Adware file? - com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Question

Level 1

8 points

Adware file? - com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

I have a MacBook Pro, Mac OS X Lion (10.7.5), Safari (6.1.6)

I'm doing some checking up on my computer's software's well-being. I've followed the instructions from this page, Stop pop-up ads and adware in Safari, and in /Library/LaunchDaemons I found this file - com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Now, the instructions of the page in the link I've shared suggests that a file in this folder beginning with "com." and ending with ".helper.plist" is an adware file, and that there would be 'any word' between the two. Where I'm confused is that they say the middle part of this filename is 'any word', but they don't suggest that the filename might use more than one word separated by dots (.) or whether they all count as one word. There also don't seem to be filenames using the same word in /Library/LaunchAgents or /Library/Application Support as the instructions suggest there would be.

Can anyone confirm whether or not this is an adware file?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Feb 1, 2016 2:52 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Feb 1, 2016 9:23 PM in response to SamOsiris

It's theoretically possible that a malware attacker could use the name of a legitimate file as camouflage, but as far as I know that hasn't happened yet. The risk for the attacker would be that the fake file might be overwritten by the real one.

The support article that you read refers to files with a name of the form "com.*.helper.plist". The variable part of the name has so far always been a string of letters and numbers without punctuation; e.g., com.something.helper.plist. The name of your file doesn't fit that pattern.

Reply