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Adware Virus in Safari 8

I upgraded to Yosemite and it's great but in browsing the web I think I must have picked up a virus as every time I click or type in Safari a new window opens taking me to either Mackeeper Home Page or some other Adware site which is annoying.


I have turned extensions off in the preferences and cleared the browsing history/cache but the adware/malware is still there.


How does one uninstall and then reinstall Safari ? OR does one have to do a clean boot of Yosemite ?


The other option is to give up on Safari and just use Chrome which isn't ideal. HELP !

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 13, 2014 3:01 AM

Reply
3 replies

Nov 13, 2014 3:11 AM in response to AlyinDubai

You are infected with adware. To remove it, see my Adware Removal Guide.

Be aware that deleting Safari won't do you one bit of good, and will require reinstalling the system if you actually do that. No reinstalling of the system should be needed to solve this problem, though. Also, installing a different browser may not help, depending on what adware you're infected with, and would only serve to ignore the problem, leaving the adware installed on your system.


(Fair disclosure: I may receive compensation from links to my sites, TheSafeMac.com and AdwareMedic.com, in the form of buttons allowing for donations. Donations are not required to use my site or software.)

Nov 13, 2014 3:12 AM in response to AlyinDubai

As Linc Davis recommends :


"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

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

/Library/Application Support/VSearch
/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."

Adware Virus in Safari 8

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