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Best malware scanner for Monterey?

J

jk73

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 19, 2012
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I’ve never worried much about malware on Macs, but it’s always nice to do a quick scan every once in a while just to be sure. What’s the best (preferably free) malware scanner for Monterey for occasional use (not always on)? Thanks.
 
I use the subscription version of Intego. They have a free scanner in the Mac App Store. It works well and the subscription version is native M1 so doesn't rely on Rosetta. I suspect the App Store version is still x86 and will require Rosetta
 
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gilby101 said:
Malwarebytes. Free for occasional use. Needs $$ for scheduled scans or real time scanning.
Click to expand...
I'm with gilby, I've been using Malwarebytes for a long time now on various Mac OS versions from High Sierra up to Monterey. Their software was so good that I didn't mind eventually buying the Premium version which does the background scans for me.
 
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Anyone else using Sophos home version? It seems to be doing ok for me but malware has not been one of my high priority things to research.
 
Also used Malwarebytes paid version. Never notice it running. Has been running for months without issues. I have CPU set to medium -- doesn't use hardly any CPU or memory resources.
 
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Hunter5117 said:
Anyone else using Sophos home version? It seems to be doing ok for me but malware has not been one of my high priority things to research.
Click to expand...
Maybe they've changed things, but when I was running it I had several issues. I don't think it was an AS/Universal app when I was running it.
 
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For Malwarebytes, paid, or free, if a suspect app or file is found, you have the option to quarantine, then remove it.
Free and paid work the same way for that, except the paid version can quarantine in real-time, you don't need a scan for that.
Most users don't need the additional layer of full-time monitoring.
(I think that Malwarebytes wouldn't have lasted very long if the free version couldn't remove suspect items without paying for that. Free is good!)
I don't scan with Malwarebytes very often, maybe about once a month. It has not hit on anything for me in about 2 years.
Scans on customer Macs is a different issue. Had one just last month that got hits on 45 different items. Amazingly, the lady has, in my experience, the most common kind of internet use that gets "unexpected" files. She is a stitching and knitting fan. Sounds innocent, right? Those patterns that you can download for that often come with extra added "features". The lady had hundreds of patterns, and a few dozen were quarantined/removed. All with free Malwarebytes.
 
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DeltaMac said:
For Malwarebytes, paid, or free, if a suspect app or file is found, you have the option to quarantine, then remove it.
Free and paid work the same way for that, except the paid version can quarantine in real-time, you don't need a scan for that.
Most users don't need the additional layer of full-time monitoring.
(I think that Malwarebytes wouldn't have lasted very long if the free version couldn't remove suspect items without paying for that. Free is good!)
I don't scan with Malwarebytes very often, maybe about once a month. It has not hit on anything for me in about 2 years.
Scans on customer Macs is a different issue. Had one just last month that got hits on 45 different items. Amazingly, the lady has, in my experience, the most common kind of internet use that gets "unexpected" files. She is a stitching and knitting fan. Sounds innocent, right? Those patterns that you can download for that often come with extra added "features". The lady had hundreds of patterns, and a few dozen were quarantined/removed. All with free Malwarebytes.
Click to expand...
I've used free on Mac and Windows for ever, and does everything I want
 
The reply 12 above is totally wrong.
The free version of MalwareBytes will remove anything that the paid version will.

The main difference between "free" and "paid" is that the paid version runs 24/7 "in the background".
The free version runs only when you "manually launch it".
 
Ok, it seems my son somehow deleted the malware but didn’t empty the recycle bin. I installed and ran Malwarebytes, it found stuff but wouldn’t delete - likely because it was in the recycle bin? Once the recycle bin was emptied all was well.
 
i have a question regarding privacy using knockknock.
i just tried it yesterday and i noticed it is using virustotal.
does knockknock only compare files to those from virustotal, or are they actually being sent, analyzed and archived there?
if so, will stuff like passwords / user accounts, etc. be sent as well?
 
unrigestered said:
i have a question regarding privacy using knockknock....
Click to expand...
Have you read the help page? https://objective-see.org/products/knockknock.html It is pretty clear about the role of virus total for KnockKnock.
unrigestered said:
does knockknock only compare files to those from virustotal, or are they actually being sent, analyzed and archived there?
if so, will stuff like passwords / user accounts, etc. be sent as well?
Click to expand...
If you believe the developer (Patrick Wardle a highly respected security researcher), then in the event of something being unknown to Virus Total, it (just the app) can be sent to Virus Total. And passwords, settings, etc. will not be sent.
If you don't believe the developer or his reputation, you should uninstall KnockKnock as soon as possible and hope your computer has not been compromised by some nasty hacker!
 
oh, i trust him 😇

i read the descriptions on that site, but it still wasn't absolutely clear to me anyway.
i'm too dumb to learn from books, without someone actually teaching me, so i'm fully aware on which end the problems on this matter reside 🤡

and i don't plan to uninstall it immediatley 🤘
 
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unrigestered said:
i have a question regarding privacy using knockknock.
i just tried it yesterday and i noticed it is using virustotal.
does knockknock only compare files to those from virustotal, or are they actually being sent, analyzed and archived there?
if so, will stuff like passwords / user accounts, etc. be sent as well?
Click to expand...

Knockknock is safe, reputable and highly regarded. The app utilises Virustotal's extensive malware database and it's access to 70+ malware detection engines.

Virustotal compares hashes (the file's digital fingerprint) no other data is exchanged unless the user manually uploads an unknown suspicious file to Virustotal for analysis. If anything I'd trust Knockknock over many commercial applications.

Q-6
 
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unrigestered said:
and i don't plan to uninstall it immediatley 🤘
Click to expand...
Good decision!
I only use KnockKnock on occasion. But like many security tools it is good to run every so often. I do have Patrick's BlockBlock installed and running in the background to give me an alert whenever something creates a new Launch Agent, etc. That should catch something nasty trying to create a permanently running background malware. Usually the alerts are when I install or update an app - in which case I just allow.
 
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@Queen6: thanks! 👍

it seems my post came along as if i distrusted that app, which is not the case at all... just wanted to be absolutely sure about it's behavior as i simply didn't understand enough about how it actually handled things

and yes,
Patrick Wardle is awesome! 🤘
Don't know him for too long as i'm new to Mac and gave a **** about security before (and somehow still managed to get away more or less malware free in 30+ years using DOS or Windows 🤡)
and i also never cared before what scanners did with my info back in the Windows days so i had no clue what they were actually doing with my data.
i really enjoy his videos on Youtube
and i suspect it's the one who is constantly helping me and many others here on this forum too
(in case i should be wrong and it is not the same person, bogdanw is awesome too! 😂)
 
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