AOL Instant messenger on my Mac where did it come from.

[Golem]

I restart my machine today and straight after the password request from assistantD I get a password request from AOL with my apple id filled in. I filled in the same password and said OK before I thought hang on.


I have never seen that request before, I have not ever used aol or installed that app.Certainly not since the the last time I restarted.

Their is no app called aol, their is a app called messages from apple that has a preference for AOL. I don't have any login items under my user that should have auto started, I don't have any processes running that seem to have any obvious link to aol or messages.

Did I just let some malware sneak by me and give it access to all my passwords? or it just some innocent app that has been sitting through machine upgrades for a decade or more and suddenly decided it needed a password.

But even then how did it run on startup if its not in my startup items?

I tried restarting again to find out exactly what executable was running but it did not re-appear.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

What's assisstantD? Why do you think it's AOL related? It's not malware, or well I'm 99.99999% sure it's not. Executables are Windows programs.

 

[Golem]

Executables are Code that runs, mac or windows.

AssistantD asks for my keychain password on startup, it has for many years. Probably because my keychain password is different from my macs password.

It said AOL Instant Messenger, then a box with my apple ID, then a box asking for a password, I gave it my keychain password. It did not say it was correct or incorrect just vanished.

 

[Solomani]

It's possible AOL installer could have been in your Mac for a while? Maybe something you did led to the activation (initial log-in prompt) process.

It's also a possibility that you recently installed something like Java Installer (Updater), Yahoo Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Something-something Toolbar, which ALSO sneaked in a copy of AOL into your machine. They tend to do that, you know? Those sneaky bastards.

See image below....

 

[Dark Dragoon]

Do you use the older .Mac/Mobile Me chat (which still works under iCloud)?

As Apple doesn't run their own servers for that, they use AOL's.

Check what accounts you have in Messages and whether Messages is set to "Show status in menu bar".

 

[bbotte]

Mine is doing this too right after the OS X Mavericks update and a Java update, every time I restart. How the heck can I get rid of this?

 

[Brucio]

Mine is doing this too right after the OS X Mavericks update and a Java update, every time I restart. How the heck can I get rid of this?

Ditto for me. Won't go away, asks for my iCloud password, but doesn't accept it.

EDIT: OK, so not that complicated after all- go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts and delete the AIM account for Messages.

 

[cjcarton]

Thank you Brucio. This Maverick-installed nuisance was driving me crazy. As usual, the simple solutions are the best.