removal of malaware from my iMac
I don't know a lot about my computer, but I think it has malaware, every time I do a search for something in safari, it redirects me to a junk site. How do I fix this?
8 replies
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Problems
If you are having an immediate problem with ads popping up see The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide and AdwareMedic.
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.
The following comes from user stevejobsfan0123. I have made minor changes to adapt to this presentation.
Fix Some Browser Pop-ups That Take Over Safari.
Common pop-ups include a message saying the government has seized your computer and you must pay to have it released (often called "Moneypak"), or a phony message saying that your computer has been infected, and you need to call a tech support number (sometimes claiming to be Apple) to get it resolved. First, understand that these pop-ups are not caused by a virus and your computer has not been affected. This "hijack" is limited to your web browser. Also understand that these messages are scams, so do not pay any money, call the listed number, or provide any personal information. This article will outline the solution to dismiss the pop-up.
Quit Safari
Usually, these pop-ups will not go away by either clicking "OK" or "Cancel." Furthermore, several menus in the menu bar may become disabled and show in gray, including the option to quit Safari. You will likely have to force quit Safari. To do this, press Command + option + esc, select Safari, and press Force Quit.
Relaunch Safari
If you relaunch Safari, the page will reopen. To prevent this from happening, hold down the 'Shift' key while opening Safari. This will prevent windows from the last time Safari was running from reopening.
This will not work in all cases. The shift key must be held at the right time, and in some cases, even if done correctly, the window reappears. In these circumstances, after force quitting Safari, turn off Wi-Fi or disconnect Ethernet, depending on how you connect to the Internet. Then relaunch Safari normally. It will try to reload the malicious webpage, but without a connection, it won't be able to. Navigate away from that page by entering a different URL, i.e. www.apple.com, and trying to load it. Now you can reconnect to the Internet, and the page you entered will appear rather than the malicious one.
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
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 everything targeting the Mac.
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.
There is no need to download anything to solve this problem.
You may have installed the "VSearch" trojan. Remove it as follows.
Malware is always changing to get around the defenses against it. These instructions 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.
Step 1
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.
Step 2
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.
The problem may have started when you downloaded and ran an application called "MPlayerX." That's the name of a legitimate free movie player, but the name is also used fraudulently to distribute VSearch. If there is an item with that name in the Applications folder, delete it, and if you wish, replace it with the genuine article from mplayerx.org.
This trojan is often found on illegal websites that traffic in pirated content such as movies. If you, or anyone else who uses the computer, visit such sites and follow prompts to install software, you can expect more of the same, and worse, to follow.
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 Internet criminal behind VSearch 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.
ok thank you, I have gotten as far as removing the mplayer itself and it won't allow me to delete it, says its open?
It would be easier to run AdwareMedic as Niel suggested.
You have to take all the other steps and quit it first.
It's important for you to understand that merely removing malware doesn't solve the underlying problem, which is the behavior that led you to install it in the first place. If you continue that behavior, you will be infected again, and next time the damage may not be so easy to undo.
Never take the word of strangers on the Internet that any unknown software is safe. That's just a continuation of the same behavior that got you into trouble in the first place. Whether the software is safe is something you have to decide by your own research.
You do not need to run any program to remove adware. Even if it works, or seems to work, this time, you'll be getting very much the wrong idea if you think you can always rely on it to work in the future. The only safety lies in changing the way you use the computer.
If you are given that kind of advice by a poster on this site, you should ask him whether he has personally tested it on his own computer, as the agreed terms of use of ASC require.
In order to honestly answer "yes," he would need to have installed every known kind of adware on his computer and then removed it in the way he's recommending to you. He would then need to have verified, not only that the all the adware was completely removed, but that nothing else was removed along with it. Has he in fact done all that?
If he answers "no," then not only is he violating the use agreement, but he also has no factual basis for his comment. In practice, the answer you are likely to get is that he regards someone else as a "malware expert," and since that's his opinion, it should be your opinion too. Think carefully about whether you should accept that argument as a substitute for knowledge.
Coulter44 wrote:
ok thank you, I have gotten as far as removing the mplayer itself and it won't allow me to delete it, says its open?
Although AdwareMedic will help you remove this, as well as any other adware that may have been installed alongside it, it will not remove MPlayerX. That is a legit video player app that is used as a decoy by the adware installer.
If you are trying to delete the MPlayerX app, make sure that it is not running. If you see the MPlayerX icon on the dock, click it and choose MPlayerX -> Quit MPlayerX. Then drag the app to the trash. If you are trying to delete an MPlayerX.dmg file, or something similar, make sure to "eject" the "disk" before deleting it. (There will be an MPlayerX item shown on the desktop or in the sidebar of a Finder window - this is a virtual "disk" defined by the .dmg file. Select it and choose File -> Eject.)
If you are unable to figure out how to close the item in question, just restart your computer. You'll need to do that after removing Downlite (aka VSearch) anyway. After you restart, the item should no longer be running.
The "MPlayerX" application that's distributed with VSearch is a fake, and part of the malware. You must delete it and, if you wish, replace it with a legitimate copy, as I wrote earlier.
removal of malaware from my iMac