MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

https://thehacktimes.com/mackeeper-0-day-flaw-more-than-20-million-users-affected/

by cekanoni • 11 years ago

59 52 11 years ago

thehacktimes.com

amencarini• 11 years ago

Why am I not surprised that a software mainly famous because of its pop-up ads is not the most reliable thing ever?

philfrasty• 11 years ago

I have rarely seen someone advertise (any product) as aggressive as they do.

nindalf• 11 years ago

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

nsxwolf• 11 years ago

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.

threeseed• 11 years ago

20M MacKeeper users seems like an extraordinary number.

cekanoni5• 11 years ago

not to mention over 700k paid subscribers ..

bontoJR2• 11 years ago

I was wondering from where this number is coming from...

bluedino• 11 years ago

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.

supercoder• 11 years ago

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.

cekanoni5• 11 years ago

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 ...

Sephiroth87• 11 years ago

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

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

gchokov• 11 years ago

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

kubbing• 11 years ago

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

joosters• 11 years ago

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

cekanoni5• 11 years ago

ublock over adblock for safari ?

dec0dedab0de• 11 years ago

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

some1else• 11 years ago

"Consider cleaning your Mac from junk"

-- MacKeeper campaign, 2013

anonfunction3• 11 years ago

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

themartorana• 11 years ago

Proof of concept and solution, sounds like.

wil4212• 11 years ago

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.

thirdsun2• 11 years ago

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.

orf• 11 years ago

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

anonfunction3• 11 years ago

http://mackeeper.com/uninstall_mackeeper

seanalltogether• 11 years ago

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.

anonfunction3• 11 years ago

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

wil4212• 11 years ago

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

lpsz• 11 years ago

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=...

unfamiliar2• 11 years ago

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

heimatau• 11 years ago

@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."

ceejayoz2• 11 years ago

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

al2o3cr• 11 years ago

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.

koyote• 11 years ago

"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).

parandroid3• 11 years ago

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.

s_kilk• 11 years ago

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

parandroid3• 11 years ago

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

pidg• 11 years ago

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.

parandroid3• 11 years ago

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.

marcosdumay• 11 years ago

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.

mauz0r• 11 years ago

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 :)

mahouse• 11 years ago

The amount of things I miss by running ad blockers.

abebaap• 11 years ago

how to view the hidden friend list of any facebook user

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

technologia• 11 years ago

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.

sjwright• 11 years ago

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.)

aidos• 11 years ago

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.

unfamiliar2• 11 years ago

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

MacKeeper 0-day flaw more than 20M users affected

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