Malware/Strange folders in Library

You installed one or more variants of the "VSearch" trojan. Please inactivate them as follows. This procedure will leave a few small files behind, but they have no effect, and trying to remove them all would be a lot more trouble than it's worth.

This malware has many variants. Anyone else finding this comment should not expect it to be applicable.

Back up all data before proceeding.

Step 1

The VSearch variant that you have regenerates itself if you try to delete it while it's running. To remove it, you must first start up in safe mode to disable the malware temporarily.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for other instructions.

Step 2

While running in safe mode, load this web page and then triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:

/Library/LaunchDaemons

In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

A folder named "LaunchDaemons" will open. Press the key combination command-2 to select list view, if it's not already selected.

There should be a column in the Finder window headed Date Modified. Click that heading twice to sort the contents by date with the newest at the top. Please don't skip this step. Files that belong to an instance of VSearch will have the same modification time to within a few minutes, so they will be clustered together when you sort the folder this way, making them easy to identify.

Step 3

Inside the LaunchDaemons folder, there may be one or more files with a name of this form:

com.apple.something.plist

where something is a random, meaningless string of letters, different in every case.

Note that the name consists of four words separated by periods. Typical examples:

com.apple.builins.plist

com.apple.cereng.plist

com.apple.nysgar.plist

There may also be one or more items with a name of this form:

com.something.plist

Again, something is a random, meaningless string—not necessarily the same one that appears in any of the other file names.

These names consist of three words separated by periods. Typical examples:

com.semifasciaUpd.plist

com.ubuiling.plist

Drag all such items to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

If you're not sure whether a file is part of the malware, order the folder contents by modification date, not by name. The malware files will be clustered together. There could be more than one such cluster. A file dated far in the past is not part of the malware. A file dated right in the middle of an obviously malicious cluster is almost certainly also malicious.

If the files come back after you have deleted them, or if they're replaced by others with similar names, then either you didn't start up in safe mode or you didn't get all of them. Go back to Step 1 and try again.

Step 4

Reset the home page in each of your web browsers, if it was changed. In Safari, first load the home page you want, then select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ General

and click

Set to Current Page

If you use the Firefox and/or Chrome web browser, remove any extensions or add-ons that you don't know you need. If in doubt, remove all of them.

Step 5

The malware enables web proxy discovery in the network settings. If you know that the setting was already enabled for a good reason, skip this step. Otherwise you should revert the change.

Open the Network pane in System Preferences. If there is a closed padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window, click it and authenticate to unlock the settings. Click the Advanced button, then select Proxies in the sheet that drops down. Uncheck the box marked Auto Proxy Discovery if it's checked. Click OK, then Apply, then close the window.

Step 6

This step is optional. Open the Users & Groups pane in System Preferences and click the lock icon to unlock the settings. In the list of users, there may be one or more with random names that were added by the malware. You can delete those users. If you're not sure whether a user is legitimate, don't delete it.

You can use these instructions:

http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-vsearch/

Ciao.

A link has been posted to a page about an early, now extinct variant of "VSearch." The removal instructions on that page are years out of date and won't work.

Just download and run MalwareBytes. Malwarebytes was developed by one of our own colleagues here in ASC. It gets rave reviews and is about the most proven anti-malware software for Mac.

The "malwarebytes" product is incapable of removing or even detecting this malware, as you will discover if you make the mistake of using it.

Linc Davis wrote:

The "malwarebytes" product is incapable of removing or even detecting this malware, as you will discover if you make the mistake of using it.

In what way using Malware Anti-Malware for Mac be a MISTAKE? There are no bonafide examples of it doing any damage to a Mac or the OSX. All it does is seek known adware/malware and allows the user to delete same. It will not detect all adware/malware because if the inherent limitations of such software ( new adware/malware is constantly being developed). Those limitations aside, it's documented success record just on these forums confirms that is is extraordinarily effective. I would suggest that more often than not, it would be a mistake NOT to use it.

Ciao.

Some of the folders selected are part of the malware, but there's more to it. The procedure I gave you will inactivate it. Expecting any kind of software to help you is, as I wrote earlier, a mistake.