MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected | Hacker News Reader

MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

thehacktimes.com

59 pointscekanoni52 comments

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 computer in Safe mode and restarted I get a prohibited sign. Mac will not boot. Ended up having to reinstall OS X. Thankfully you are able to reinstall and keep your files. Now I stay up to date on my backups!

I don't see why apple doesn't ban them. Obviously they are shady.

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-Virus, Anti-Malware junk was the most natural thing. For normal users it's really hard to distinguish between legitimate applications/websites and shady stuff.

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

Interestingly the toolkit shown is the Ikea toolkit "Fixa" - I wonder if there's not IP restrictions on their use of such an image.

Edit: I saw this quote on the Mackeeper website you linked (it is good design) "MacKeeper was noticed at Macworld by a journalist from Cult of Mac". So I chased that phrase and all I found was algorithmic page generators like this http://drgogek.com/is/is-mackeeper-really-a-scam-cult-of-mac....

Using a different tack CoM mention Mackeeper in a single page found from their search box, an affiliate promotion page ... using Google unearths more promotions, https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Acultofmac.com mackeeper.

So, it looks like their quoted reviews are from people they're paying to sell the product, that's a warning sign.

Didn't investigate further.

good find.

Do a search on google for "chrome" and you get any number of adverts for junkware installers before the actual application... this is true of any number of legitimate apps. Let alone if you are duped by an illegitimate app to begin with.

Surprisingly, it does - I just knew them for their shady ads and popups which clearly scream "don't install this!", but this website looks absolutely legitimate. Color me surprised.

http://mackeeper.com/uninstall_mackeeper

I don't trust borderline malware to uninstall itself.

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

> What's more, "uninstalling" MacKeeper doesn't get rid of all of it — you'll find various traces of it in your Mac's system library folder, and they take a bit to get rid of (just search for anything with zeobit or MacKeeper in the name, and you'll turn up files).

I don't see why apple doesn't ban them.

Even in the Mac App Store, Apple permits scammy apps such as "Memory Clean" [1] that consistently ends up in top ranks/top grossing. For one, "RAM cleaning" does nothing helpful and theoretically can make your Mac less performant. Bonus: the app calls home to push the developer's other apps.

I'm surprised stuff like this prospers in plain sight with Apple's tacit approval. Snake oil for non-power users who don't know better.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/memory-clean/id451444120?mt=...

Worse than that, that app claims to be "FEATURED BY APPLE AS AN INVALUABLE UTILITY 2014"

@lpsz can you support these statements? "For one, "RAM cleaning" does nothing helpful and theoretically can make your Mac less performant. Bonus: the app calls home to push the developer's other apps."

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.

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

If it was only that easy! Those instructions never worked for me and some other users from at least 2014.[1] Its entirely possible they send different versions for bundled installs or it was modified. The app it was bundled with got promptly deleted and never opened.

[1]https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6502268

The person who found the 0-day set up a website that exploits the flaw by uninstalling MacKeeper.

Mr. Thomas released a proof-of-concept (POC) demonstrating how visiting a specially crafted webpage in Safari causes the affected system to execute arbitrary commands – in this case, to uninstall MacKeeper.

Source: http://securemac.com/MacKeeper_Security_Advisory_Revised.php

Proof of concept and solution, sounds like.

make sure to run MacKeeper Update and install the latest version 3.4.1 or latest

Or, you know, don't use MacKeeper ever?

Exactly. I wish someone comes up with a way to get rid of this thing f-o-r-e-v-e-r

The Proof of Concept is brilliant. Hopefully MacKeeper fails to patch the issue and the PoC goes viral to rid the world of this spammy app.

I hope so also, really hate that spammy app specially when i open a popular hub site we all know, and it opens it in background wtf ...

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.

They used to run this beautifully integrated ad on speedtest.net, where the robot character was rendered in the same neon green motif. It looked like it was just part of the site. That meant that Ookla must have had an incredibly close working relationship with the ad people at MacKeeper. Feels so dirty.

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

MacKeeper will execute arbitrary base64 encoded commands on a custom url as root.

I guess it's a "flaw" but whoever put that in knew that would come back to bite. Haha, it's so insanely irresponsible that I don't even know where to start.

We need something like a hippocratic oath, and probably a governing body (or however grown up industries manage themselves), to stop people responsible for this sort of code from having a license to practice.

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.

Wait, MacKeeper is actual software? I just thought it was just another piece of malware with a strangely good pop-up in comparison to other malware pop-ups.

You're not wrong, that's pretty much all it is.

(Oh, and it bundles a bunch of inferior versions of features already built-in to Mac OS X, like backups, file searching, data encryption, secure delete, login item disabling, default app selection, etc.)

20M MacKeeper users seems like an extraordinary number.

Let's say there is an installed base of 2 billion personal computers, let's say 10% of those are Macs, that's 200 million, 10% of those would have to have MacKeeper installed to hit 20m users.

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..

I honestly thought it was an out of mind number, but thinking about how aggressive is their advertising campaign, sometimes almost misleading and the average knowledge of a user, well, I am not sure is out of mind anymore...

"Consider cleaning your Mac from junk"

-- MacKeeper campaign, 2013

The amount of things I miss by running ad blockers.

Given their advertising methods, I always figured installing MacKeeper was a good way to hose yourself.

"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).

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.

I don't feel they are necessary, even for less advanced users. Apple do a reasonably good job of keeping things safe and up-to-date.

The number of users may also reflect their pushy "you need this!" marketing. I installed MacKeeper a few days after switching from Windows to Mac, as I had no idea what I was doing. Ended up uninstalling it, then reinstalling OS X from scratch just in case.

That's what I thought, thanks. I'm a newish Mac user, so I was a bit confused by the whole situation, since other Mac I know told me not to install anything of that kind.

If you stick to official software and don't care to scan documents for windows viruses and such, you won't need any antivirus. I do however use CleanMyMac 2 to remove stuff I don't use, this is the only piece of "cleaning" software that I think is actually worth it. I like how it helps me getting rid of logs and language files in a lazy way :)

Not usually, but a lot of users coming from Windows just reflexively install a cleaner/AV anyway.

Cool. I'll stick to the "no cleaners" personal policy then.

The thing is, those apps aren't very useful at Windows either.

Get to any Windows user, and ask him when was the last time his anti-virus stopped him from doing anything. Malware has adapted since the 90's.

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

uBlock - https://chrismatic.io/ublock/

ublock over adblock for safari ?

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

I really hope Apple uses this an excuse to add this crapware to their list of malware that OS X blocks the installation of.

how to view the hidden friend list of any facebook user

http://haktuts.blogspot.in/2015/05/how-to-view-hidden-friend...

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