Search Baron Malware

Topic

New Reply

This came down my news feed the other day. Has anyone heard of the Search Baron malware? Seems Malwarebytes can remove it:

https://macsources.com/remove-search-baron-malware-from-mac/

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Replies

Search Baron appears to have been a problem since July, but I’d not heard about it before your post. Thanks.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

“Malwarebits for Mac” strikes me as a rather nasty piece of work, judging by the fact that, as soon as I started to have a look in the page of the link in Kristy’ entry and clicked on a link in the first comment there to see what was to be done to download it, it tried, before I had a chance to do anything there, to download and install itself in my Mac without so much as a “by your leave”. It gave me a chance to stop its download, but that was not a great way of introducing itself to me. Perhaps the comment’s link was incorrectly chosen, but certainly the whole thing did not look good.

I think I’d rather be more worried about ‘Malwarebits ‘ than about this ‘Search Baron’.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

Reply | Quote

If I understand correctly, the link you clicked on contains “malwarebytes.org”. The real Malwarebytes web site link contains “malwarebytes.com”. That indicates to me that the information in the comment is suspect!

3 users thanked author for this post.

Kirsty, Nathan Parker, OscarCP

Reply | Quote

I haven’t heard about it until this week either.

I haven’t used Malwarebits, but I have used Malwarebytes for Mac free for years (and over a year using Premium on my iMac Pro, I’ve now switched to the Student plan which gave me four years for $5), and it’s always worked well for me. I’ve also used the free version on Windows. I prefer to use it in conjunction with Webroot, but I’ve used both Webroot and Malwarebytes with great success. I never had it automatically download for me when I visited its website, so it could have been a fake knockoff.

Nathan Parker

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

Reply | Quote

OK, I just went to the official Malwarebytes’ site Nathan has provided the link to, and to the place there from where one can download either the free or the paid version for Macs. When I got there, the same thing I have already complained about in this thread (here: #2014433 ) happened, so that is a feature of the real Malwarebytes’ site.

Anyhow, I went ahead, installed the free version, same as the one Nathan has been using, and made a scan. It took some ten or twenty seconds and found nothing bad lurking inside the Mac. (NB: I am still running Mojave.)

Same as Nathan, I also have, as my long-trusted antivirus, “Webroot SecureAnywhere.” So, either Webroot has been doing the stellar cleanup and malware search and destroy job I have always been hoping and trusting it will do, or both Webroot and Malwarebytes are equally blind to the same nasty things lurking inside my poor Mac.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Here is the link I use for the Mac version: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

Their browser guard isn’t bad either (it works on Chrome and Firefox, and I believe other Chromium and Firefox forks): https://www.malwarebytes.com/browserguard/

Nathan Parker

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

Reply | Quote

I have also used Malwarebytes for Mac fo a long time in conjunction with TrendMicro.
The only problem I have had is TrendMicro doesn’t like Malwarebytes, so I have to uninstall the latter every time I upgrade TM, then reinstall it afterward. Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be a conflict in the operation of either when they are together.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

PK: Do you have the free version, that can be used only to scan for malware and dispose of it, or the paid version with “real-time protection” that includes various “shields” and, I imagine, also a firewall?

If the latter, couldn’t some of  those “shields” conflict with those of your other anti-malware software when you fist try to run a newly reinstalled Malwarebytes?

I am asking, because I am thinking of staying with the free version of Malwarebytes for that very reason, as I have already an anti-malware application with its own shields and firewall up and running.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

This is Malwarebytes Free for Mac. Works like Malwarebytes Free for Windows – CYA manual scan.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker, OscarCP

Reply | Quote

By the way, the Mac version of Malwarebytes Premium has fewer features than the Windows version. Therefore, I have been able to run both Malwarebytes Premium and Webroot without any conflict between the two (the two have played together perfectly).

The main differences between Free and Premium for Mac are:

• Real-time scanning
• The ability to schedule scans
• Automatic updates
• App blocker

The main reasons I’m doing Premium at the moment are: 1. I’m using an iMac Pro, so I want to protect that substantial investment and 2. I managed to get four years for $5 as a student.

Once my student license expires, I’ll likely let it lapse to Free, and I run Free on my older iMac. I don’t see the $40/year investment enough to invest in heavily at the moment.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

I have the free version of Malwarebytes and it has saved my bacon recently when I let my guard down on something I downloaded.  I figured it out immediately and ran it and it cleared it up before damage could be done.

That being said, the biggest problem I have had with AV on Macs is that most of them seem to seriously degrade performance, especially on my wife’s Macbook Air.  The last time she tried something, it really slowed her down.  I don’t remember what it was, but it was bad, so if anyone has any suggestions about an AV that doesn’t cause performance degradation, I am all ears.

On my Windows box (I am bilingual, so to speak), I use the built in Windows Defender and Malwarebytes free and all seems well.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

I use TrendMicro (paid) on my Macs: (2012 Ivy Bridge iMac, Macmini and 13″ MacBook Pro , 2013 15″ Haswell MacBook Pro, and 2017 Kaby Lake iMac4K)  and have not had any problems.
I have also run Malwarebytes Free at the same time.  But TM doesn’t like Mbam, so each time I upgrade TM version (not definitions), I have to uninstall Mbam until the install is complete, then I can put it back.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote