How to Remove Coloring Hero PUP from Mac

George Herman
George Herman
IT Security Expert

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What is Coloring Hero

Coloring Hero is a suspicious program which can badly affect your OS. It is promoted as a useful app that gives you a variety of coloring templates. Even if it might seem like a legitimate application, you should know that malware researchers categorize Coloring Hero as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP). Thanks to this PUP, every site you visit will be covered with various intrusive advertisements, fake alerts, shady update messages, etc. that may redirect to infected sources aiming to infect your Mac with viruses.

How it is distributed

The program has an official website, which is one of its distribution methods. But most commonly, the app appears as additional software in bundles. Users are usually unaware of its existence, since they rarely pay attention to the installation setup. That’s a big mistake. Always be on the lookout for hidden bonus content, since that’s how parasites are able to infect victims’ devices. If you find any unfamiliar optional installations, make sure to opt out of them, so they don’t get automatically installed with the program you actually want.

How it operates

The Coloring Hero PUP is compatible with all macOS versions. As soon as it gains access to your device, this malicious software will start producing a great amount of unreliable ads, fake update messages and alerts, as well as anything to gain your attention like exclusive deals, personalized coupons or one-time-only offers. This sponsored content is known to have a certain label, aiming to make them appear legitimate. Such labels may be ‘Ads by Coloring Hero’, ‘Powered by Coloring Hero’, ‘Brought to you by Coloring Hero’, etc. To better customize such advertisements and make them more attractive to you, the parasite will use your web information like browsing history and searches. The goal here is to generate revenue via the pay-per-click scheme. And it is very easy for cyber criminals to benefit from it, since users are known to not pay close attention and click on things without giving it much thought if they can get redirected to infected sources. The Coloring Hero PUP poses a threat to your personal data, since it may be able to obtain things like passwords, bank account details, credit card numbers and other information you may keep stored on your browser. The only way to make sure your privacy is secure, is by removing this PUP as soon as you detect its presence on your Mac. Common symptoms of its existence can also be slow internet connection and frequent browser crashes, due to heavy ad attacks.

Staying safe from Coloring Hero PUP

Apart from having a reliable AV software installed on your Mac, there are other things you can do to ensure your device’s safety. We highly recommend you to:

  • Pay close attention when you install third-party software, especially torrent files, so you don’t install shady additional applications that you don’t want. In most cases, that’s how malicious parasites are able to infect your computer;
  • Read any Terms and Conditions you see, so you know exactly what you agree to. The last thing you want is to unknowingly give permission to a nasty virus to infiltrate your Mac;
  • Follow links that lead to trustworthy sites only;
  • It is best to visit only reliable and official websites. You never know what dangers might lurk behind an unfamiliar site;
  • No matter how attractive an ad is, if you are not familiar with the website it redirects to, it might be best to steer clear of it and not click;
  • Always check the sender’s email address before opening a message. If it states that it’s from an official company, compare the email with the one given in their official page. If there is no match, delete the message, since it most likely is fake and has malicious aims;
  • Don’t open email attachments from unknown senders. More often than not, such files carry infections that can seriously damage your computer.

How to manually remove Coloring Hero PUP from Mac

If you’ve had the misfortune of getting your Mac infected with the Coloring Hero PUP, the instructions below can help you to remove it manually. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Utilities. You can do that by using the ⇧+⌘+U key combination, or by going to Finder and choosing Utilities from the Go main menu at the top.

2. Find Activity Monitor and double-click it.

3. A list will be displayed. Find any processes that seem suspicious to you and use the ‘Force Quit‘ option to quit them completely.

4. Open Finder. Click on the Go button from the main menu at the top, and choose Applications. An alternative way is to use the ⇧+⌘+A key combination.

5. Look for any suspicious applications, especially ones with a name similar to Coloring Hero. If any are found, right-click on them and select the ‘Move to Trash‘ option.

6. Remove any related left-over files by going to Finder‘s search bar and typing the name of the app you want to remove. Make sure to modify the two drop down menus above to ‘System Files‘ and ‘Are Included‘, so that any hidden files are visible for you to remove. Once you find the files you want to remove, simply drag them to Trash.

7. All that’s left for you to do is remove any related extensions to Coloring Hero from your Mac browsers.

For Mozilla Firefox extensions:

  • Open the Firefox browser and from the ‘burger’ menu in the top right corner of the window select ‘Add-ons’.
  • Select any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and click ‘Remove’.

For Google Chrome extensions:

  • Open the Chrome browser and select Tools > Extensions from the menu (the three dots in the top right corner of the browser window).
  • Locate any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and remove them.

For Safari extensions:

  • Open the Safari browser. From the Safari menu choose Preferences. Select Extensions from the options at the top.
  • Find any extensions you think are related to the virus, select them and click ‘Uninstall’. A new window will show up asking for confirmation. Click Uninstall again, for the extension to get deleted permanently from your browser.

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