Browser hijackers are among the most common types of malware on both Mac and PC. They present themselves as a better way to surf the web or even ‘the perfect way to surf the web’ but in reality harvest your browsing data, redirect your browser, and display adverts for questionable products and services. SafeFinder is one such browser hijacker.
What is SafeFinder?
Just like real viruses, computer viruses also mutate. The creators behind SafeFinder may soon change certain details about this virus to evade detection. So technically, it doesn't matter if the virus is called 'Safefinder', 'EasySearch', or has any other fake name. What we deal with is the whole category of malware that overtakes your browser search.
![How How](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134215110/922205075.png)
Select Applications Right-lick on unwanted or suspicious apps that may be related with SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker Click Move to Trash Go to Dock Right-click on Trash icon and click Empty Trash. Step 4: When a pop-up dialog box will appear on your Mac screen, then click on “Force Quit” option. Method 2: Remove Safe Finder from “Applications” folder. Step 1: Go to “Applications” folder on your Mac machine. Step 2: Find the Safe Finder and any malicious program, then move it to “Trash”. SafeFinder virus. The SafeFinder virus (also found as Safe Finder virus, or SafeFinder by Linkuri Ltd; though not technically a computer virus) is a potentially unwanted program or malware found in the adware, browser hijacker, and spyware categories that is used to ‘infect’ a Windows computer and attach to Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer without direct user. If SafeFinder gets into your Mac, you will notice changes once you open your preferred browser – the homepage will be changed to a web address that has a word “safefinder.” As any browser hijacker, this adware is downloaded on your Mac along with free apps or tools.
Name | SafeFinder search redirect |
Category | macOS browser hijacker, adware redirect |
Also known as | SafeFinder for Mac, SafeFinder.biz |
Symptoms | Overrides the default search engine, displays ads |
Infection method | Flash Player updater, pirated apps |
System damage | Installs malicious profiles, hijacks Safari preferences |
Removal | CleanMyMac X anti-virus, Malwarebytes |
The SafeFinder virus is a category of malware known as a ‘potentially unwanted program’ or PUP for short. PUPs can take many forms but the one thing they have in common is that they are usually downloaded inadvertently because they are bundled with apparently legitimate software.
In SafeFinder’s case, once downloaded and installed, it hijacks your web browser, in much the same way as Chumsearch and Any Search. When you launch your web browser after SafeFinder has installed itself, your homepage will have changed to search.safefinderformac.com, search.macsafefinder.com, or search.safefinder.com. When you type a search query into the box, the search is eventually redirected to Yahoo, but in the meantime SafeFinder may have gathered information from your browser and forwarded it to a central server. It may also display adverts and slow down your browser. So how to get rid of SafeFinder? First, we’ll perform some diagnostics.
How to tell if SafeFinder has infected your Mac
The most noticeable change will be what you see as soon as you launch a web browser, its homepage has been changed to a web address that includes the term ‘safefinder’.
The most common way that browser hijackers are downloaded is by bundling with other apps or tools. In SafeFinder’s case, it appears like it is bundled in media apps named NicePlayer or MPlayerX. The latter used to be one of the best media players on the Mac for playing files directly from a high-definition digital video camera and is still in the Mac App Store. However, it hasn’t been updated in several years and it appears that hackers now use it to bundle malware. So you shouldn’t download it from anywhere other than the Mac App Store.
The last few versions of macOS have a tool called GateKeeper which allows you to only download apps from either the Mac App Store alone, or the Mac App Store and developers whom Apple trusts. However, it is possible to override GateKeeper on a case-by-case basis, and if you’re running an older version of macOS, you won’t be protected at all.
How to remove SafeFinder from your Mac
Step 1: Remove SafeFinder from your Applications folder
- Go to your Applications folder and look for any apps that you don’t recognize or that look suspicious. In particular, look out for apps with SafeFinder in their name, as well as NicePlayer, and if you haven’t downloaded it from the Mac App Store, MPlayerX.
- If you find any apps in step 1, drag them to the Trash and empty it.
- Launch System Preferences from the Apple menu.
- Look in the bottom row for a pane called Profiles. If it’s there, click on it.
- Click on the profile called ‘AdminPrefs’ and press the ‘-‘ at the bottom of the window to remove it.
Step 2: Check your Login Items
Some PUPs add themselves to your Login Items so that they launch at startup. Although you’ve now removed SafeFinder, for completeness you should also remove its Login Item.
- Go to System Preferences and choose Users & Groups.
- Click on your username and then the padlock, and type in your password.
- Choose the Login Items tab, check the box next to the SafeFinder Login Item and then press ‘-‘
Step 3: How to remove SafeFinder your browsers
What we'll do is reset the homepage to its default state.
Remove SafeFinder from Safari
- Launch Safari, click on the Safari menu and choose Preferences.
- Select the General tab and next to ‘Homepage’ type the URL of the site you want to use as your homepage.
- Select the Search tab, and choose the search engine you want to set as the default.
Also, you need to remove Safari preferences. This is a special log book that's located in Library on your Mac. Don't worry, if you delete the infected Preference file, it will be auto-created without virus entries in it.
Click on the Finder and choose Go in the top menu.
Choose Go to Folder..
Paste in:
Click on the Finder and choose Go in the top menu.
Choose Go to Folder..
Paste in:
Delete the file — if it's there. Restart your Safari browser.
Step 4: Remove SafeFinder from Chrome
- Launch Chrome.
- Choose the Settings icon in the left of the window (it looks like three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other), or type “chrome://settings” into the address bar.
- Select “on startup” and check the button next to Open a specific page or set of pages.”
- Press the “More” button (three dots, one above the other).
- Choose “edit” and type or paste the address of the homepage you want to use into the text box.
- Click Save.
- Choose Settings again and select “search engine.”
- Click on “manage search engines” and press the “more” button next to SafeFinder and choose “remove from list.”
- Select the dropdown menu next to “Search engine used in address bar” and choose the search engine you want to use.
How to remove SafeFinder in a click
If all that seems like a long process, there is another options. CleanMyMac X has a malware removal tool that can remove SafeFinder at the click of a couple of buttons. It works like this:
- Download the free version of CleanMyMac X (Apple-notarized edition).
- Choose Malware Removal and press Scan.
- When it finds SafeFinder, press Remove.
And that’s it, gone. The malware removal tool uses a regularly-updated database to check whether what it finds on your Mac is malware. If it finds it, you can remove it quickly and easily. If it finds nothing, it will give your Mac a clean bill of health and you can relax.
Other ideas to try
- Uninstall your browsers and download them again.
- Create a new user profile on your Mac.
- Roll back your Mac to the past state using Time Machine.
SafeFinder is a browser hijacker that takes the form of a PUP. It’s most often bundled with seemingly legitimate software and installed without the user even noticing. The only sign that you have the SafeFinder virus is that the homepage of your web browser will redirect to a SafeFinder search page. Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to remove it, though if you use several different browsers, you’ll have to remove it from each one. The easiest way to remove it, however, is to use the malware utility in CleanMyMac X which will identify it and allow you to remove it quickly.
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When you open a new page, another new tab will open SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker website at the same time? If you are experiencing such situation, we can conclude that your system has installed some adware-type free software which act as an advertising tool for third party sites. Such a kind of computer infection is not only annoying, but also may be harmful to your entire computer. Our team has worked out a solution for removing SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker pop-up and related malware, read the post below to get rid of it all infections now:
Research on SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker
SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker is an questionable website recently has become headache for more and more computer users. According to our researcher, SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker fits all the properties of web browser hijacker, which is used to redirect computer users to affiliated websites. Once being infected, you will have terrible experience while surfing the Internet due to endless random popups from SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker. Even if your browsers are equipped with tools such as Adblocker, you will still hardly avoid the redirection caused by the adware.
SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker is just used to drive web-traffic to its partners, so as to benefit both the site owner and related merchants. Due to popups from SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker, your Internet bandwidth will be overly used, resulting in slow Internet speed and random browser crashing. Besides, the random commercial ads sent by SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker should not be trusted. As we know, almost all the adware and hijacker are associated with unknown third parties, which want to sell products to visitors or collect their private information. It is hard to verify if these ads are from legitimate companies, some of them may be run by scammers. Therefore, it’s best not to click random ads generated by SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker. Instead, you should take action to get rid of all related malware as quickly as possible.
The longer the SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker adware stays on your computer, the more risks you may sustain. When a infection such as adware come into your system, it usually brings many unwanted threats at the same time. For instance, Spyware may be downloaded by SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker adware and then your sensitive information will be collected and used by cyber criminal. Take action to remove it right now.
How to Manually Remove SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker From Mac OSX? (Steps)
Step 1 Uninstall SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker related apps or potentially unwanted apps from Mac OSX
- In Finder window, clicking “Applications” in the sidebar
- In the applications folder, right-click on SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker related apps or other suspicious apps and click Move to Trash.
More information about Combo Cleaner, steps to uninstall, EULA, and Privacy Policy. |
Step 2 – Remove malicious files generated by SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker or related malware from your Mac
1. Click the Finder icon from the menu bar >> choose “Go” then click on “Go to Folder“:
2. In the Go to Folder… bar, type the name of the following four folders to open them one by one:
Reset default apps mac. ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/Application Support
/Library/LaunchDaemons Soundcast app for mac.
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/Application Support
/Library/LaunchDaemons Soundcast app for mac.
3. In each folder, search for any recently-added suspicious files and move them to the Trash. Here are some examples of files generated by malware:
“installmac.AppRemoval.plist”, SafeFinder Mac Search Hijacker”, “com.genieo.completer.download.plist” “com.genieoinnovation.macextension.plist” “com.genieo.engine.plist” “com.adobe.fpsaud.plist” , “myppes.download.plist”, “mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist”,
More information about Combo Cleaner, steps to uninstall, EULA, and Privacy Policy. |
Step 3 – Find and remove malicious extensions and browser hijacker from Safari and Chrome.
Safefinder Apps On Mac Os
Safari
On Safari
1. Start Safari: Select Safari menu and click Preferences:
2. Select Extensions tab>> Look for the unsafe or suspicious extensions and click Uninstall:
3. Select Search tab >> click the Search Engine menu and make your choice. Safari lets you use Google, Yahoo, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.
4. Select the General tab >> In the Homepage bar, type the URL you want to set as the Safari homepage.
Google Chrome
On Google Chrome
1. Open Google Chrome and click the “Customize and control Google Chrome” icon at the top right corner >> Select More Tools and click Extensions;
2. Search for suspicious extensions and click trash icon to remove it:
3. Reset default search engine on Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome and click the “Customize and control Google Chrome” icon >> Select Settings
- Scroll down until you locate the Search engine section
- Click the drop-down menu accompanying the option labeled Search engine used in the address bar
- Select Google, Bing or Yahoo! as your default search engine.
Uninstall Safefinder Linkury
4. Reset homepage on Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome and click the “Customize and control Google Chrome” icon >> Select Settings;
- In the “On Startup” section, click the “Set pages” link near to the “Open a specific page or set of pages” option.
- Remove the URL of the browser hijacker (for example SearchMine.net) and enter your preferred URL (for example, google.com).
More information about Combo Cleaner, steps to uninstall, EULA, and Privacy Policy. |
Step 4 – Re-check your Mac with Combo Clean Antivirus.
To be sure that your Mac is not infected at all, it’s recommended to run a full scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus.
Combo Cleaner Antivirus is a professional Mac Antivirus and Mac OSX Optimization Tool for users. It is equipped with powerful detection engine against virus, malware, and adware. Thus it is able to protect your machine from the latest out-breaking threats and infections. Moreover, its Disk Cleaner can detect and clean up all junks and always keep your Mac’s performance at the peak.
How to quit an app in terminal macos. More information about Combo Cleaner, steps to uninstall, EULA, and Privacy Policy.
Once Combo Cleaner is installed, run a scan to diagnose your Mac and solve all problems: