Remove AssistiveMode Hijacker From Mac

AssistiveMode: Step-by-step Uninstall Guide

AssistiveMode has been designed by a team of potent cyber offenders with an aim to generate online revenues by displaying annoying advertisements and redirecting Mac users to affiliated sites. It’s a potentially unwanted program (PUP) and can be classified as both adware as well as browser hijacker. Users hardly ever install this kind of applications intentionally. In most cases, these browser-based intruders are spread together with other free programs through software bundling tactic. Soon after the intrusion, it changes the appearance of browser by reassigning the default search engine, homepage, and new tab page to an address of a fake search provider.

AssistiveMode Shows Intrusive Advertisements:

AssistiveMode displays ads during the online sessions and interrupts victims’ work severely. These ads come in several forms e.g., pop-ups, banners, coupons, deals, offers, discounts, surveys etc. They cover the website content and diminish users’ overall browsing experience. They are designed to make pay-per-click revenues, so the more they are clicked, the more money fall straight into the developers’ pocket. However, these adverts often promote unreliable sites such as pages designed to extract sensitive data, download portals for PUPs, malware-laden sites and so forth.

Furthermore, AssistiveMode ads can also trigger download and installation of malicious software by executing certain scripts. As stated before, it also works as a browser hijacker. Hence, it forces victims to surf through a deceptive search engine that redirects all searches to Yahoo or other legitimate engines. These fake search tools often reroute to genuine ones because they are not able to provide results by themselves. Nonetheless, the delivered results are not accurate as they are filled with ads and sponsored links. You should stay away from these content as they might take you to insecure webpages.

AssistiveMode is also able to track the activities of its users using various spying cookies and gather data. It can collect information such as entered search queries, visited pages, Internet Protocol addresses, geolocations and can also read sensitive data like passwords, credit card details, telephone numbers. Later on, these details are shared with third-parties and can be employed to customize ads, make fraudulent transactions, unauthorized purchases and for other deceptive purposes. Therefore, presence of this hijacker in your Mac may result in severe privacy issues, identity theft, significant monetary losses. So, a quick AssistiveMode removal is strongly recommended.

Distribution of AssistiveMode:

A browser hijack takes place during the installation of freeware or shareware. This PUP might be advertised as a useful add-on or browser extension. However, most of the time, users agree to install them unintentionally. Optional components usually are hidden under Quick/Recommended settings that do not openly reveal about third-party contents and install them silently. If you choose these options for your software, you risk infecting your computer with potentially unwanted programs.

To avoid this from happening, you have to choose Advanced/Custom settings and opt-out pre-selected entries. By choosing these configuration settings, you will be able to prevent browser hijackers, adware and other PUPs from intruding your work-station and install only the one you wanted at the first. Moreover, rely only on official sites and direct links for your applications and stay away from untrustworthy channels, peer-to-peer networks, and other third-party downloaders. If your Mac is already contaminated with this hijacker, you must remove AssistiveMode from the PC as early as possible.

Remove Files and Folders Related to AssistiveMode

Open the “Menu” bar and click the “Finder” icon. Select “Go” and click on “Go to Folder…”

Step 1: Search the suspicious and doubtful malware generated files in /Library/LaunchAgents folder

Type /Library/LaunchAgents in the “Go to Folder” option

In the “Launch Agent” folder, search for all the files that you have recently downloaded and move them to “Trash”. Few of the examples of files created by browser-hijacker or adware are as follow, “myppes.download.plist”, “mykotlerino.Itvbit.plist”, installmac.AppRemoval.plist”, and “kuklorest.update.plist” and so on.

Step 2: Detect and remove the files generated by the adware in “/Library/Application” Support folder

In the “Go to Folder..bar”, type “/Library/Application Support”

Search for any suspicious newly added folders in “Application Support” folder. If you detect any one of these like “NicePlayer” or “MPlayerX” then send them to “Trash” folder.

Step 3: Look for the files generated by malware in /Library/LaunchAgent Folder:

Go to Folder bar and type /Library/LaunchAgents

You are in the “LaunchAgents” folder. Here, you have to search for all the newly added files and move them to “Trash” if you find them suspicious. Some of the examples of suspicious files generated by malware are “myppes.download.plist”, “installmac.AppRemoved.plist”, “kuklorest.update.plist”, “mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist” and so on.

Step4: Go to /Library/LaunchDaemons Folder and search for the files created by malware

Type /Library/LaunchDaemons in the “Go To Folder” option

In the newly opened “LaunchDaemons” folder, search for any recently added suspicious files and move them to “Trash”. Examples of some of the suspicious files are “com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist”, “com.avickUpd.plist”, “com.myppes.net-preference.plist”, “com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist” and so on.

Step 5: Use Combo Cleaner Anti-Malware and Scan your Mac PC

The malware infections could be removed from the Mac PC if you execute all the steps mentioned above in the correct way. However, it is always advised to be sure that your PC is not infected. It is suggested to scan the work-station with “Combo Cleaner Anti-virus”.

Once the file gets downloaded, double click on combocleaner.dmg installer in the newly opened window. Next is to open the “Launchpad” and press on “Combo Cleaner” icon. It is advised to wait until “Combo Cleaner” updates the latest definition for malware detection. Click on “Start Combo Scan” button.

A depth scan of your Mac PC will be executed in order to detect malware. If the Anti-virus scan report says “no threat found” then you can continue with guide further. On the other hand, it is recommended to delete the detected malware infection before continuing.

Now the files and folders created by the adware is removed, you have to remove the rogue extensions from the browsers.

Remove AssistiveMode from Internet Browsers

Delete Doubtful and Malicious Extension from Safari

Go to “Menu Bar” and open “Safari” browser. Select “Safari” and then “Preferences”

In the opened “preferences” window, select “Extensions” that you have recently installed. All such extensions should be detected and click the “Uninstall” button next to it. If you are doubtful then you can remove all the extensions from “Safari” browser as none of them are important for smooth functionality of the browser.

In case if you continue facing unwanted webpage redirections or aggressive advertisements bombarding, you can reset the “Safari” browser.

“Reset Safari”

Open the Safari menu and choose “preferences…” from the drop-down menu.

Go to the “Extension” tab and set the extension slider to “Off” position. This disables all the installed extensions in the Safari browser

Next step is to check the homepage. Go to “Preferences…” option and choose “General” tab. Change the homepage to your preferred URL.

Also check the default search-engine provider settings. Go to “Preferences…” window and select the “Search” tab and select the search-engine provider that you want such as “Google”.

Next is to clear the Safari browser Cache- Go to “Preferences…” window and select “Advanced” tab and click on “Show develop menu in the menu bar.“

Go to “Develop” menu and select “Empty Caches”.

Remove website data and browsing history. Go to “Safari” menu and select “Clear History and Website Data”. Choose “all history” and then click on “Clear History”.

Remove Unwanted and Malicious Plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox

Delete AssistiveMode add-ons from Mozilla Firefox

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser. Click on the “Open Menu” present in the top right corner of the screen. From the newly opened menu, choose “Add-ons”.

Go to “Extension” option and detect all the latest installed add-ons. Select each of the suspicious add-ons and click on “Remove” button next to them.

In case if you want to “reset” the Mozilla Firefox browser then follow the steps that has been mentioned below.

Reset Mozilla Firefox Settings

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser and click on “Firefox” button situated at the top left corner of the screen.

In the new menu, go to “Help” sub-menu and choose “Troubleshooting Information”

In the “Troubleshooting Information” page, click on “Reset Firefox” button.

Confirm that you want to reset the Mozilla Firefox settings to default by pressing on “Reset Firefox” option

The browser will get restarted and the settings changes to factory default

Delete Unwanted and Malicious Extensions from Google Chrome

Open the chrome browser and click on “Chrome menu”. From the drop down option, choose “More Tools” and then “Extensions”.

In the “Extensions” option, search for all the recently installed add-ons and extensions. Select them and choose “Trash” button. Any third-party extension is not important for the smooth functionality of the browser.

Reset Google Chrome Settings

Open the browser and click on three line bar at the top right side corner of the window.

Go to the bottom of the newly opened window and select “Show advanced settings”.

In the newly opened window, scroll down to the bottom and choose “Reset browser settings”

Click on the “Reset” button on the opened “Reset browser settings” window

Restart the browser and the changes you get will be applied

The above mentioned manual process should be executed as it is mentioned. It is a cumbersome process and requires a lot of technical expertise. And hence it is advised for technical experts only. To be sure that your PC is free from malware, it is better that you scan the work-station with a powerful anti-malware tool. The automatic malware removal application is preferred because it doesn’t requires any additional technical skills and expertise.

Download the application and execute it on the PC to begin the depth scanning. Once the scanning gets completed, it shows the list of all the files related to AssistiveMode. You can select such harmful files and folders and remove them immediately.