How to uninstall PathNetwork app/extension from Mac (Virus removal guide)

What is PathNetwork

PathNetwork is a malicious application that falls under the category of Adware. Many users consider adware, PUPs, keyloggers, trojans as the same thing. They are all types of malicious programs that each behave differently. The word ‘adware’ is a combination of two words ‘ad’ and ‘software’. Adware displays unwanted advertisements on the infected MAC computers. Not very dangerous for users, but very profitable for the the adware makers.

The worst is, the PathNetwork adware has the ability to collect a wide variety of user information to get profit. It can analyze your browsing, and gain access to your personal info and, subsequently, can sell it to third party companies. Thus, there are more than enough reasons to remove adware software from your Mac.

If the Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome have been hijacked by the adware software, you must have complete the steps below. Once you’ve removed PathNetwork from your Apple Mac, make sure not to commit the same mistakes again in the future.

How does PathNetwork get on your MAC

Most of unwanted advertisements and pop ups come from web-browser toolbars and/or extensions, BHOs (browser helper objects) and optional apps. In most cases, these items claim itself as software that improve your experience on the World Wide Web by providing a fast and interactive start page or a search provider that does not track you. Remember, how to avoid the unwanted apps. Be cautious, start only reputable apps which download from reputable sources. NEVER install any unknown and dubious apps.

Threat Summary

Name	PathNetwork, PathNetwork 1.0 app
Type	adware software, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Adware/Adload!OSX, OSX.Trojan.Gen, ApplicUnwnt, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A and Osx.Adware.Cimpli
Distribution	Free software installers, suspicious popup advertisements, torrent downloads and fake software updaters
Symptoms	Every time you perform an Internet search, your browser is redirected to another web-site, you experience a huge number of of unwanted pop-up windows, unwanted application installed without your say-so, new icons on your desktop, your web browser search provider has modified without your permission, slow browsing Internet.
Removal	PathNetwork removal guide

How to remove PathNetwork adware

There are several steps to deleting the PathNetwork adware, because it installs itself so deeply into the computer. You need to uninstall all suspicious and unknown software, then get rid of harmful addons from the Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari and other browsers you’ve installed. Finally, you need to reset your web browser settings to remove any changes the adware has made, and then check your Apple Mac with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware to ensure the adware software is fully removed. It will take a while.

To remove PathNetwork, complete the steps below:

1. Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
2. Remove PathNetwork related software through the Finder
3. Remove PathNetwork related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove PathNetwork from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

PathNetwork can make changes to the Mac system such as malicious changes to browser settings, and the addition of malicious system profiles. You need to check the system preferences, find and remove malicious profiles and ensure your settings are as you expect.

Click Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, select Profiles. if there is no Profiles in the list of preferences, that means there are no profiles installed on the Mac. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile associated with PathNetwork.

To delete a malicious profile, click on the minus button ( – ) located at the bottom-left of the Profiles screen.

Remove PathNetwork related software through the Finder

Try to identify and remove the program that causes the appearance of annoying advertisements or browser redirect, using the Applications list which is located in the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Carefully browse through the list of installed apps and remove all dubious and unknown programs.

Once you have found anything questionable that may be the PathNetwork or other potentially unwanted program, then right click this program and choose “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.

Remove PathNetwork related files and folders

Now you need to try to find PathNetwork related files and folders, and then delete them manually. You need to look for these files in certain directories. To quickly open them, we recommend using the “Go to Folder…” command.

PathNetwork creates several files, these files must be found and removed. Below is a list of files associated with this unwanted application.

• /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.PathNetwork.system.plist
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.PathNetwork.service.plist
• /Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/System/com.PathNetwork.system
• ~/Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/Services/com.PathNetwork.service.app

Some files created by PathNetwork are hidden from the user. To find and delete them, you need to enable “show hidden files”. To do this, use the shortcut CMD + SHIFT + . Press once to show hidden files and again to hide them. There is another way. Click Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal. In Terminal, paste the following text: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Press Enter. Hold the ‘Option/alt’ key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.

Click on the Finder icon. From the menu bar, select Go and click “Go to Folder…”. As a result, a small window opens that allows you to quickly open a specific directory.

Check for PathNetwork generated files in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchAgents

This will open the contents of the “/Library/LaunchAgents” folder. Look carefully at it and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files: com.google.defaultsearch.plist, , com.PathNetwork.service.plist, com.net-preferences.plist, installapp.plist, macsearch.plist, search.plist and com.machelper.plist. Most often, adware, PUPs and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.

Check for PathNetwork generated files in the /Library/Application Support folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/Application Support

This will open the contents of the “Application Support” folder. Look carefully at its contents, pay special attention to recently added/changed folders and files. Check the contents of suspicious folders, if there is a file with a name similar to com.PathNetwork.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders and files to the Trash.

Check for PathNetwork generated files in the “~/Library/LaunchAgents” folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
~/Library/LaunchAgents

Proceed in the same way as with the “/Library/LaunchAgents” and “/Library/Application Support” folders. Look for suspicious and recently added files. Move all suspicious files to the Trash.

Check for PathNetwork generated files in the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Carefully browse the entire list of files and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files to be deleted: com.macsearch.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.search.system.plist, com.PathNetwork.system.plist and com.installapp.system.plist. In most cases, adware, potentially unwanted programs and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you carefully followed the previous steps, then you should be able to remove PathNetwork. Of course, very often browser hijackers, adware and potentially unwanted programs hides on a Mac, disguising itself as legitimate apps and files. Therefore, in some cases, it is difficult for an inexperienced user to decide whether a particular file is part of browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs and adware. Therefore, we advise you to use MalwareBytes Free to scan the Mac device.

Download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware by clicking on the following link.

After the download is complete, run it and follow the prompts. Click the “Scan” button . MalwareBytes Free program will scan through the whole MAC system for the PathNetwork adware. This process can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the tool is scanning, you can see count of objects and files has already scanned. Review the report and then click the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes Free is a free application that you can use to remove all detected folders, files, malicious services and so on.

Remove PathNetwork from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Remove unwanted extensions is a easy way to remove PathNetwork adware software and return web browser’s settings which have been modified by adware.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
Click on ‘three dots menu’ button at the top right corner of the Google Chrome window. When the drop-down menu appears, select ‘More tools’ and click on ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to get rid of PathNetwork adware by reset Google Chrome settings.	Click on ‘menu’ button and select ‘Add-ons’. Go to ‘Extensions’ tab. To uninstall an add-on, click on ‘Remove’ button next to it. If you are still experiencing problems with PathNetwork removal, you need to reset Mozilla Firefox browser.
Safari
On the top menu select ‘Safari’, then ‘Preferences’. Select ‘Extensions’ tab. Select an extension you want to delete and click ‘Uninstall’ button next to it.

How to stay safe online

We suggest to install an ad blocking program. The ad-blocker tool such as AdGuard is a application that basically removes advertising from the Net and stops access to malicious web-pages. Moreover, security experts says that using ad-blocking programs is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Internet.

AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.

Once downloading is finished, run the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.

Each time, when you start your MAC system, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop intrusive advertisements, block harmful and misleading web sites.

Finish words

Once you have done the steps outlined above, your MAC should be free from PathNetwork adware and other malware. The Safari, Chrome and Mozilla Firefox will no longer display any unwanted ads. Unfortunately, if the instructions does not help you, then you have caught a new adware software, and then the best way – ask for help here.