Solved Cannot remove SearchMine.net from Mac. I have tried everything

Infected operating system
Mac OS Mojave 10.14.5
Infected device issues
SearchMine.net is appearing as my default browser page. I have tried multiple suggestions on removing this malware and it has not worked.
Browsers affected by infection
  1. Safari
Browser Settings: Homepage and Default Search Engine
Browser extensions
I am showing no browser extensions

NicoleAntoun

New Member
Thread author
Jul 22, 2019
1
I have done all the suggestions so far, including installing MalwareBytes and running a scan. The scan allowed me to remove an adulterated version of Adobe Flash player (which is what caused the problem) but when I restarted my computer my browser (Safari) is STILL opening up onto the SearchMine.net "search" page instead of Google. I even tried to delete Safari and reinstall but Mac won't let me do that.

I've been at this for two hours and I'm ready to pull my hair out. HELP.
 

Jack

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 24, 2011
9,377
Hello @NicoleAntoun ,

What are the Safari settings for the homepage and search engine?
To do this, go to Safari > Preferences, then click General. Check the Homepage and Search engine settings.

Also can you please check if there's an AdminPrefs file on the device. If it's there, you should remove it.
  1. Go to System Preferences.
  2. Click Profiles.
  3. The list will include an item “AdminPrefs“. Select this and click the remove “” button in the lower left corner.
 

rborel

New Member
Aug 8, 2019
2
Check your crontab for the user. I found 2 entries on my daughters mac. One was set to re-add every 5min and the second was @reboot. Was a bear to find. There were no extensions added for Chrome/Safari or Firefox. Deleted the 2 entries, uninstalled/re-installed Chrome using appcleaner and did a reboot. Seems to be all clean now.
 
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Mesror

New Member
Sep 17, 2019
1
Check your crontab for the user. I found 2 entries on my daughters mac. One was set to re-add every 5min and the second was @reboot. Was a bear to find. There were no extensions added for Chrome/Safari or Firefox. Deleted the 2 entries, uninstalled/re-installed Chrome using appcleaner and did a reboot. Seems to be all clean now.
What is a crontab and how do you find it?
 
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Jack

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 24, 2011
9,377
Hello,
Can you copy chrome://policy into the URL bar and click Enter, then check if there are policies loaded in Chrome.
 
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