what is 'karl'?

[spydr]

I am having a process called 'karl' running with root access in my macbookpro. Strangely it is a powerpc process, as opposed to all other system processes which are intel processes. It is bothering because it is running as a root. Currently I don't have any powerpc application open either, and in that case too, an application's process should run as my process right?
Any insights? In these days of OS X hacks, I want to be as informed as possible. One more thing, on info it says parent process is "launchd" - if that helps.

Spydr

 

[DougTheImpaler]

wasn't he one of the Marx brothers? *rimshot*

I can't find anything on karl...not sure what it'd be.

 

[yellow]

Never heard of it.

Can you show us a screenshot from Activity MOnitor please?

 

[spydr]

Never heard of it.

Can you show us a screenshot from Activity MOnitor please?

Here it is. It shows up as soon as I log in. Could it be one of the powerpc program's autoupdate services? I do have stuff like Acrobat and few other powerpc applications, though none needs to run for this scumbag to show up!

 

[Josh]

Kontrols
And
Relocates
Libraries

Delete it immediately.

Just kidding of course, I have no idea what it is

You might try opening the terminal, and typing

man karl

hit enter, and if there is any existing documentation of that process on your system, that should bring it up and let you know what it is.

 

[jeremy.king]

If launchd spawned it, look for a plist file (or grep them) in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons or even /System/Library/LaunchAgents

 

[Seasought]

Is it related to Rosetta in any way? Just an impulse guess.

 

[spydr]

Kontrols
And
Relocates
Libraries

Delete it immediately.

Just kidding of course, I have no idea what it is

You might try opening the terminal, and typing

man karl

hit enter, and if there is any existing documentation of that process on your system, that should bring it up and let you know what it is.

sorry - no man entry in terminal.

 

[spydr]

If launchd spawned it, look for a plist file (or grep them) in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons or even /System/Library/LaunchAgents

no plist for karl in those two locations.

 

[spydr]

Is it related to Rosetta in any way? Just an impulse guess.

Just that I don't recall it being there on the brand new system. That is why I want to know if anyother intel macs see it. I know that one of the applications I got (a powerPC app) needs to run a Key access server/process to authenticate from our network licensing server. It bugs me that if it is the Karl process, shouldn't it identify itself in some way - how else can I confirm this suspicion?

 

[jeremy.king]

no plist for karl in those two locations.

did you grep the files for karl too?

grep -i karl *

 

[yellow]

ps -auxwww | grep karl

I'm curious what it's path is. That might give us a clue as to it's origin.

 

[GilGrissom]

I've just got my friend to check his new Intel iMac...nothing about "karl" on his machine, and he's had it a month at least now, got all sorts of software on it and it's not come up.

 

[spydr]

ps -auxwww | grep karl

I'm curious what it's path is. That might give us a clue as to it's origin.

What I suspected- keyaccess stuff. As I said previously, an application called Macvector uses authentication from keyaccess server. But I don't know if it is alright that it is running even if I have not launched the relevant application? or is it a whim of the powerpc app on intel. I hope it doesn't do any damage!

User 1739 1.2 0.0 27352 424 p1 S+ 1:18PM 0:00.00 grep karl
root 194 0.0 0.3 101152 3564 ?? Ss 9:41AM 0:00.13 /Library/KeyAccess/KeyAccess.app/Contents/SharedSupport/karl.app/Contents/MacOS/karl

Thanks for that code and all the quick replies. You guys rock! Now I can rest in peace - for a while at least.

 

[pknz]

You haven't been listening to Ricky Gervais podcasts by any chance have you?

 

[AdamDZ]

karl and kass are two processes that are a part of KeyServer client and yes, they're supposed to always run even if you're not using keyed software.

A.