Hello,
I recently noticed that I have a pair of unknown network connections named "Љ" and "Љ 2".
I am wondering where do these connections come from. If they are VPN connections, how could I know which program created them or is using them?
Regards,
Tom
Mac mini (Late 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12.3)
From its appearance, those network interfaces seem to be for a serial device, most likely a USB serial adapter you may have installed.
To find out what device driver you may have installed, examine System Information > Software > Extensions.
Refer to About System Information on your Mac - Apple Support and scroll down to the screenshot below "System Information opens to a system report for your Mac". In it, note the column on the left, which has an entry under Software named Extensions. Click Extensions.
The right column will be populated with a list of kernel extensions, most of which are supplied by Apple. Clicking the column on the right with the heading Obtained from will order the list separating non-Apple kernel extensions from those part of macOS. It is normal to find a number of non-Apple kernel extensions, but they are the ones deserving additional scrutiny since they may be related to the mysterious network interface.
Their names are likely to be cryptic but if you want help identifying them, please write back. Include their names or a screenshot of that window.
Hi John,
Thank you but what I want to know is which application installed these connections as I certainly didn't do it manually. Hopefully someone here knows how to figure this out or happens to know which software uses that kind of network interface name.
Cheers,
Tom
Hi John,
Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed answer. I think that was the information I needed to figure it out. I found two kernel extensions marked as obtained from unknown sources. They are called "tun" and "tap". A quick internet search reveals that they come from a software called TunTap related to virtual network interfaces used in particular by OpenVPN for Mac. I did have OpenVPN installed a while back so I am assuming this is how it got installed.
So I am going to remove the network interfaces, as you originally recommended, as well as the following files listed by the TunTap FAQ:
/Library/Extensions/tap.kext
/Library/Extensions/tun.kext
/Library/StartupItems/tap
/Library/StartupItems/tun
Cheers,
Tom
It's a network interface you installed. Remove them using the [—] (minus) button.
Unknown network connections named Љ
