How to Find and Remove Silver Sparrow Malware on Your Mac

    0
    769
    Apple T2 Security Chip Macs

    Last month, security researchers at Red Canary discovered a new piece of malware, which they later named Silver Sparrow, which has infected around 30,000 Macs, including both the Intel-powered Macs and ARM-powered Macs. However, folks over at Red Canary are still uncertain about its potential and what kind of threat it poses to your macOS system. Still, according to them, it could be a ‘reasonably serious threat.’ 

    But, what in case if your Mac is one of those 30,000 infected Macs or if you’re concerned that you might have been infected. Well, you will be on a safer side if you haven’t downloaded or installed something like “update.pkg” or “updater.pkg,” from a not so legitimate website, prompting you to download the said file to get rid of all the viruses in your system, well the thing is that the aforementioned files could be the ‘Silver Sparrow’ malware you were running away from.

    How You Can Find and Remove Silver Sparrow Malware on Your Mac Manually

    Thanks to the several security researchers working on saving our systems from the different threats, there’s a way to remove the Silver Sparrow manually. You need to follow the steps mentioned below.

    • Use Finder to inspect a series of folders and check whether they’re present on your system. If they are, you need to remove those items and then empty macOS’ ‘Trash’ folder. 
    • Open the ‘Applications‘ folder and search for apps named ‘Updater.app‘ or ‘Tasker.app.’ If they are present, then make sure to remove them.
    • Now, navigate to ‘~/Library/._insu.’ then remove the ‘insu’ from the Library folder. 
    • Check whether there’s a file named ‘agent.sh,’ in the Folder by typing ‘/tmp/‘ in ‘Go To Folder.’
    • Also, remove the file ‘version.json.’
    • And lastly, remove the ‘version.plist.’
    • Just don’t forget to remove these from your ‘Trash’ folder, and you’re safe from the Silver Sparrow.

    Here’s How You Can Find and Remove Silver Sparrow Malware on Your Mac Using CleanMyMacX

    There’s no need to worry since you can easily remove the Silver Sparrow malware even before it actually starts taking a toll on your Mac. Follow the steps below to clean up your infected Mac.

    • First you need to download MacPaw’s CleanMyMacX.
    • Now install and launch the CleanMyMacX
    Cleanmymac Silver Sparrow Removal
    • Go to the Malware Removal section and press “Scan.”
    • You’ll be prompted to install CleanMyMac’s Helper Tool, so install it to continue with the procedure
    • Now there are two scenarios, if you’re using the full version of CleanMyMac X, then press the “Remove” button to clean all detected threats from your Mac, and if you’re using the free version, then continue to the further steps.
    • Press the “Review Details” if you’re using the free version of CleanMyMacX.
    • Now make sure it shows the threat that you want to remove, and then press “Remove manually.”
    • After that, press “Remove” and then press “Remove Permanently.”
    • Congratulations, now your Mac is free of all the threats, including Silver Sparrow malware.

    To be on the safer side, keep a tab on what you’re downloading since this malware comes via software packages downloaded from the internet that was not intended.

    One thing to note is that the upcoming Macs will not be getting infected with the Silver Sparrow malware as Apple has started retracted the developer accounts’ certificates that were used to sign the packages, which eliminates the threat to some extent.

    If you have any more doubts, on the Silver Sparrow, then, let us know in the comments below.

    Leave a Reply