MAC.AMCleaner.CK?

[Anna Leif]

Hello,

I deleted a program from the App Store called Duplicate Cleaner, made by PCVARK, after advice from Thomas Reed and running his excellent Malwarebytes Application.

Whilst using BitDefender (standalone App Store version) to scan Time Machine back ups from the same MacBook it flagged up and deleted the following: Application.MAC.AMCleaner.CK from the PCVARK Duplicate Cleaner back up.

I've googled the threat and have found variations on the name and it appears to be connected to the Mac Cleaner program but I can't find much else. The question is: how dangerous is this particular threat? I didn't have any issues with my MacBook while it was on there, no pop ups or redirects, would I have had to consciously activate it or would it just lay dormant until specific criteria were met? Is it adware or trojan?

Finally, how do I go about reporting this to Apple in order to protect other users from downloading the app in good faith?

Thank you

Anna

 

[thomasareed]

Anna,

No need to worry about remnants of that app in your Time Machine backups. They can't harm you from there. Definitely do not allow Bitdefender to remove them from your Time Machine backups, though! Modifying your Time Machine backups with anything other than Time Machine has a high likelihood of corrupting your backups. I wouldn't even let Bitdefender scan those backups.

As for how dangerous this app is, as far as we can tell it isn't. However, since it's made by a company that makes scam apps and even malware, there's no assurance that it would stay that way.

If you want to report a bad app to Apple, you can do so here:

https://reportaproblem.apple.com

You can only report apps that you have downloaded with the Apple ID that you log in to that page with.

 

[Anna Leif]

Thank you so much Thomas, your reply is very much appreciated.

The information concerning the Time Machine back ups is really useful too. I wasn't aware of the potential to corrupt them by third party, so it's good to gain the knowledge.

Again, thank you.

Anna

 

[thomasareed]

Glad I could help!