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Adobe Flash Player problem

My iMac says that I have the latest edition of Adobe Flash Player installed but I keep getting pop-up notices that I need to update it to see videos. And I can not find it in finder. What gives??

iMac, iOS 8

Posted on Feb 19, 2015 9:02 AM

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18 replies

Feb 19, 2015 12:23 PM in response to Derfie100

A genuine alert that Flash is outdated and blocked is shown on this page. Follow the instructions on the page in that case. Otherwise, the alert is not trustworthy and someone may be trying to scam you into installing malware. If you see fake update alerts on more than one website, or if you've already followed a fake update prompt, ask for instructions.

Feb 19, 2015 1:26 PM in response to Derfie100

You may have installed one or more of the common types of ad-injection malware. Follow the instructions on this Apple Support page to remove it. It's been reported that some variants of the "VSearch" malware block access to the page. If that happens, start in safe mode by holding down the shift key at the startup chime, then try again.

Back up all data before making any changes.

One of the steps in the article is to remove malicious Safari extensions. Do the equivalent in the Chrome and Firefox browsers, if you use either of those. If Safari crashes on launch, skip that step and come back to it after you've done everything else.

If you don't find any of the files or extensions listed, or if removing them doesn't stop the ad injection, ask for further instructions.

Make sure you don't repeat the mistake that led you to install the malware. It may have come 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 would probably have included 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 you ever download a file that isn't obviously what you expected, delete it immediately.

Malware is also found on websites that traffic in pirated content such as video. 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. Never install any software that you downloaded from a bittorrent, or that was downloaded by someone else from an unknown source.

In the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences, select the General tab. The radio button marked Anywhere should not be selected. If it is, click the lock icon to unlock the settings, then select one of the other buttons. After that, don't ignore a warning that you are about to run or install an application from an unknown developer.

Still in System Preferences, open the App Store or Software Update pane and check the box marked

Install system data files and security updates (OS X 10.10 or later)

or

Download updates automatically (OS X 10.9 or earlier)

if it's not already checked.

Feb 21, 2015 2:46 PM in response to Derfie100

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem. But with the aid of the test results, the solution may take a few minutes, instead of hours or days.

The test works on OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later. I don't recommend running it on older versions of OS X. It will do no harm, but it won't do much good either.

Don't be put off by the complexity of these instructions. The process is much less complicated than the description. You do harder tasks with the computer all the time.

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. As I wrote above, it changes nothing. It doesn't send or receive any data on the network. All it does is to generate a human-readable report on the state of the computer. That report goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. If you prefer, you can act on it yourself without disclosing the contents to me or anyone else.

You should be wondering whether you can believe me, and whether it's safe to run a program at the behest of a stranger. In general, no, it's not safe and I don't encourage it.

In this case, however, there are a couple of ways for you to decide whether the program is safe without having to trust me. First, you can read it. Unlike an application that you download and click to run, it's transparent, so anyone with the necessary skill can verify what it does.

You may not be able to understand the script yourself. But variations of it have been posted on this website thousands of times over a period of years. The site is hosted by Apple, which does not allow it to be used to distribute harmful software. Any one of the millions of registered users could have read the script and raised the alarm if it was harmful. Then I would not be here now and you would not be reading this message. See, for example, this discussion.

Nevertheless, if you can't satisfy yourself that these instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.

4. 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.

5. Try to test under conditions that reproduce the problem, as far as possible. For example, if the computer is sometimes, but not always, slow, run the test during a slowdown.

You may have started up in "safe" 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.

6. 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.

7. 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:/usr/libexec;clear;cd;p=(1252 ' 0.5 0.25 10 1000 15 5120 1000 25000 1 1 0 100 ' 51 25600 4 10 25 5120 102400 1000 25 1000 225 40 500 300 85 25 20480 262144 20 2000 524288 604800 5 );k=({Soft,Hard}ware Memory Diagnostics Power FireWire Thunderbolt USB Bluetooth SerialATA Extensions Applications Frameworks PrefPane Fonts Displays PCI UniversalAccess InstallHistory ConfigurationProfile AirPort 'com\.apple\.' -\\t N\\/A 'AES|atr|udit|msa|dnse|ax|ensh|fami|FileS|fing|ft[pw]|gedC|kdu|etS|is\.|alk|ODSA|otp|htt|pcas|ps-lp|rexe|rlo|rsh|smb|snm|teln|upd-[aw]|uuc|vix|webf' OSBundle{Require,AllowUserLoa}d 'Mb/s:per sec:ms/s:KiB/s:%:total:MB:total' 'Net in:Net out:I/O wait time:I/O requests:CPU usage:Open files:Memory:Mach ports:File opens:Forks:Failed forks:System errors' 'tsA|[ST]M[HL]' PlistBuddy{,' 2>&1'}' -c Print' 'Info\.plist' CFBundleIdentifier );f=('\n%s'{': ','\n\n'}'%s\n' '\nRAM details\n%s\n' %s{' ','\n'{"${k[22]}",}}'%s\n' '%d MB: %s\n' '\n ...and %s 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LoginHook ' /L*/P*/loginw*' "'tell app \"System Events\" to get properties of login items'" 'L*/Ca*/'${k[21]}'Saf*/E* -d 2 -name '${k[32]} '~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 \)' -i '-nl -print' '-F \$Sender -k Level Nle 3 -k Facility Req "'${k[21]}'('{'bird|.*i?clou','lsu|sha'}')"' "-f'%N: %l' Desktop {/,}L*/Keyc*" therm sysload boot-args status " -F '\$Time \$Message' -k Sender kernel -k Message CRne '0xdc008012|(allow|call)ing|(mplet|nabl)ed|ry HD|safe b|xpm' -k Message CReq 'bad |Can.t l|corru|dead|fail|GPU |hfs: Ru|inval|Limiti|v_c|NVDA[(]|pagin|Purg(ed|in)|error|Refus|TCON|tim(ed? ?|ing )o|trig|WARN' " '-du -n DEV -n EDEV 1 10' 'acrx -o%cpu,comm,ruid' "' syscall::recvfrom:return {@a[execname,uid]=sum(arg0)} syscall::sendto:return {@b[execname,uid]=sum(arg0)} syscall::open*:entry {@c[execname,uid,copyinstr(arg0),errno]=count()} syscall::execve:return, syscall::posix_spawn:return {@d[execname,uid,ppid]=count()} syscall::fork:return, syscall::vfork:return, syscall::posix_spawn:return /arg0<0/ {@e[execname,uid,arg0]=count()} syscall:::return /errno!=0/ {@f[execname,uid,errno]=count()} io:::wait-start {self->t=timestamp} io:::wait-done /self->t/ { this->T=timestamp - self->t;@g[execname,uid]=sum(this->T);self->t=0;} io:::start {@h[execname,uid]=sum(args[0]->b_bcount)} tick-10sec { normalize(@a,2560000);normalize(@b,2560000);normalize(@c,10);normalize(@d,10);normalize(@e,10);normalize(@f,10);normalize(@g,10000000);normalize(@h,10240);printa(\"1\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@a);printa(\"2\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@b);printa(\"9\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%s\f%d\n\",@c);printa(\"10\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%d\n\",@d);printa(\"11\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%d\n\",@e);printa(\"12\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%d\n\",@f);printa(\"3\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@g);printa(\"4\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@h);exit(0);} '" '-f -pfc /var/db/r*/'${k[21]}'*.{BS,Bas,Es,J,OSXU,Rem,up}*.bom' '{/,}L*/Lo*/Diag* -type f -regex .\*[cght] ! -name .?\* ! -name \*ag \( -exec grep -lq "^Thread c" {} \; -exec printf \* \; -o -true \) -execdir stat -f'$'\f''%Sc'$'\f''%N -t%F {} \;' '/S*/*/Ca*/*xpc*' '-L /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems -type f -exec file {} +' /\ kMDItemContentTypeTree=${k[21]}{bundle,mach-o-dylib} :Label "/p*/e*/{auto*,{cron,fs}tab,hosts,{[lp],sy}*.conf,mach_i*/*,pam.d/*,ssh{,d}_config,*.local} {/p*,/usr/local}/e*/periodic/*/* /L*/P*{,/*}/com.a*.{Bo,sec*.ap}*t {/S*/,/,}L*/Lau*/*t .launchd.conf" list '-F "" -k Sender hidd -k Level Nle 3' /Library/Preferences/${k[21]}alf\ globalstate --proxy '-n get default' print\ system --dns -get{dnsservers,info} dump-trust-settings\ {-s,-d,} -n1 '-R -ce -l1 -n5 -o'{'prt -stats prt','mem -stats mem'}',command,uid' -kl -l -s\ / '--regexp --files '${k[21]}'pkg.*' '+c0 -i4TCP:0-1023' ${k[21]}dashboard\ layer-gadgets '-d /L*/Mana*/$USER' '-app Safari WebKitDNSPrefetchingEnabled' '-Fcu +c0 -l' -m 'L*/{Con*/*/Data/L*/,}Pref* -type f -size 0c -name *.plist.???????' kern.memorystatus_vm_pressure_level '3>&1 >&- 2>&3' '-F \$Message -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq "'{'n Cause: -','(a und|I/O |jnl_io.+)err','USBF:.+bus'}'"' -name\ kMDItem${k[33]} -T\ hfs '-n get default' -listnetworkserviceorder :${k[33]} :CFBundleDisplayName $EUID {'$TMPDIR../C ','/{S*/,}'}'L*/{,Co*/*/*/L*/}{Cache,Log}s -type f -size +'${p[11]}'M -exec stat -f'%z\f%N' {} \;' \ /v*/d*/*/*l*d{,.*.$UID}/* '-app Safari UserStyleSheetEnabled' 'L*/A*/Fi*/P*/*/a*.json' users/$USER\ HomeDirectory '{/,}L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist -exec plutil -s {} \;' ' -F "\$Time \$(Sender): \$Message" -k Sender Rne launchd -k Level Nle 3 -k Facility R'{'ne "user|','eq "'}'console" -k Message CRne "[{}<>]|commit - no t|deprec|Goog|realp|sandbox ex|/root" ' getenv '/ "kMDItemDateAdded>=\$time.now(-'${p[23]}')&&kMDItem'${k[33]}'=*"' -m\ / '' ' -F "\$Time \$(RefProc): \$Message" -k Sender Req launchd -k Level Nle 3 -k Message Rne "asse|bug|Ig|Jet" ' );N1=${#c2[@]};for j in {0..20};do c2[N1+j]=SP${k[j]}DataType;done;l=({Restricted\ ,Lock,Pro}files POST Battery {Safari,App,{Bad,Loaded}\ kernel,Firefox}\ extensions System\ load boot\ args FileVault\ {2,1} {Kernel,System,Console,launchd}\ log SMC Login\ hook 'I/O per process' 'High file counts' UID Daemons Agents XPC\ cache Startup\ items {Admin,Root}\ access Stylesheet Library\ paths{,' ('{shell,launchd}\)} Font\ issues Firewall Proxies DNS TCP/IP Wi-Fi 'Elapsed time (sec)' {Root,User}\ crontab {Global,User}' login items' Spotlight Memory\ pressure Listeners Widgets Parental\ Controls Prefetching Nets Volumes {Continuity,I/O,iCloud,HID,HCI}\ errors {User,System}\ {caches/logs,overrides} Shutdown\ codes Heat Diagnostic\ reports Bad\ plists Free\ space VM Bundles{,' (new)'} Trust\ settings Activity );N3=${#l[@]};for i in {0..8};do l[N3+i]=${k[5+i]};done;F() { local x="${s[$1]}";[[ "$x" =~ ^([\&\|\<\>]|$) ]]&&{ printf "$x";return;};:|${c1[30]} "$x" 2>&-;printf "%s \'%s\'" "|${c1[30+$?]}" "$x";};A0() { Q=6;v[2]=1;id -G|grep -qw 80;v[1]=$?;((v[1]))||{ Q=7;sudo -v;v[2]=$?;((v[2]))||Q=8;};v[3]=`date +%s`;date '+Start time: %T %D%n';printf '\n[Process started]\n\n'>&4;printf 'Revision: %s\n\n' ${p[0]};};A1() { local c="${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}";shift 2;c="$c ` while [[ "$1" ]];do F $1;shift;done`";((P2))&&{ c="sudo $c";P2=;};v=`eval "$c"`;[[ "$v" ]];};A2() { local c="${c1[$1]}";[[ "$c" =~ ^(awk|sed ) ]]&&c="$c '${s[$2]}'"||c="$c ${c2[$2]}";shift 2;local d=` while [[ "$1" ]];do F $1;shift;done`;((P2))&&{ c="sudo $c";P2=;};local a;v=` while read a;do eval "$c '$a' $d";done<<<"$v";`;[[ "$v" ]];};A3(){ v=$((`date +%s`-v[3]));};B1() { v=No;! ((v[1]))&&{ v=;P1=1;};};eval "`type -a B1|sed '1d;s/1/2/'`";B3(){ v[$1]="$v";};B4() { local i=$1;local j=$2;shift 2;local c="cat` while [[ "$1" ]];do F $1;shift;done`";v[j]=`eval "{ $c;}"<<<"${v[i]}"`;};B5(){ v="${v[$1]}"$'\n'"${v[$2]}";};B6() { v=` paste -d$'\e' <(printf "${v[$1]}") <(printf "${v[$2]}")|awk -F$'\e' ' {printf("'"${f[$3]}"'",$1,$2)} ' `;};B7(){ v=`egrep -v "${v[$1]}"<<<"$v"|sort`;};eval "`type -a B7|sed '1d;s/7/8/;s/-v //'`";C0() { [[ "$v" ]]&&sed -E "$s"<<<"$v";};C1() { [[ "$v" ]]&&printf "${f[$1]}" "${l[$2]}" "$v"|sed -E "$s";};C2() { v=`echo $v`;[[ "$v" != 0 ]]&&C1 0 $1;};C3() { B4 0 0 63&&C1 1 $1;};C4() { echo $'\t'"Part $((++P)) of $Q done at $((`date +%s`-v[3])) sec">&4;};C5() { sudo -k;pbcopy<<<"$o";printf '\n\tThe test results are on the Clipboard.\n\n\tPlease close this window.\n';exit 2>&-;};for i in 1 2;do eval D$((i-1))'() { A'$i' $@;C0;};';for j in 2 3;do eval D$((i+2*j-3))'() { local x=$1;shift;A'$i' $@;C'$j' $x;};';done;done;trap C5 2;o=$({ A0;D0 0 N1+1 2;D0 0 $N1 1;B1;C2 27;B1&&! B2&&C2 28;D2 22 15 63;D0 0 N1+2 3;D0 0 N1+15 17;D4 3 0 N1+3 4;D4 4 0 N1+4 5;D4 N3+4 0 N1+9 59;D0 0 N1+16 99; for i in 0 1 2;do D4 N3+i 0 N1+5+i 6;done;D4 N3+3 0 N1+8 71;D4 62 1 10 7;D4 10 1 11 8;B2&&D4 18 19 53 67;D2 11 2 12 9;D2 12 3 13 10;D2 13 32 70 101 25;D2 65 6 76 13;D2 45 20 52 66;D4 66 7 77 14;D4 70 8 15 38;D0 9 16 16 77 45;C4;B2&&D0 35 49 61 75 76 78 45;B2&&{ D0 28 17 45;C4;};D0 12 40 54 16 79 45;D0 12 39 54 16 80 45;D4 31 25 77 15&&{ B4 0 8 103;B4 8 0;A2 18 74;B6 8 0 3;C3 32;};B2&&D4 19 21 0;B2&&D4 40 10 42;D2 2 0 N1+19 46 84;D2 44 34 43 53;D2 25 22 20 32;D2 33 0 N1+14 51;for i in {0..2};do A1 29 35+i 104+i;B3 25+i;done;B6 25 27 5;B6 0 26 5;B4 0 0 110;C2 69;D2 34 21 28 35;D4 35 27 29 36;A1 40 59 81;B3 18;A1 33 60 82;B8 18;B4 0 19 83;A1 27 32 39&&{ B3 20;B4 19 0;A2 33 33 40;B3 21;B6 20 21 3;};C2 36;D4 50 38 5 68;B4 19 0;D5 37 33 34 42;B2&&D4 46 35 45 55;D4 38 0 N1+20 43;B2&&D4 59 4 65 76 91;D4 63 4 19 44 75 95 96;B1&&{ D4 53 5 55 75 69&&D4 51 6 58 31;D4 56 5 56 97 75 98&&D0 0 N1+7 99;D2 55 5 27 84;D4 61 5 54 75 70;D4 14 5 14 12;D4 15 5 72 12;D4 17 5 78 12;C4;};D4 16 5 73 12;A1 13 44 74 18;C4;B3 4;B4 4 0 85;A2 14 61 89;B4 0 5 19 102;A1 17 41 50;B7 5;C3 8;B4 4 0 88;A2 14 24 89;C4;B4 0 6 19 102;B4 4 0 86;A2 14 61 89;B4 0 7 19 102;B5 6 7;B4 0 11 73 102;A1 18 31 107 94 74||{ B2&&A1 18 26 94 74;}&&{ B7 11;B4 0 0 11;C3 23;};A1 18 26 94;B7 11;B4 0 0 11;C3 24;D4 60 14 66 92;D4 58 14 67 93;D4 26 4 21 24;D4 42 14 1 62;D4 43 37 2 90 48;D4 41 10 42;D2 48 36 47 25;A1 4 3 60&&{ B3 9;A2 14 61;B4 0 10 21;B4 9 0;A2 14 62;B4 0 0 21;B6 0 10 4;C3 5;};D4 9 41 69 100;D2 29 21 68 35;D2 49 21 48 49;B4 4 22 57 102;A1 21 46 56 74;B7 22;B4 0 0 58;C3 47;D4 54 5 7 75 76 69;D4 52 5 8 75 76 69;D4 57 4 64 76 91;D2 0 4 4 84;D2 1 4 51 84;D4 21 22 9 37;D0 0 N1+17 108; A1 23 18 28 89;B4 0 16 22 102;A1 16 25 33;B7 16;B4 0 0 34;D1 31 47;D4 64 4 71 41;C4;B4 4 12 26 89 23 102;for i in {0..3};do A1 0 N1+10+i 72 74;B7 12;B4 0 0 52;C3 N3+5+i;((i))||C4;done;A1 24 22 29;B7 12;B3 14;A2 39 57 30;B3 15;B6 14 15 4;C3 67;A1 24 75 74;B3 23;A2 39 57 30;B3 24;B6 23 24 4;C3 68;B4 4 13 27 89 65;A1 24 23;B7 13;C3 30;B4 4 0 87;A2 14 61 89 20;B4 0 17;A1 26 50 64;B7 17;C3 6;D0 0 N1+18 109;D4 7 11 6;A3;C2 39;C4;} 4>&2 2>/dev/null;);C5

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

8. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste by pressing command-V. The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.

9. If you see an error message in the Terminal window such as "Syntax error" or "Event not found," enter

exec bash

and press return. Then paste the script again.

10. 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. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, 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.

11. 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, a series of lines will appear in the Terminal window like this:

[Process started]

Part 1 of 8 done at … sec

Part 8 of 8 done at … sec

The test results are on the Clipboard.

Please close this window.

[Process completed]

The intervals between parts won't be exactly equal, but they give a rough indication of progress. The total number of parts may be different from what's shown here.

Wait for the final message "Process completed" to appear. If you don't see it within about ten minutes, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, press the key combination control-C or command-period to stop it and go to the next step. You'll have incomplete results, but still something.

12. When the test is complete, or if you stopped it because it was taking too long, 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.

At the top of the results, there will be a line that begins with the words "Start time." If you don't see that, but instead see a mass of gibberish, you didn't wait for the "Process completed" message to appear in the Terminal window. Please wait for it and try 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.

13. When you post the results, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "You are not authorized to post." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

14. 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 may not agree with them.

______________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Use Agreement for the Apple Support Communities website ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

Feb 21, 2015 7:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc:


Before I received your response, I was told that AdwareMedic was a very good program to remove malware from the iMac. I downloaded it and ran the scan. It found 7 malware programs and I was able to delete them. I was also told that I should add an anti virus program as well and that Avast Mac Security was a good one. It, like AdwareMedic is free. I downloaded it, ran a scan and found 12 infected files which I was able to remove. And further I should change my search engine to DuckDuckGo - which I did. As a result of the above, I have not had the issue with pop-ups I was having. Please provide me with your assessment of what I did - in other words; did I just screw it up more then it was?


Thanks

Feb 21, 2015 7:20 PM in response to Derfie100

I haven’t tested “adwaremedic,” so I have no opinion of it as such. I have no way of knowing what it did to your computer.


I very strongly dislike the idea of relying on a black-box application to remove malware. My view is that Mac users should be self-reliant for their security, not dependent on strangers whom they have no reason to trust.


If you continue to repeat the same pattern of behavior that caused the problem in the first place—that is, taking the advice of strangers on a website to run unknown applications—you’ll continue to be victimized by Internet criminals. No software will save you.

"Avast" is the worst of the whole wretched lot of commercial "security" products for the Mac. Not only does it fail to protect you from any real danger, it may send personal data (such as web browsing history and the contents of email messages) back to the developer without your knowledge, give false warnings, destabilize and slow down the computer, and corrupt the network settings and the permissions of files in your home folder. Removing it may not repair all the damage.

Some versions of the product also inject advertising into web pages. In short, apart from the fine print in the license agreement, Avast is indistinguishable from malware, and is arguably worse than any known malware now in circulation.

Back up all data, then remove Avast according to the developer's instructions. Restart.

If you tried to remove Avast by dragging an application to the Trash, you'll have to reinstall it and then follow the instructions linked above.

Feb 21, 2015 8:41 PM in response to Derfie100

Derfie100 wrote:


What about the Safari extension "Ad Block" to block ads?


I generally wouldn't recommend an ad blocker. If you have adware installed, an ad blocker may mask the problem while allowing the adware to remain active on your system. Plus, the quality and "obnoxiousness" of ads on a site give you a good indication of how much trust you should give that site, and that's information you lose if you block the ads.


Is there a anti virus program you would recommend?


No, not really. See my Mac Malware Guide for more information on how to protect yourself from malware.


(Fair disclosure: I may receive compensation from links to my sites, TheSafeMac.com and AdwareMedic.com.)

Feb 22, 2015 4:07 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis wrote:

I don't know what that means, if it means anything at all, but you seem to be saying that there's a script somewhere that removes malware. Where did you see that?


Who said anything about the script removing malware? I'm talking about the one-line 17,000+ character script you posted earlier on this very discussion, which very few people looking for help here would be remotely capable of reading. It's as much a "black box" as any application is.

Feb 22, 2015 11:39 AM in response to thomas_r.

I'm talking about the one-line 17,000+ character script you posted earlier on this very discussion, which very few people looking for help here would be remotely capable of reading. It's as much a "black box" as any application is.

Oh, that script! Obfuscated, you say? Well, here are the first few of those 17,000+ characters (very helpful of you to count them, by the way):


PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/libexec;clear;


Because I wasn't sure what "obfuscated" means in this context, I decided to download—but not run—a copy of "adwaremedic" myself from your buds at Softpedia. At least, I think it's adwaremedic. Here are the first few characters of the file AdwareMedic.app/Contents/MacOS/AdwareMedic:


Œ˙Ì˛   
∏ Ö  8__PAGEZERO   H __TEXT `+`+   __text__TEXTƒ% Ú


And a little further down, I found this especially limpid passage:


âu‡ã}ÿâ∑ÿª ú)âüƒª ú)âü‘ª¶” â]‡âü‹æ â∑


I must say that I admire the pithy quality of your coding, Thomas. But I'm still confused. How is it that my script is "obfuscated," but adwaredmedic is not? Could you explain that, please?

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