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Remove Quick Mac Booster virus from MacOS

Quick Mac Booster removal is the only reasonable way to treat this scareware app that infiltrates Macs surreptitiously and then displays fake scan results.

Threat Profile
Name Quick Mac Booster (Quick MacBooster, QuickMacBooster)
Category Mac malware, PUA
IP Address 154.27.69.8, 154.27.69.83
Related Domains quickmacbooster.com, easymaccare.com, dpswebsafe.com
Vulnerable Devices MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro (all Mac OS X)
Symptoms Generates fake issue detections, causes system slowdown, resists regular removal
Distribution Techniques Malware-riddled bundles, spam
Severity Level High
Damage Spoof scan results to manipulate victims into purchasing license, unwanted browser changes, search redirects
Removal Scan your Mac with Combo Cleaner to detect all files related to the malware. Use the tool to remove the infection if found.

Quick Mac Booster is a malicious app disguised as a system optimizer. Once inside a Mac, this scareware is constantly front and center with its annoying scan reports listing dozens or hundreds of performance and security issues that aren’t actually there. The pest is hardly ever knowingly installed, arriving with ostensibly harmless freeware bundles that don’t disclose their real structure to the would-be victims. The ultimate goal pursued by this sketchy program is to earn its operators profit through touting the licensed version incessantly. However, fixing imaginary system problems for a fee isn’t in any sane user’s interest, to put it mildly. The verdict is unambiguous: Quick Mac Booster should be uninstalled without a second thought. Not only is it worthless in terms of the features it claims to deliver, but it’s also hugely irksome and intrusive.

Quick Mac Booster fake scan in progress

This application is a replica of several notorious scareware programs from the same family, including Advanced Mac Cleaner and Easy Mac Care. By the way, the former has a very long track record, falling into the pool of rogue system utilities that pioneered the Mac threat landscape. That being said, Quick MacBooster is a newbie backed by the ambitions of big players in the cybercrime arena, so it’s within the realms of possibility that it will soon become one of the top nasties of its kind. Just like its better-known clones, it combines three sets of features in its sidebar, namely Cleaners, Utilities, and File Managers. Each category embraces several extra items supposedly intended to clean junk data, tidy up the Internet history, fine-tune the Mac’s startup, as well as identify large files and duplicates that take up a lot of disk space. These alleged functions are nothing but a marketing catch with no real capability behind it.

 

Quick Mac Booster leverages several methods to convince the victim into making wrong decisions. First off, its scan returns a high improvement potential for nearly every area it pretends to assess. Because the severity meters are mostly red and the number of issues next to them is mind-boggling, the user is more likely to panic and start looking for a fix. Another element of persuasion is that the application fetches the specifications of the machine it’s running on. These include the operating system version, the type of central processing unit (CPU), and the amount of memory (RAM) installed. The scareware showcases these details at the bottom of its user interface in an attempt to prove that it’s a genuine cleaner.

Bogus scan report by Quick Mac Booster

As if these nuisances weren’t enough, each scan by Quick Mac Booster is followed by an audio alert that says,

“Scan has completed. Warning! Issues have been detected that need your immediate attention. Click on ‘Clean Now’ to fix these issues.”

This trick is one more urgency component of the shady tactic encouraging the victim to take action. Furthermore, whenever the user tries to close the main window of this unwanted app, a follow-up “Before you exit” screen splashes. It reiterates the number of purportedly detected issues and emphasizes how important it is to address them by activating the licensed copy of the product. The phony app may also hijack the user’s preferred web browser and redirect it to search engine copycats or sites hosting deceptive virus detection alerts.

‘Before you exit’ popup

Following in the footsteps of its precursors and other mainstream rogue system utilities out there, Quick Mac Booster adheres to a distribution mechanism that pulls the user’s awareness out of the equation. In other words, it is making the rounds via specially-crafted software packages that appear to install one program but promote a few additional entities under the same hood. As a result, the user opts into the whole bundle while thinking that something absolutely benign is getting in. The adverse outcome of this uninformed decision is that the pseudo-cleaner automatically gets sufficient privileges to be launched at boot time. To maintain persistence further, it executes a process named “qmbstrhlpr”, creates a new LaunchAgent, and adds several folders to the Application Support directory. Quick Mac Booster removal is a matter of deleting all of these entries and remediating the affected web browser. The following sections will explain in detail how to do it.

Quick Mac Booster virus manual removal for Mac

The steps listed below will walk you through the removal of this malicious application. Be sure to follow the instructions in the specified order.

  1. Expand the Go menu in your Mac’s Finder bar and select Utilities as shown below.

    Go to Utilities

  2. Locate the Activity Monitor icon on the Utilities screen and double-click on it.

    Select the Activity Monitor

  3. In the Activity Monitor app, look for Quick Mac Booster, qmbstrhlpr or another process that appears suspicious. To narrow down your search, focus on unfamiliar resource-intensive entries on the list. Keep in mind that its name isn’t necessarily related to the way the threat is manifesting itself, so you’ll need to trust your own judgement. If you pinpoint the culprit, select it and click on the Stop icon in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

    Quit malicious process

  4. When a follow-up dialog pops up asking if you are sure you want to quit the troublemaking process, select the Force Quit option.

    Force quit malicious process

  5. Click on the Go menu icon in the Finder again and select Go to Folder. You can as well use the Command-Shift-G keyboard shortcut.

    Use the Go to Folder feature

  6. Type /Library/LaunchAgents in the folder search dialog and click on the Go button.

    Open /Library/LaunchAgents folder

  7. Examine the contents of the LaunchAgents folder for dubious-looking items. Be advised that the names of files spawned by malware may give no clear clues that they are malicious, so you should look for recently added entities that appear to deviate from the norm.

    As an illustration, here are several examples of LaunchAgents related to mainstream Mac infections: com.pcv.hlpramc.plist, com.updater.mcy.plist, com.avickUpd.plist, and com.msp.agent.plist. If you spot files that don’t belong on the list, go ahead and drag them to the Trash.

    Root-level LaunchAgents folder contents

  8. Use the Go to Folder lookup feature again to navigate to the folder named ~/Library/Application Support (note the tilde symbol prepended to the path).

    Open ~/Library/Application Support folder

  9. When the Application Support directory is opened, identify recently generated suspicious folders in it and send them to the Trash. A quick tip is to look for items whose names have nothing to do with Apple products or apps you knowingly installed. A few examples of known-malicious folder names are Quick Mac Booster and qmbstr.

    Application Support folder contents

  10. Enter ~/Library/LaunchAgents string (don’t forget to include the tilde character) in the Go to Folder search area.

    Open ~/Library/LaunchAgents directory

  11. The system will display LaunchAgents residing in the current user’s Home directory. Look for dodgy items related to [VIRUSNAME] virus (see logic highlighted in subsections above) and drag the suspects to the Trash.

    Contents of LaunchAgents folder in user’s home directory

  12. Type /Library/LaunchDaemons in the Go to Folder search field.

    Go to /Library/LaunchDaemons

  13. In the LaunchDaemons path, try to pinpoint the files the malware is using for persistence. Several examples of such items cropped by Mac infections are com.pplauncher.plist, com.startup.plist, and com.ExpertModuleSearchDaemon.plist. Delete the sketchy files immediately.

    LaunchDaemons folder contents

  14. Click on the Go menu icon in your Mac’s Finder and select Applications on the list.

    Go to Applications screen on Mac

  15. Find the entry for Quick Mac Booster and move it to the Trash. If this action requires your admin password for confirmation, go ahead and enter it.

    Drag malicious app to the Trash

  16. Expand the Apple menu and select System Preferences.

    Select System Preferences

    Open System Preferences

  17. Proceed to Users & Groups and click on the Login Items tab.

    Proceed to Users & Groups

    The system will display the list of items launched when the computer is starting up. Locate Quick Mac Booster or another potentially unwanted app there and click on the “-” (minus) button.

    Delete unwanted login item

  18. Now select Profiles under System Preferences. Look for a malicious item in the left-hand sidebar. Several examples of configuration profiles created by Mac adware include TechSignalSearch, MainSearchPlatform, AdminPrefs, and Chrome Settings. Select the offending entity and click on the minus sign at the bottom to eliminate it.

    Select Profiles under System Preferences

    Remove malicious configuration profile from Mac

    If your Mac has been infiltrated by adware, the infection will most likely continue to hold sway over your default web browser even after you remove the underlying application along with its components sprinkled around the system. Use the browser cleanup instructions below to address the remaining consequences of this attack.

Get rid of Quick Mac Booster virus in web browser on Mac

To begin with, the web browser settings taken over by the Quick Mac Booster virus should be restored to their default values. Although this will clear most of your customizations, web surfing history, and all temporary data stored by websites, the malicious interference should be terminated likewise. The overview of the steps for completing this procedure is as follows:

  1. Remove Quick Mac Booster virus from Safari
    • Open the browser and go to Safari menu. Select Preferences in the drop-down list.

      Go to Preferences in Safari

    • Once the Preferences screen appears, click on the Advanced tab and enable the option saying “Show Develop menu in menu bar”.

      Advanced tab under Safari Preferences

    • Now that the Develop entry has been added to the Safari menu, expand it and click on Empty Caches.

      Empty Caches in Safari

    • Now select History in the Safari menu and click on Clear History in the drop-down list.

      Clear history in Safari

    • Safari will display a dialog asking you to specify the period of time this action will apply to. Select all history to ensure a maximum effect. Click on the Clear History button to confirm and exit.

      Select all history to clear

    • Go back to the Safari Preferences and hit the Privacy tab at the top. Find the option that says Manage Website Data and click on it.

      Manage Website Data option under Privacy tab

    • The browser will display a follow-up screen listing the websites that have stored data about your Internet activities. This dialog additionally includes a brief description of what the removal does: you may be logged out of some services and encounter other changes of website behavior after the procedure. If you’re okay with that, go ahead and click on the Remove All button.

      Confirmation dialog

    • Restart Safari
  2. Remove Quick Mac Booster in Google Chrome
    • Open Chrome, click the Customize and control Google Chrome (⁝) icon in the top right-hand part of the window, and select Settings in the drop-down

      Chrome Settings

    • When on the Settings pane, select Advanced
    • Scroll down to the Reset settings section.

      Reset settings in Chrome on Mac

    • Confirm the Chrome reset on a dialog that will pop up. When the procedure is completed, relaunch the browser and check it for malware activity.

      Here’s how to reset settings in Chrome on Mac

  3. Remove Quick Mac Booster from Mozilla Firefox
    • Open Firefox and go to Help – Troubleshooting Information (or type about:support in the URL bar and press Enter).

      Open Firefox and go to Help

      Select Troubleshooting Information

    • When on the Troubleshooting Information screen, click on the Refresh Firefox button.

      Refresh Firefox on Mac

    • Confirm the intended changes and restart Firefox.

Get rid of Quick Mac Booster virus using Combo Cleaner removal tool

The Mac maintenance and security app called Combo Cleaner is a one-stop tool to detect and remove Quick Mac Booster virus. This technique has substantial benefits over manual cleanup, because the utility gets hourly virus definition updates and can accurately spot even the newest Mac infections.

Furthermore, the automatic solution will find the core files of the malware deep down the system structure, which might otherwise be a challenge to locate. Here’s a walkthrough to sort out the Quick Mac Booster issue using Combo Cleaner:

  1. Download Combo Cleaner installer. When done, double-click the combocleaner.dmg file and follow the prompts to install the tool onto your Mac.

    Download Combo Cleaner

    By downloading any applications recommended on this website you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. The free scanner checks whether your Mac is infected. To get rid of malware, you need to purchase the Premium version of Combo Cleaner.

  2. Open the app from your Launchpad and let it run an update of the malware signature database to make sure it can identify the latest threats.
  3. Click the Start Combo Scan button to check your Mac for malicious activity as well as performance issues.

    Combo Cleaner Mac scan progress

  4. Examine the scan results. If the report says “No Threats”, then you are on the right track with the manual cleaning and can safely proceed to tidy up the web browser that may continue to act up due to the after-effects of the malware attack (see instructions above).

    Combo Cleaner scan report – no threats found

  5. In case Combo Cleaner has detected malicious code, click the Remove Selected Items button and have the utility remove Quick Mac Booster threat along with any other viruses, PUPs (potentially unwanted programs), or junk files that don’t belong on your Mac.

    Combo Cleaner – threats found

  6. Once you have made doubly sure that the malicious app is uninstalled, the browser-level troubleshooting might still be on your to-do list. If your preferred browser is affected, resort to the previous section of this tutorial to revert to hassle-free web surfing.
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