Remove BoostCoordinator Adware (Mac)

Simple Steps To Delete BoostCoordinator

BoostCoordinator is a potentially unwanted program that has been crafted by a team of vicious hackers for promotional and commercial purposes. It includes traits of both an adware as well as a browser hijacker. Once this nasty PUP successfully infiltrates your Mac computer, it makes unexpected alterations to your default browser’s settings and acquires complete control over the entire browser. All of a sudden you will notice your homepage, search engine and new tab addresses have been replaced with another URL. After that, surfing the web becomes very complicated for you as you often get redirected to affiliated sites.

Depth Analysis of BoostCoordinator:

BoostCoordinator bombards your system screen with thousands of intrusive ads and pop-ups all the time and interrupts your web sessions badly. By displaying attractive offers, coupons, banners, deals, discounts etc., it tries to make its victims click on them in order to earn revenues via pay-per-click scheme. Your each click on these adverts earns profits for the creators. We strongly advise to avoid interacting with these advertisements as they might include spiteful links and when clicked, redirect people to phishing, scamming or even malware-laden sites.

BoostCoordinator pretends to be a useful search tool and claims to enhance Mac users’ online experience by providing most relevant and accurate search results. However, while using this bogus search tool, you are redirected to Yahoo since these deceptive search engines are not capable of delivering results. Nonetheless, the outcomes are still not organic as they often include sponsored links at the top. This notorious adware slows down the overall computer performance drastically as it consumes enormous amount of memory resources and increases the usage of CPU.

BoostCoordinator is a kind of malware that can track users’ online activities such as which links they click on, which pages they visit, what search queries they use etc. It collects vital data regarding their interests, needs and other preferences which is then utilized for the advertisement campaign. Moreover, the gathered information may also include personal data relating to banking and other financial details. And hence, it can be a big hazard for your privacy too. And therefore, you must perform an instant BoostCoordinator removal from the work-station.

Summarize Information

Name: BoostCoordinator

Type: Mac virus, Adware, Potentially unwanted program

Short Description: Redirects Mac users to affiliated sites, promotes sponsored products, services and programs and make online revenues for the creators, Also steals users’ personal and confidential information and share them with hackers for evil purposes.

Symptoms: Tons of intrusive adverts, Changes to default browser’s settings, default Internet search engine, 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: Web browsing tracking (potential privacy issues), exhibition of unwanted ads, redirects to shady websites.

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

How Does This PUP Enter Your System?

Software bundling is the most common method through which these adware infections infiltrate the targeted computers. When you download a program from untrustworthy source or third-party downloaders and then install it using pre-selected option there is huge possibility that you will end up installing an unwanted program along with the main software.

Tips To Prevent Such Attacks:

To prevent this, it is necessary to choose reliable source or direct links to download an application and always select the Advanced/Custom option to install it. These settings provide you complete control over the incoming contents and allow you to opt-out all the components that look suspicious. In case your PC is already infected with this adware, you must remove BoostCoordinator from the Mac system without wasting any time.

Remove Files and Folders Related to BoostCoordinator

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