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Safari Virus
- Thread starter lampliter
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Nooooo, avoid avast- they install adware. Search 'avast adware' if in doubt. The worst
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Was it open-search.com by any chance?
In 8 years of using Macs exclusively I've never had a virus or adware on my own Macs... but recently after finally convincing my significant other to purchase a Macbook Air, she loves it of course but after owning it for 3 weeks, I took one look and oh dear lord! The popups!!!
Basically she went to a dodgy movie website that one of her friends told her about, download a movie which was actually a .dmg file with an 'so called' movie player inside it, which she unfortunately ran!
Unfortunately something which to me is plainly obvious fakery, she wasn't to know... being a new user as far as she was concerned that was perfectly legit... and me thinking I was doing her a favour had turned off the 'Allow only apps from Mac App store and identified developers' in Security and Privacy...
Anyway, long story short all her browsers were re-directed to open-search.com and was generating fake ads all over the place. After an hour of trying to work out where this code was being executed from I ended up downloading Avast! which detected all of it and cleaned up 7 infections.
Scary situation though, been a Mac user a very long time, my GF has a Macbook for 3 weeks and..so I've installed Avast! on my own MacBook now just incase these guys manage to get a bit more sophisticated... and lets be fair I torrent like a mofo!
Go to 'thesafemac' which will have instructions to follow for adware, malware etc. Yea, I've been on them for 5 years and never had an issue. But there's not much you can, if the user installs the virus themselves
Glad you are all fixed up.
Adwaremedic is the app I originally linked. You don't need to pay to use it.
What very likely happened is you downloaded an app from a third party site like CNet's download.com or Softonic and they embedded the adware along with the app.
That's it, from 'thesafemac' dude. Good stuff.
I would also grab 'easy find' and search for mac keeper and whatever else relevant. It will grab invisible files, but more important see content of packages and files. To be sure nothing residual was left. Plus the tool is very handy. Devonsoft is company. As a rule of thumb, if there's software I want to use/learn more about, never download it from 3rd party site. Grab it direct from developer. Even If I see something on the Mac app store, I always check the developer site first. You won't get a virus from the App Store obviously but apple sandboxing requirements can limit functionality of an app. Whereas developers site of course won't.
Really? So far its been pretty good. No adware, non-intrusive. I was surprised actually but I haven't even noticed it in the background.
BTW, I don't work for Avast or anything! I'm just sayin' ...so far so good.
Haha, I know- I used them at one point as well. I've never kept a virus program on but liked to do periodic scans. The adware is a fairly recent development and very unfortunate. I've never seen it first hand but it's obviously happening per their forums and other mac blogs. Could you have an older version? There's a couple things to consider- ads themselves aren't necessarily bad (just annoying) but dropping adware on your machine as a method of generating revenue is pretty dubious. Paying for the software is a better option. also they've presented it as an optional checkbox for display advertising (not adware) and there's evidence they install it regardless of whether you check it or not. It's all pretty ****** and something best to avoid altogether (least to me).
I run ad-blocker on Safari, so I never have to worry about these pop-ups.
I would suggest you too. Also, Click to Flash is useful for disabling (rogue) flash ads and save resources (since Flash is so resource-intensive for some stupid reason)
I would suggest you too. Also, Click to Flash is useful for disabling (rogue) flash ads and save resources (since Flash is so resource-intensive for some stupid reason)
Well, well. Aren't we vicious today?
It has to do with preventing pop-ups in the first place.
I really wasn't trying to be vicious. True, those help with pop-up's. But it sounds like his GF installed some crapware. Also FYI grab 'disconnect' to prevent trackers. There's also disconnect search for private browsing (I use a vpn).