MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected • Hacker News Board

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#21

Post by cekanoni » Wed, May 13, 2015, 11:39 AM UTC

bontoJR wrote: post #18

cekanoni wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not to mention over 700k paid subscribers ..

I was wondering from where this number is coming from...

Their compani is based in Ukraine so you would probably need russian language to dig a bit in tho publicly available documents, but i found that number somewhere on twitter, and am sure its correct. Another proof how much dumb people are living on this wonderful planet..

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#22

Post by orf » Wed, May 13, 2015, 11:39 AM UTC

thirdsun wrote: post #20

wil421 wrote: post #16

Not sure if anyone knowingly installs MacKeeper but I accidentally accepted the download for MacKeeper when I was trying to install a Camera app. Big mistake and I tried to stop the installation. MacKeeper is a nasty piece of malware. I couldn't quit the program, it would immediately start back and putting it in the trash did nothing. Ended up having to boot into safe mode and remove. Well as soon as I got it off my…

I once saw a coworker accidentially installing it and it surely is a nasty piece of malware. The problem is that one can never be quite sure whether every piece of the software was removed, which is why we ended up just reinstalling OS X and avoid guessing. Since then, a few of my friends, who aren't into tech, almost installed MacKeeper. They all had a long history of using Windows and felt that installing some Anti…

Their website[1] looks awesome, I don't own a Mac (Windows user) but if I were to buy one I would definitely consider buying and using it. It's good that this site[2] is the second result on Google for "mac keeper" though.

1. http://mackeeper.com

2. http://www.imore.com/avoid-mackeeper

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#23

Post by seanalltogether » Wed, May 13, 2015, 11:45 AM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #16

Not sure if anyone knowingly installs MacKeeper but I accidentally accepted the download for MacKeeper when I was trying to install a Camera app. Big mistake and I tried to stop the installation. MacKeeper is a nasty piece of malware. I couldn't quit the program, it would immediately start back and putting it in the trash did nothing. Ended up having to boot into safe mode and remove. Well as soon as I got it off my…

The GotoMeeting app did this as well, no matter how you tried to get rid of it, it would keep reinstalling itself into your applications folder. Nowadays all the sketchy tools I need for each client get installed in a VM.

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#24

Post by dec0dedab0de » Wed, May 13, 2015, 11:52 AM UTC

kubbing wrote: post #9

How does one block MacKeeper popups in Safari? Why isn't Safari blocking it?

Personally, I just immediately close any website that has popup ads. They don't have anything I want. Also, use firefox :-)

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#25

Post by al2o3cr » Wed, May 13, 2015, 11:52 AM UTC

Please to consider cleaning your Mac from MacKeeper.

Seriously, given the intensely spammy nature of the product's ads I'm unclear if this counts as a 0-day or a FEATURE.

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#26

Post by nindalf » Wed, May 13, 2015, 11:53 AM UTC

philfrasty wrote: post #6

amencarini wrote: post #2

Why am I not surprised that a software mainly famous because of its pop-up ads is not the most reliable thing ever?

I have rarely seen someone advertise (any product) as aggressive as they do.

I actually assumed it was malware masquerading as an anti-virus.

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#27

Post by koyote » Wed, May 13, 2015, 12:05 PM UTC

"We found users in the US typically use more data and the alternative plans start at around 500MB."

This is interesting considering that the UK providers generally provide more data to users for less money than US providers (with quite a few offering unlimited).

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#28

Post by anonfunction » Wed, May 13, 2015, 12:08 PM UTC

thirdsun wrote: post #20

wil421 wrote: post #16

Not sure if anyone knowingly installs MacKeeper but I accidentally accepted the download for MacKeeper when I was trying to install a Camera app. Big mistake and I tried to stop the installation. MacKeeper is a nasty piece of malware. I couldn't quit the program, it would immediately start back and putting it in the trash did nothing. Ended up having to boot into safe mode and remove. Well as soon as I got it off my…

I once saw a coworker accidentially installing it and it surely is a nasty piece of malware. The problem is that one can never be quite sure whether every piece of the software was removed, which is why we ended up just reinstalling OS X and avoid guessing. Since then, a few of my friends, who aren't into tech, almost installed MacKeeper. They all had a long history of using Windows and felt that installing some Anti…

http://mackeeper.com/uninstall_mackeeper

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#29

Post by anonfunction » Wed, May 13, 2015, 12:10 PM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #16

Not sure if anyone knowingly installs MacKeeper but I accidentally accepted the download for MacKeeper when I was trying to install a Camera app. Big mistake and I tried to stop the installation. MacKeeper is a nasty piece of malware. I couldn't quit the program, it would immediately start back and putting it in the trash did nothing. Ended up having to boot into safe mode and remove. Well as soon as I got it off my…

Interesting, I wonder if that was an older version or perhaps even a modified version. The uninstall instructions[1] look pretty simple to me.

[1] http://mackeeper.com/uninstall_mackeeper

Re: MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

#30

Post by parandroid » Wed, May 13, 2015, 12:11 PM UTC

I have a MacKeeper related question: are apps such as this (cleaners, antivirus etc.) necessary for Mac computers? Judging by the number of users affected by this, there are a lot of people thinking they do need it, I guess.