Safari - bookmark/virus help please

Hi everyone

Can someone please assist. My autofill has directed me to a random "malware" website (without previous access) and also dropped a link to this site in my 'bookmarks'.

How is this possible? Does anyone else know of any trojan/virus that could do this especially in dropping in a bookmark in the bookmarks folder and what i can do to 'clean' my OS? I am running a 2008 Macbook (Lion v10.7.5) and use my iPhone to tether across an insecure network in the absence of wifi so am wondering if this has made my machine vulnerable?

Really appreciated in advance

Those things did not happen without user input. Maybe you weren't the one, but somebody did that. I don' think there is any malware that is capable of doing it.

Would it have to have been direct input from my machine or is it possible that it could have been dropped over the wifi?

Whatever has happened, it's NOT a virus. It's INCREDIBLY unlikely to have come in remotely without you installing it.

Possible? Yes, if someone gained control over your computer remotely.

Sounds similar to what PC Magazine used to do years ago (On a MicroSoft computer tho), and some of those 'Clean up your Mac' programs. This could have happened via a 'fake' adobe link which your computer should have been protected from (flashback and it's malware, not a virus) via mac software updates, although I have heard that there have been variants. If by chance you were duped into downloading it, altho Lion from what I read has Gatekeep(?) which is supposed to make it even more difficult for malware to launch. I don't tend to download flash or Java updates from the web and wait for it to come through 'Software Update. Take a look through your app folder and also 'System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items and make sure you know the programs are what they say they are.

This site Securing Your Mac: A Guide for Reasonable People, Version 1.0 | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog gives some good advice

jonathanb said:

Hi everyone

Can someone please assist. My autofill has directed me to a random "malware" website (without previous access) and also dropped a link to this site in my 'bookmarks'.

How is this possible? Does anyone else know of any trojan/virus that could do this especially in dropping in a bookmark in the bookmarks folder and what i can do to 'clean' my OS? I am running a 2008 Macbook (Lion v10.7.5) and use my iPhone to tether across an insecure network in the absence of wifi so am wondering if this has made my machine vulnerable?

Really appreciated in advance

Click to expand...

Good Luck