Yahoo Redirect Virus Mac (Safari Hijacker)

George Herman
George Herman
IT Security Expert

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Some infections like this Yahoo Redirect virus can regenerate themselves. There is no better way to detect, remediate and prevent malware infection, than to use a professional anti-malware software like SpyHunter. One Application that is capable of solving all MAC problems.

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What Is Yahoo Redirect Mac Virus?

yahoo redirect virus

How to remove search.yahoo.com on Mac? Browser hijackers come in many forms. Most are easy to identify as they direct your browser to a third 3rd party search engine you’ve never heard of. The Yahoo Redirect virus is different. It redirects your browser’s homepage to Yahoo, a perfectly legitimate and well known search engine. Let’s find out everything you need to know about the Yahoo Redirect virus and how to remove it for good. The Yahoo Redirect virus is a new type of malware, it redirects your browser’s homepage to the Yahoo Search engine. The hijacked search engine may have been added manually by an unwitting user clicking some random link, or it may have installed itself on your system without you even noticing. What does the Yahoo Redirect virus do? The virus installs itself as a browser plugin onto your computer. Once activated, it modifies the settings of your browser and redirects your homepage to the Yahoo Search engine. Your homepage is now automatically redirected to search.yahoo.com every time you start your browser, even if you clear all cookies and temporary files at exit.

How Is Yahoo Redirect Mac Virus Distributed?

Your infection started with a software download or email attachment. The Yahoo Redirect virus may have arrived as part of a bundle, installer, or cracked application. Whatever the path of infection may have been, your browser is now infected by malicious code that modifies the settings of your homepage. Once the virus has already taken hold, it may have infected other parts of your system as well. Search.yahoo.com hijacks your home page, but it may have also installed a rootkit on your Mac’s system folder or a fake antivirus program that will alert you for malware infections not once but twice a day. It’s hard to know exactly how the virus ended up on your system. What you can do is determine what has already infected your Mac and take steps to clean it up.

How harmful is Yahoo Redirect hijacker? 

Yahoo Redirect virus hijack is not a harmful virus, but it will redirect your browser to Yahoo.com search engine which may open malicious link from there. It is generated from Search Protect v1.0 which is a part of Security Toolkit malware package that was bundled with many other popular Mac applications and on some cases installed itself without users knowledge or consent by exploiting security vulnerabilities in websites or web apps. The same Search Protect v1.0 application is also used to generate other well-known Mac malware as Dorkbot, Yontoo, and many others. The main purpose of this malicious applications is to generate revenue for their developers by automatically redirecting users to sponsored web pages and advertising websites. However, Web Search Protect may cause unwanted browser redirects, slow down your computer and internet connection, flood your desktop with annoying pop-up ads and fake warnings.

How did I get infected?

Most of the time, Yahoo Redirect virus infection starts with clicking on a suspicious link or an email attachment from a spam email, instant message, or an infected website. The infected files can come from any download source including torrent files. It can also be installed on your computer when you visit to some malicious websites and download files from their sites. This virus is distributed through bundled application installer that is bundling many popular Mac apps that are actively exploited to install malware on Mac computer. Such Mac apps include Security Toolkit, Open-Xchange, VLC Media Player, iSkysoft Keylogger, and many others. However, there are so many different ways for users to be infected with Search Protect and other virus on Mac OS X.

How can I remove Yahoo Redirect virus ?

Step 1: Uninstall Yahoo Redirect and remove related files and objects

  • Open your Finder –> Click on GO –>Click on Utilities

macos utilities

  • Find Activity Monitor and open it

activity monitor macos

  • Review all the processes in Activity Monitor and write down the ones related to Yahoo Redirect virus

Yahoo Redirect stop

  • Select Quit

Yahoo Redirect info

  • To kill the malicious process, choose the Force Quit option.

force quit Yahoo Redirect

Step 2: Remove Yahoo Redirect – related extensions from Safari / Chrome / Firefox

The first thing you need to do is to make sure Safari is not running. If you have troubles closing it, you may need to Force Quit Safari - (Start Activity Monitor by opening up Finder, then proceed to Application --> Utilities --> Activity monitor. Locate the Safari process and force quit it.

Safely launch Safari again by holding the Shift key and clicking on the Safari application icon - This will prevent Safari’s previously opened malicious web pages.

In case that you still are having trouble with scripts interrupting the closing of unwanted pages, please do the following:

  • Force Quit Safari again.
  • Disconnect form Internet and try again.

Then Re-Launch Safari but don’t forget to press and hold the Shift button to prevent pop-ups. Then, click on Preferences.

  • Carefully take a look at your default home page and change it if the hijacker altered it.

  • Then go to the Extensions tab and make sure there are no unknow extensions installed.

  • Next step is to click on Privacy tab

  • Manage website data

  • Here you can remove any unwanted website data or just remove them all. Please, keep in mind that after you do this all stored website data will be deleted. You will need to sign-in again for all websites that require any form of authentication.
  • The next step is to Clear History (if you want), select the tab.

  • Click the menu next to clear and choose a time period — if you want to completely reset Safari, choose all history.
  • Press Clear History
  • To remove from Chrome, open the browser and click the icon with the three dots located in the top-right.
  • Select to More Tools --> Extensions and review what Chrome Extensions are present in the browser
  • Remove the ones that you do not recognize.

bad toolbar

  • If the parasite continues to disrupt your browsing with Chrome, this is what else you can do:
    1. Click again the menu of Google Chrome, and open Settings.
    2. Select the Search Engine from the left panel, review the available search engines and change the default to your preference.default search engine
    3. Then, click on Manage Search Engines, review the list of search engine availabilities and if any of the listed items looks suspicious, click the three-dots next to them, and delete.suspicious search engine
    4. Click on Privacy and Security in the left panel, select the Clear browsing data option, check every box except the Passwords one, and click Clear Data.clear browsing data
    5. Next step is to clear Notifications, select the Site settings option in the Privacy and Security section, then locate Notifications.clear notifications
    6. Review the listed websites in the Allow to send notifications section and if any of the entries shown there seem dubious or related to the browser hijacker, select the three dots next to the object and click on Remove.
  • Start Mozilla Firefox
  • On the top right click the three dashes

  • go to add-ons and themes
  • The add-ons manager will open
  • Carefully review review four Firefox Extensions
  • If any unwanted extension is present, click on the three horizontal dots and then Remove

  • After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red dot in the top left and start it again.
To make sure Yahoo Redirect is removed from the browser  we recommend to scan with a reputable antimalware program like SpyHunter for Mac

Step 3: Scan for and remove Yahoo Redirect files from your Mac

Fix your browser settings with SpyHunter Anti-Malware

Once you download and install SpyHunter for Mac run a scan.

Once the scan is complete, your mac will be virus free.

Yahoo Redirect malware Frequently Asked Questions:

  • How do I get rid of Yahoo Redirect?

Yahoo Redirect is a Browser hijacker – malicious software that can be installed by third-party applications or websites. They usually change the settings of web browsers and search engines to display certain ads, pop-ups, banners, etc.

  • What are the symptoms of Yahoo Redirect infection in your Mac?

Yahoo Redirect becomes your web browser’s built-in search engine.

Your browser’ s search queries are redirected through Yahoo Redirect.com

The “Yahoo Redirect” browser extension or some shady software is installed on your Mac.

  • How do I remove Yahoo Redirect from my browser?

In Internet Explorer, click the gear icon on the top left and select Manage add-ons. Under Add-on Types, select Search Providers. Select your search engine from the list of providers and click Remove to remove it. In Google Chrome, go to Settings (at the top right) and choose Search in the On Startup drop down menu.

  • How do I uninstall Yahoo Redirect?
If you made a mistake when installing an app on your mac, the easiest way to uninstall it is by right clicking on its icon in your dock, then going to ‘move to trash’. Once it’s gone, restart your mac. If that didn’t work for you, try rebooting and looking for an icon opening up. Once you’ve found that, go to utilities/get info, then go to the ‘Applications’ tab and look for the app. Right-click it and select ‘Get Info’ and then look for the option to ‘Uninstall this Version’. If that doesn’t work, restart your mac again. If you don’t have any luck you can always use the SpyHunter free uninstall.

How to Make Your Mac Run Faster?

You might be wondering how to make your Mac run faster? It is a common misconception that the more processing power you have, the faster your computer will run. In reality, it’s actually about what’s going on in your processor and memory. For the average person using a computer for just general applications like word processing and web browsing, you don’t need much in the way of computing power.

– Use an SSD drive instead of a hard disk drive.

– Double your RAM if possible.

– Disable System Integrity Protection (SIP). (Attention! – do this only if you know the consequences.)

References:

  1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. MacOS malware
  3. SpyHunter Anti-Malware overview and also the reasons why we recommend it for malware elimination.

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