Possible Mac Spyware found?

I'm not sure on this one, but it may have been that your cache had filled, and everything slowed down because it had to clear the cache and then refill it with the new stuff. I'm not sure on the inner workings of firefox, but it's just a theory

 

Could be Firefox has a memory leak, wouldn't be the first time.

 

smbd? This is the Samba daemon. Samba is the UNIX implementaion of SMB file sharing (mainly). SMB file sharing is how Windows boxes share files (mainly). Turn off "Windows Sharing" and the Samba daemon goes away.

Firefox doesn't have anything to do with smb file sharing..

I'm more inclined to say that the cache clearing and the speed increase was coincidental. Possible someone else was downloading something from you? Or something more malicious?

 

Windows sharing in sys pref? I dont think it would be a spyware issue with firefox, maybe it was something totally different. You need a reboot or something. Anyone know about new spyware issues?

 

I've never heard of any spyware on windows that could be removed by clearing the cache on a web browser.

I think it's really unlikely that this was spyware. Spyware is not the only reason that a computer might slow down; I like the memory leak theory, or perhaps some other bug is present in firefox.

-kev

 

I'm going with the memory leak idea, Firefox and Mozilla are wonderful for it, if you leave them open for a while, they gradually start to consume a lot of your memory. The issue with smbd might have been that you were out of RAM, and smbd was having to swap in, and swap out when it wanted to do anything.

I'd say that you don't have spyware

Rob

 

I honestly think there might be something going around, because i actually got a few pop ups within the past few days while on the internet with Safari. and no i wasn't looking at porn.

 

I've been getting pop-ups recently as well....seems with each Safari update more problems arise.

 

The pop-ups aren't spyware. As IE's share has fallen slightly and other browsers gain marketshare, the ad coders have been working to get the pop-up blockers to stop working. Unfortunately, it seems they've succeeded in making pop-unders appear despite the blockers. Trust me though, I *have* to use IE at work and compared to the popups that gets, what Safari throws up (for me, a few a week as opposed to a few an hour with IE) Safari is still preferable.

There was lots of discussion about it last month.

 

A recent Safari release (didn't notice which one) has at least partially broken the pop-up blocker. A lot of sites which weren't getting through before are now. Just another bug brought to you by Apple..

 

The more people tout the security and the we don't get viruses and spyware the more mac becomes a target for the Mac-hater hackers to get stuff out there for Mac consumption. I don't think it will ever get to the level of windows, but it proves all are vulnerable. Some people just like to make a point

 

Oh great. Lucky I didn't upgrade to 10.3.9

 

Pop-up blockers aren't broken. The pop-up developers have found new ways to get around them. You get these on specific websites. By enabling your pop-up blocker, you have stated without equivocation that you don't want pop-ups. You are not in the target market for this advertising. By using these new block-skirting ads, the web masters of the few sites that use them are assaulting you more than they are selling product. Scream bloody murder. If you make it clear to their advertisers that you don't appreciate these assaults on your wishes, they will stop.

 

hmm, I thought that this was normal RAM caching? They should relinquish the RAM when asked. Developers have fancier tools than Activity Monitor and top to find actual memory leaks. Us lowly end users really don't have the tools to declare a leak. Sorry, just a little niggle I have with memory leak posts everywhere. Caching is a good thing guys, really.

High CPU usage doesn't always mean swapping is happening. It could just mean that you are getting lots of requests. Are you on a college network? You probably had someone trying to download from you as was said before. Or smbd just decided to hang on a process. Lots of reasons for that to happen. Heck, last night my PB slowed to a crawl and was barely responding. Turns out the Dock was using up all the cpu. Not sure why, logs don't say anything. It just happens when bits are flying everywhere. How can such a complex machine only weight 6 pounds. Boggles the mind.

Jim

 

Probably a program memory leak. I've had one with Finder and a few with SystemUI (that controls the menu extras up at the top). Trashing the prefs for the offending program will almost always fix it.

OSX spyware would be pretty had to make - because .app files can't run from web browsers. They'd have to get you to download a .sit, .zip, or .dmg and open it and type your admin password to install it. Spyware words by installing itself in secret - and thus having this much interaction with the user would not work 90% of the time. and then the 9 % who installs it will remove it.

 

?

 

I also noticed there are more popups than usual. I was using firefox for a while but later switched back to Safari. Firefox is cpu intensive and my PowerBook was starting to burn holes in my pants when I was just surfing.

If I was you, I would stick with Safari. Seriously, the number of advantages when using Firefox is just not worth it.

aussie_geek