Trojan?

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:(

I've had my Mac Book for 2 years ago and now have only encountered my first problem and am now wondering how to get rid of this darn thing. I went onto cnet.com the other day and it started corrupting my home page and other sites I have bookmarked

Each time it happens I close Safari and 'reset Safari' to try and clean up anything that maybe causing this, however it seems to return after a time and am now worried about going onto my internet banking site!

I have just downloaded Avast antivirus from the Mac download site which is now churning away, it has com up with 69 warnings so far?

Does anyone have experience with this program?
 
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Anti-virus apps for Mac will always find some sort of "problem"...

In fact, some of those apps are the very thing that adds the problems.
They do this so you feel like it is actually doing something for your machine, and to make you feel like you didn't waste your cash on it.

The reality is there is nothing wrong and there isn't much need for those apps.
Check the Stickied thread on Antivirus for more info.
 
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I have read through that thread, luckily I didn't pay for the Avast download. This Trojan has just made me wonder if I should have had an antivirus program. I know in the past antivirus program seemed to create more problems than they fixed but I just didn't want my mac being corrupted :(

My Mac Book has been running perfectly up until now

Well the scan has just finished & I had 80 warnings but no explanation as to whether I should do anything, just file names?

Mac OS X automatically defrags and cleans itself up doesn't it? I thought I'd read that before and can't find anything an app in system that would do it
 

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Mac OS X automatically defrags and cleans itself up doesn't it? I thought I'd read that before and can't find anything an app in system that would do it
Give this a quick read - it should answer this question for you.
 
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Thank you, I think that is the page I read originally, I guess I went back into PC mode when I got a problem I wanted to fix
 

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How do you know you have a Trojan for sure? What is telling you this? I am trying to help by the way. The only Trojan I know of comes from Porn Video sites and iLife/iWork 09 Pirated downloads. The first is in the forum of a Video Codec.
 
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Maybe not a Trojan, do they call some Spy-wear Spiders? I was interfering with my home page, Google, setting and my Mobile Me bookmark, taking me to a site which gave you shopping type options and if you did nothing it went over to eBay? I had to play around in the address bar to get Google back and reset it to my home page and then I reset Safari. I did this twice as I went to check my emails in my Mac.com account and this darn page reappeared and I could get away from it. After resetting Safari twice it has not returned and I hope I have got rid of the darn thing? I had been on cnet.com when the problem started, I have not been to this site in years

I got the Mac to get away from these pests that can inplant themselves in a system...and email spam which luckily I am avoiding still

Must admit I've become a bit green about these things since getting he Mac, it has been so trouble free until now

Thank you for your help :)
 

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Have you downloaded any Video Codecs or Pirated versions of Software? What you have sounds like that DNS changer Trojan and those are the only way I have ever seen to get it on to OSX. If you are being taken to a site different than what you are typing in, that might be the issue.

Not trying to trap you by the way, just trying to see what is going on and help.
 
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p.s. I did get a bit paranoid, hence my search for Antivirus programs today
 
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No not done any of that, only thing I have downloaded is the Avast today, from the Mac download site

Yesterday I was searching for product reviews on Google and decided to read what cnet.com had to say, when I tried to move on and go home to Google the problem started
 

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...
I was interfering with my home page,...
I had to play around in the address bar...

Have you quit and re-opened Safari - or better yet re-booted the machine?

None of us understand what you mean by "interfering with" or "play around".
What is it that you did?

I don't really have a clue what "corrupting my home page and other sites" implies.

Did you type in your password which would have allowed something else to install?
I visit cnet quite often and have no issues with their site. Did you download something from there - what was it?

Telling us specifically "When I do 'x', 'z' happens" will help someone to understand and help with your issue.
 
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es the first thing I did was quit Safari and reopened it; in the address bar was my Google home page adress bar not the Google home page on the screen; there seemed to be another icon in front of Googles web address.

If I tried to clear the address bar and re-enter Googles address it would still bring up this other page. I then type word like search engine in the address bar and tried to find a link to Google to reset my home page, which I found & reset, then I closed Safari and reset it. It worked fine until I went to my MobileMe login and the page appeared again, this time Google was still my home page, I deleted my MobileMe bookmark, closed Safari and 'reset Safari again

This rogue page has not appeared since, but yesterday I was wondering if an Antivirus program could detect if the trojan/or other was still in my Mac?



Thinking about it last night I should have copied the screen but I was not plannng on going the Mac forum at that stage only tying to move on with what I was doing on te computer
 
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You could try iAntivirus. It's a virus app for macs. It targets only mac viruses, not windows. If this problem you're having is mac specific, it may pick it up. That is, if you still want to search your system for trojans.

Here's the link: iAntiVirus - Free AntiVirus for Mac.
 
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You could try iAntivirus. It's a virus app for macs. It targets only mac viruses, not windows. If this problem you're having is mac specific, it may pick it up. That is, if you still want to search your system for trojans.

Here's the link: iAntiVirus - Free AntiVirus for Mac.


wow!!! did you not read any of the earlier post on here before writing this?

or maybe you work for iAntivirus?

Anti-virus apps for Mac will always find some sort of "problem"...

In fact, some of those apps are the very thing that adds the problems.
They do this so you feel like it is actually doing something for your machine, and to make you feel like you didn't waste your cash on it.
 
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I did read the previous posts. I do NOT work for any anti-virus company. I was trying to give advice to someone who needed help. I understand that virus protection on a mac is not exactly necessary. iAntivirus has not given me any problems, nor has it pointed out 80 or so different problems.
 
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@ squeabs

i wasnt trying to flame you but it is an overwhelming consensus on here by members with 1,000's posts and years of using macs that antivirus programs are not currently needed on macs and often do more harm then good.

it is generally hard for switchers to stop:

1. thinking they need virus protection. the placebo effect plays a big role here. i honestly dont need virus protection on my windows machines because i use common sense and have not had a windows virus is so many years that i cant even remember the one time i did get one.

2. restarting your machine. i get a kick out of a couple guys in my office that are new to mac and when they have an issue they want to restart it LOL . 99.9% of them time it is something they dont know how to do and had nothing to do with the OS acting up.

3. defragging. you dont need it. this is argued about sometimes but i have 5 machines running at home from a Mini, iMac, Macbooks, G4 tower and a few of them have been getting large files added, moved, and deleted for years and none of the 3 major defragging programs i tried made any difference on speed and in fact one of them iDefrag caused me a ton of problems on my iMac.

you should however repair permissions occasionally.
 
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True, on all those accounts. I had a windows machine for quite some time before switching back to macs. I never really had much of a need for protection on it because common sense usually told me what not to click on. In reality, I could probably go without a virus app on my mac. In all the time I've had it, it's never reported a virus, trojan, or any malware to me.
 
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It has returned this morning, ARGH!

Have taken a screen shot this time and hope to be able to post it. I've just selected attach file and my fingers are crossed

About to reset Safari again

I had attached a Youtube video to my Facebook wall ans when I returned to Youtube this web-page appeared again, can't get Youtube only this com.com.au site, but the youtube address is still in the address bar?

Picture 1.png
 
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OK I've reset Safari but when I went back to Youtube the com.com.au web-page was there again. It is not touching my home page or bookmarks as yet?

Any ideas on how to get rid of this problem? It's been laying low for almost a week now?
 
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I've just used 'Finder' to search for anything with cnet or ebay; deleted some folders from the system which may had been hiding something in them?

Have deleted cookies several times today & Rest Safari three times

I ope I have got rid of the problem?

Please look at the thumbnail attached to a post, 3 up, to see if you recognize the problem site which reappeared today when on Youtube and would let me get away from it
 

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