Virus in osx? I surely think so

PunterCam

PunterCam

Active Member
Appologise if I post this months back as well, I don't think I did here...

I'm running 10.5.4 on an imac.

I was having problems with safari redirecting itself to other websites - 'copybook' being the most notable one - it was doing it pretty frequently, maybe 1 in 3 times. I did the obvious 'delete history/cookies' and when that didn't work I 'reset' the program, ticking every box possible. The problem appeared to be fixed for a few hours, but has started to return.

At this point I thought 'stuff it, firefox is good, I'll just run that instead'. The same problem has now started to happen in it as well.

Needless to say it's incredibly annoying, and I need it fixed. I'm no expert with osx unfortunately, and I don't know how to clean it up.

What d'you think, must be a simple fix or a cleaning program I can run.
 
You could try sophos Anvitivrus.
Just don't jump to conclusion by saying it's a virus, I don't think it's a virus has to be a system issue.
is it the one in your sig ?
 
patrickv said:
You could try sophos Anvitivrus.
Just don't jump to conclusion by saying it's a virus, I don't think it's a virus has to be a system issue.
is it the one in your sig ?
Click to expand...

No, it's my brothers imac actually - just the base 1.8, 1 gig ram 20". A virus is probably the wrong word, adware or something is probably closer to the mark.

Any ideas patrick my friend?
 
Sounds to me like he installed a third party codec and gave it admin rights and it was malicious. Nothing can just install itself on OS X with out admin rights and authentication to begin with. POSIX Unix permissions is just that way by default.

There are some things I would try out first to narrow down what is causing it

1) Create a fresh new user account, does the problem continue to happen in that new user account?

2) what processes are running in the background?

3) What software did your brother install or what codec did he install last before this started happening?
 
tlarkin said:
Sounds to me like he installed a third party codec and gave it admin rights and it was malicious. Nothing can just install itself on OS X with out admin rights and authentication to begin with. POSIX Unix permissions is just that way by default.

There are some things I would try out first to narrow down what is causing it

1) Create a fresh new user account, does the problem continue to happen in that new user account?

2) what processes are running in the background?

3) What software did your brother install or what codec did he install last before this started happening?
Click to expand...

1) Help me out here! I've officially quit windows as of yesterday, so I'm a total beginner - how do you create a new user account?

2) Again, how?

3) I'll try to find out, but it's unlikely he'll know - He's only really downloaded and used (that I've seen) bit-torrent and limewire.


thanks guys
 
PunterCam said:
1) Help me out here! I've officially quit windows as of yesterday, so I'm a total beginner - how do you create a new user account?
Click to expand...

System preference and accounts, hit the Plus sign and create a new one

2) Again, how?
Click to expand...
Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, see what is running

3) I'll try to find out, but it's unlikely he'll know - He's only really downloaded and used (that I've seen) bit-torrent and limewire.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it is quite possible

How much important data in on this Mac?
 
I wouldn't be a big hassel to start again with it - he'll only have m/s word docs, photos, music, maybe a hundred gig of stuff, but he's miles away and I wouldn't trust him to do it himself, and he does need it for his studies...

cheers so far guys, I'll get back to you
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top