I have a rat logo on the top of my computer. I looked at some of the old answers from last year but the links don't take me anywhere to remove it. I am assuming it is not a good thing to have on my computer.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
From whence did it come? You used "jRAT" in your topic. jRAT refers to a Java remote admin tool. Is that where it's from?
You state it's at the top of your computer. Where exactly? In the menubar or is it on the screen?
It showed up in the menu bar on the top of my screen. When I hover over it, it says jRAT. What exactly does it do? Is it safe for my computer?
It's some sort of remote admin program for Java or it is a remnant of some malware. For the latter check:
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jRAT is a remote access trojan/tool. It is designed to allow the hacker to create a customized "server," which can be installed on a Mac and will provide remote access to that Mac by a hacker using the "client" version of jRAT on a different machine.jRAT was used to create theJacksbot malwareback in 2012.
Typically, the rat icon appears in the menu bar when the jRAT client is running... the server is designed to run invisibly, so as not to tip off the user being spied upon. This would seem to indicate that you have the jRAT client running on your computer. Whether you may also have the jRAT server running is unknown.
How this got on your computer is a good question. The most likely explanations are that someone with access to that computer has either been experimenting with creating a server tool using jRAT, or has attempted to infect the computer and (from the sounds of it) botched the job.
That said, if you cannot determine how this got installed, I would recommend to play it safe and erase the hard drive, then reinstall everything from scratch. See How to reinstall Mac OS X from scratch.
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How do I remove a jRAT?
