FBI, NSA, Microsoft, your ISP has detected malware on

    your computer is intended to entice you to install their malware thinking it is a

    protection against malware.

5. Some of the anti-malware products on the market are worse than the malware

    from which they purport to protect you.

6. Be cautious where you go on the internet.

7. Only download anything from sites you know are safe.

8. Avoid links you receive in email, always be suspicious even if you get something

    you think is from a friend, but you were not expecting.

9. If there is any question in your mind, then assume it is malware.

Did you actually install MacKeeper, or are you simply being bombarded with unsolicited popup windows advertising it?

From what you describe you may have inadvertently installed adware. Eradicating it is simple. For an explanation or how this may have occurred, how to avoid it in the future, and for one possible solution read How to install adware.

If you have reason to believe you actually installed MacKeeper, read the following.

Follow these instructions to uninstall MacKeeper. They have been tested with the most recent version of MacKeeper. Earlier versions than the one released in 2012 require more extensive work to uninstall all its components.

If you actually used MacKeeper to alter your system, e.g. "remove excess binaries" or such, you will need to reinstall OS X as well as all your additional software. Uninstalling MacKeeper is insufficient to reverse the corruption it is capable of - once again, that is if you used it.

If you merely installed MacKeeper but did not use it to perform any particular action, the following instructions will suffice.

• If you used MacKeeper to encrypt any files or folders, use MacKeeper to un-encrypt them first.
• Quit the MacKeeper app if it is running.
• Open your Applications folder: Using the Finder's Go menu, select Applications.
• Drag the MacKeeper icon from your Applications folder (not the Dock) to the Trash.

You will be asked to authenticate (twice):

You do not need to provide a reason for uninstalling it:

• Just click the Uninstall MacKeeper button. You will be asked to authenticate again.

After it uninstalls you may empty the Trash and restart your Mac. All that will remain is an inert log file that does nothing but occupy space on your hard disk.

You may have installed the "VSearch" trojan, perhaps under a different name. Remove it as follows.

Malware is constantly changing to get around the defenses against it. The instructions in this comment are valid as of now, as far as I know. They won't necessarily be valid in the future. Anyone finding this comment a few days or more after it was posted should look for more recent discussions or start a new one.

Back up all data before proceeding.

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

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.vsearch.agent.plist

Right-click or control-click the line and select

          Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item named "com.vsearch.agent.plist" selected. Drag the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

Repeat with each of these lines:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.daemon.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.helper.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/Jack.plist

Restart the computer and empty the Trash. Then delete the following items in the same way:

/Library/Application Support/VSearch
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/Jack
/System/Library/Frameworks/VSearch.framework
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ConduitNPAPIPlugin.plugin

Some of these items may 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.

From the Safari menu bar, select

          Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions

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

Reset the home page and default search engine in all the browsers, if it was changed.

This trojan is distributed on illegal websites that traffic in pirated content. If you, or anyone else who uses the computer, visit such sites and follow prompts to install software, you can expect much worse to happen in the future.

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 this Internet criminal 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. This failure of oversight has compromised both Gatekeeper and the Developer ID program. You can't rely on Gatekeeper alone to protect you from harmful software.

*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

          Go ▹ Go to Folder...

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.