How To Remove PlusAbout Adware From Mac OS

Complete Guideline To Delete PlusAbout

PlusAbout is a type of potentially unwanted application that silently infiltrates the Mac computers and performs a series of malicious activities in the background. This nasty adware displays tons of intrusive ads and pop-ups all over the day and interrupts users’ Online sessions badly. The real motive of this ad-supported program is to promote third-party products, services and websites and make quick Online revenues for the creators. By showing attractive coupons, banners, deals, offers, discounts, promo codes etc., it tries to gain users’ attention. These ads are based on pay-per-click mechanism and earn revenues for the developers upon being clicked.

Depth Analysis of PlusAbout:

PlusAbout also includes characteristics of a browser hijacker and makes certain changes in default browser’s settings. It replaces the current homepage and new tab page with its own nasty URL and grabs complete control over the entire browser. This notorious adware also forces people to use a customized search engine presenting it as a real search tool. It claims to enhance users’ web browsing experience by offering most relevant, authentic and fast search results. However, in reality it’s a fake search tool which is not able to provide results, so it redirects to genuine ones like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others. The search outcomes are still not organic as they are mixed with commercial contents and sponsored links.

PlusAbout redirects you to affiliated web pages that are trying to increase their popularity and gain more visits. With each redirection, this nasty PUP makes commission for the developers. However, you need to be very careful here because some redirects might take you to scamming, phishing or even malware-laden sites that are filled with malicious objects. Due to visiting on such harmful web portals, you may end up with getting more hazardous threats in the machine. And hence, avoid interacting with these adverts no matter how useful or eye-catching they look. This precarious malware consumes enormous amount of memory resources and slows down the overall PC performance drastically. And hence, you must perform the instant removal of PlusAbout adware from the work-station.

Threat Details

Name: PlusAbout

Type: Mac virus, Adware, Potentially unwanted program

Functionality: Aims to redirect Mac users to affiliated websites, promote sponsored products, services and programs and make Online revenues for the developers, Also steal users’ personal and confidential information and share them with hackers for evil purposes.

Symptoms: Endless intrusive ads, Altered Internet browser’s settings, Fake pop-up messages, identity theft, new tab settings. Users are enforced to visit hijacker’s website and search the Internet using their search engines, slowness of infected system’s performance.

Distribution methods: Free software installers (bundling), Deceptive emails, malicious pop-ups ads, fake flash player installers.

Damage: Internet browsing tracking (potential privacy issues), displaying of unwanted ads, redirects to shady websites.

Removal: To get rid of this infection and other malware threats, our security researchers recommend scanning your computer with a powerful anti-malware tool.

Freeware And Shareware Downloads Cause PUP Intrusion:

Such types of potentially unwanted threats are often distributed to the targeted computers in packages of freeware and shareware. This kind of deceptive method is known as “software bundling” and is used by lots of third-party developers. Furthermore, these potentially undesired applications are also carried in malicious advertisements, hyperlinks and fake software updates that you often interact with while visiting infectious sites.

How To Prevent PUP Intrusion:

The best way to prevent such malware intrusion is to avoid downloading and installing programs and services from unsecured third-party sites such as download.com, softonic.com and cnet.com. Moreover, always make sure that you are selecting Advanced or Custom configuration setting as the default one. Here you will be able to take complete over the incoming components and opt-out the tools that give a concerning look. If your anti-malware program or web browser has notified that the domain you are trying to land on is infectious, you should stop proceeding to it and close the Window instead.

Other Harmful Traits of PlusAbout:

PlusAbout inserts various spying cookies on your Internet browsers and constantly monitors your Online actions like pages viewed, search queries, links opened, browsing history etc. It gathers vital data regarding your interests and needs which is then utilized by the advertisers for the advertisement campaign. Moreover, it can also steal your personal information relating to banking and other financial details and expose them to hackers for evil purposes. Criminals can misuse those details for fraudulent transactions or for generating deceptive revenues. This hazardous PUP can be also responsible for the intrusion of many other Online infections like rootkits, Trojans, worms, spyware etc. as well since it is able to deactivate all the running security tools and open backdoors for them. And hence, looking at all these threats, you are strongly recommended to remove PlusAbout from the work-station as soon as possible.

Remove Files and Folders Related to PlusAbout

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 PlusAbout 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 PlusAbout 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 PlusAbout. You can select such harmful files and folders and remove them immediately.