Annoying Advertisements On my Browser

[SacremPyrobolum]

So I have this annoying bug on my computer and I can't seem to shake it.

Admittedly, I did something less than smart in downloading what I thought was a video player that turned out to put invasive ads on all of my browsers.

For examples, random words are highlighted green and when I mouse over them they display a large box that advertises one product or another. I also get random pop ups even though I have ad block installed. The worst is when advertisements pop up on the sides and bottom of my screen, and while adblock hides the advertisements themselves, the bars that say "hide advertisements" still always pop up.

I am using Safari and Chrome on a Macbook Air. I have looked into the extension of both of them but found nothing. I have also looked into my applications and found an equal amount of nothing.

 

[Frezzato]

This is an old problem and it surprises me that it's migrated to Mac. Well, for the most part, a browser is a browser, and as such, there will always be browser hijacks and the like.

I would start here [https://discussions.apple.com/message/17678676#17678676], and if that fails, try here [http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1724907]. It could be any number of browser malware really, like Codec-M or crap by enhance.com.

Whatever you do, do NOT follow any "opt-out" prompts, and if you haven't installed VLC Player yet, do that first thing once your system is clean. Mac or PC (I have both), I have yet to run across a single video file VLC cannot play. I think I also have the DivX plug-in, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

This is an old problem and it surprises me that it's migrated to Mac. Well, for the most part, a browser is a browser, and as such, there will always be browser hijacks and the like.

I would start here [https://discussions.apple.com/message/17678676#17678676], and if that fails, try here [http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1724907]. It could be any number of browser malware really, like Codec-M or crap by enhance.com.

Whatever you do, do NOT follow any "opt-out" prompts, and if you haven't installed VLC Player yet, do that first thing once your system is clean. Mac or PC (I have both), I have yet to run across a single video file VLC cannot play. I think I also have the DivX plug-in, but that's neither here nor there.

Hey, thanks a lot! I was able to get rid of it by removing the files in my Applications Support and Launch Agents files in /Library as recommended in your second link.

This malware should be a felony.

 

[Barbas]

I had that a while back. It latched onto Chrome and proceeded to annoy the shit out of me - 'AdSense' or something similar, isn't it? Really makes you want to unload a full magazine indiscriminately into the ceiling, as they say in the States.

Yep, it's a pretty good idea to scan through extensions/plug-ins every now and then to make sure something like that hasn't surreptitiously implanted itself into the works.