How To Remove Weknow.ac Malware (macOS)

Remove Weknow.ac Malware (macOS): A malware to a system is always a threat to it. It can affect all your files on the system, as a result, you will lose all your data. It’s very important to remove such malware from your system. weknow.ac Malware is a malware found in macOS generally which can target your search engine.

When you will be having weknow.ac malware your default search engine will change to the fake search engine of weknow.ac, as a result, you will end up giving all your record data to this malware.

In this blog, we will be taking this malware seriously. We will be also talking about how to erase this malware from your system.

Where has this malware come from?

Remove Weknow.ac Malware (macOS): We have come to know about this malware that it is being downloaded from a fake adobe flash player popup. In the popup, it will be showing that you need to download adobe flash player but it’s not actually adobe flash player.

Please keep an eye on the popup because actually, it’s a fake popup which is showing as adobe flash player. Popup will look somehow like the above one.

Follow the steps to remove this malware

1-  If you see any on the below-given name while setup first and foremost removes them.

MacSaver, MacVX, MacVaX, MacCaptain, MacPriceCut, SaveOnMac, Mac Global Deals or MacDeals, MacSter, MacXcoupon, Shop Brain, SShoP Brain, PalMall, MacShop, MacSmart, News Ticker Remover, Shopper Helper Pro, Photo Zoom, Best YouTube Downloader, ArcadeYum, Extended protection, Video download helper, FlashFree, GoldenBoy, Genieo, Inkeeper, InstallMac, CleanYourMac, MacKeeper, SoftwareUpdater).

Now follow the below given steps.

1. On your Mac, open System Preferences (click the System Preferences icon in the dock)
2. Click Profiles
3. Select AdminPrefs
4. Delete this profile (AdminPrefs) by pressing the minus icon.
5. Now delete search engine settings:
   1. Chrome: chrome://settings/searchEngines
   2. Safari: Safari > Preferences > Search

Remove all the weknow addon if there is any by following the below steps.

1. safari: Safari > Preferences > Extensions > Locate the weknow.ac extension and remove it
2. Google Chrome: Go to chrome://extensions/ and find the weknow.ac addon and remove it.
3. Firefox: Go to about: addons and remove the addon.

Delete the weknow related files

1. Go > Go to Folder (or press Shift + Cmd + G)
2. Enter /Library/LaunchAgents and click Go
3. Look for suspicious files such as “installmac.AppRemoval.plist”, “myppes.download.plist”, “mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist”, “kuklorest.update.plist”. Some other names you should look for Genieo, Inkeeper, InstallMac, CleanYourMac, MacKeeper, SoftwareUpdater, MplayerX, NicePlayer, installmac.AppRemoval.plist”, “myppes.download.plist”, “mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist”, “kuklorest.update.plist, com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist”, “com.myppes.net-preferences.plist”, “com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist”, “com.avickUpd.plist”. If you see any of them, drag them to the Trash folder and then empty Trash.
4. And now repeat the same process on the following folders:
   1. /Library/Application Support
   2. /Library/LaunchDaemons

If you are using chrome engine then follow these steps to change the policy.

1. Open the Terminal app (Go > Utilities > Terminal or press Command+Space and search Terminal)
2. Enter the commands below, hit Enter after each
3. default write com.google.Chrome HomepageIsNewTabPage -bool false
4. defaults write com.google.Chrome NewTabPageLocation -string “https://www.google.com/”
5. defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageLocation -string “https://www.google.com/”
6. defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL
7. defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderNewTabURL
8. defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderName
9. Restart Chrome

Phew! that was all related to weknow malware. We will try to update the post with more faster and reliable method to remove this malware. Keeps following us to know more about such hacks.