Do I Have A Virus?

[Yellowstone2012]

I'm pretty sure my Mac is infected, as some strange things have been going on.

1) My "view options" were originally set to snap to grid. Now they aren't; I have not changed the settings what so ever.

2) My password (!) changed. I tried to install something the other day using my current password, and the installer showed the "wrong password" message. I did NOT change the password.

3) I previously had flash INSTALLED, yet I load up Firefox today, and what happens? I get "Install Missing Plugins to view content on this page". I did not uninstall flash (I would not; YouTube surfer).


Is it a Virus or just my 3 year old Mac acting up. (I use it A LOT)

Also, I'm currently triple scanning with ClamXav. (which is a neat piece of software, BTW!)

Thanks for the replies.

 

[GGJstudios]

There has never been a virus in the wild that runs on Mac OS X. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

1) My "view options" were originally set to snap to grid. Now they aren't; I have not changed the settings what so ever.

View options... where, exactly?

2) My password (!) changed. I tried to install something the other day using my current password, and the installer showed the "wrong password" message. I did NOT change the password.

Make sure your caps lock key isn't on.

3) I previously had flash INSTALLED, yet I load up Firefox today, and what happens? I get "Install Missing Plugins to view content on this page". I did not uninstall flash (I would not; YouTube surfer).

Perhaps you need to install a newer version.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Definitely.
What Mac and Mac OS X version do you have?

Identify your Mac and Mac OS X version, visualised in a more elaborate image
Identify your Mac and Mac OS X version using this 25 second video tutorial (3MB, .mp4, H.264)​

Do any other human beings have access to the Mac? Or even animals with the capability to touch the keyboard?

 

[munkery]

This other thread has good information about viruses on your mac.

 

[Yellowstone2012]

There has never been a virus in the wild that runs on Mac OS X. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

View options... where, exactly?

Make sure your caps lock key isn't on.

Perhaps you need to install a newer version.

Yep, I made sure my CAPS lock key wasn't on; as I used my older password to install the software.

Yep, I need to install a new version.

Definitely.
What Mac and Mac OS X version do you have?

Identify your Mac and Mac OS X version, visualised in a more elaborate image
Identify your Mac and Mac OS X version using this 25 second video tutorial (3MB, .mp4, H.264)​

Do any other human beings have access to the Mac? Or even animals with the capability to touch the keyboard?

I have 10.6.0 and "iMac 8,1"

No, no other people / animals have access to my Mac.

Thanks.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yep, I made sure my CAPS lock key wasn't on; as I used my older password to install the software.

Yep, I need to install a new version.




I have 10.6.0 and "iMac 8,1"

No, no other people / animals have access to my Mac.

Thanks.

You can reset your password via these means: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1274

You also should run Software Update to make sure you run the latest version of Mac OS X.

 

[MisterMe]

...

I have 10.6.0 and "iMac 8,1"

...

Run Software Update. There have been numerous updates to MacOS X 10.6 since MacOS X 10.6.0. Some updates address security issues that have been identified since your OS was installed.

I had your problem a couple of weeks ago. I ran File System Check [fsck -fy] from the command line in Single User Mode. It fixed the problem.