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Recently I responded to a suggestion that I "upgrade Flash" on my macOS system only do end up with several applications running, and intruding into my browser and desktop that I did not (mean to) install:

  • Mac Ads Cleaner
  • Mac App Cleaner
  • Porn Cleaner

I followed instructions I found online for removing these apps and believe they are gone (Bitdefender's virus and malware virus scan shows no remaining malicious software).

However, I wonder what they did while they were on my machine. What I could see is that they were very intrusive: launching themselves, setting themselves up to re-launch on start, resetting my browser's homepage to a spoof "safe" search engine — even popping up a window when they were installed by moving to the Trash. But I would like to know what else they did while installed *that I couldn't see.

What do these apps do? Have they done any lasting damage? Or are they only a nuisance while installed?


Note that this is not a duplicate of this question. Here the question is what these specific (and common and well known) apps did when installed. (For example, did they capture passwords, erase files, etc.?)

orome
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  • Possible duplicate of [Help! My home PC has been infected by a virus! What do I do now?](http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/138606/help-my-home-pc-has-been-infected-by-a-virus-what-do-i-do-now) – Anders Mar 07 '17 at 14:59
  • @Anders: Not a duplicate (did you read the question?): this is about what these specific apps did when installed. – orome Mar 07 '17 at 15:29

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