Friday, January 10, 2020

How to remove Searchmine.net infection on your Mac!


SearchMine.net is a browser hijacker that will change the homepage and default search engine for your web browser to https://searchmine.net. This browser redirect happens because a malicious browser extension or program is installed on your computer.
When installed on a computer, the SearchMine.net browser hijacker will change the browser homepage to https://searchmine.net. This browser hijacker will also redirect your browser search queries to https://searchmine.net, which will redirect to search result pages from Yahoo Search. This is most likely done to generate advertising revenue by using Yahoo Search for its search results.
The SearchMine browser hijacker will also track your searches and display advertisements on https://searchmine.net.
When the SearchMine.net browser hijacker is installed on a computer, common symptoms include:
  • The web browser’s default homepage is SearchMine.net
  • The browser default search engine is changed to SearchMine.net
  • The browser’s search queries are redirected through https://searchmine.net
  • A malicious browser extension and/or program is installed on your computer

How Searchmine.net infected your Mac

Searchmine.net comes bundled with freeware application and fake Adobe Flash updates. It is offered as a free search add-on during the installation of video players, downloaders, media converters. Hijacker targets Mac computers, however, it is possible that SearchMine can infect Windows PC. Download tools below to protect your machine from threats like this or remove existing infections with malware.


Step 1: Remove The Searchmine app for your OS (Mac)


In this first step, we will try to identify and remove any malicious app that might be installed on your device.

This browser hijacker may also create a new group policy for your device, so before we proceed with the other steps we need to remove these unwanted changes.

1. Goto System Preferences.
2. Click Profiles.
3. In the list AdminPrefs click the - at the bottom of the control panel.
4. In some cases they can be named differently so remove all visible profiles.




Remove Searchmine.net from Applications

Remove Searchmine.net from Mac:

  1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
  2. SearchMine might have an Uninstaller. If you see Uninstall SearchMine or SearchMine Uninstaller, double-click it and follow the onscreen instructions.
  3. Otherwise, drag SearchMine or SearchMine.app from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
  4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Cannot uninstall Searchmine.net

If you can’t uninstall Searchmine.net using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Searchmine.net. Follow instructions below:
  1. Download free AppCleaner.
  2. Drag SearchMine from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
  3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with SearchMine.
  4. Click Delete button.

Remove Searchmine.net add-on from your browsers

Removing SearchMine from Applications often does not bring the desired effect. It is browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove SearchMine extension from your browsers manually.

Safari:

  1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
  2. Click Extensions tab.
  3. Find SearchMine extension.
  4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Google Chrome:

  1. Start Google Chrome browser
  2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions/.
  3. Find SearchMine extension.
  4. Click the trash can icon to remove it.

Mozilla Firefox:

  1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
  2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
  3. Choose SearchMine extension.
  4. Click Disable or Remove button.

Reset browser settings

To finish Searchmine.net removal reset your browser settings to make sure, there are no leftover items in browser folders.

Reset Safari:

  1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
  2. Go to the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.
  3. Click Remove All Website Data button.
  4. In opened window click Remove Now button to remove data stored by websites in Safari.
  5. Go to the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences.
  6. Click the Show Develop menu in menu bar option.
  7. In the menu click Develop and select Empty Caches from this menu.
  8. Again, go to Safari menu and choose Clear History….
  9. Choose to clear all history and click Clear History button.

Reset Google Chrome:

  1. Start Google Chrome browser
  2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings/.
  3. Scroll down and find Show advanced settings link.
  4. Click on it and scroll down to the bottom again.
  5. Click Reset settings button and click Reset to confirm.

Reset Mozilla Firefox:

  1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
  2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:support.
  3. Click Refresh Firefox… button.
  4. Click Refresh Firefox to confirm.

Remove following files and folders of Searchmine.net


~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.SearchMine.plist
~/Library/Safari/Extensions/SearchMine.safariextz


Other things you may need to do.


 Download malwarebytes for Mac MALWAREBYTES FOR MAC DOWNLOAD LINK

ALSO

1. Open the Terminal app (Go > Utilities > Terminal)
2. Enter these commands below one at a time.

  • defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageIsNewTabPage -bool false
  • defaults write com.google.Chrome NewTabPageLocation -string "https://www.google.com/"
  • defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageLocation -string "https://www.google.com/"
  • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL
  • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderNewTabURL
  • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderName

ALSO

  1. Download the Chrome Policy Remover for Mac.
  2. Close all open Chrome windows.
  3. Unzip the file you just downloaded.
  4. Double click on "chrome-Policy-Remove-for-Mac".
Now restart Chrome and the issue should be resolved. If not, you may need to reboot your Mac.


I spent a few hours dealing with this issue for a customer and wanted to make notes for next time.

Many sites want me to download some software that I have never heard of and I don't want anyone to download fake software and install more virus's or malware.

Used these places for my notes.


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