[High CPU, kernel_task 500%: AV involved?]

After years of satisfactory use of Malwarebytes (even on Win and on my phone), I've recently switched to Premium subscription. It's a top tier app and all that. But a few weeks ago my Macbook started acting strange: after 1-2 hours of normal use the CPU reach the stars, and the kernel_task process even top 500%, making the device unusable.

I looked for a malware (my fist thought) but MB says system was clean and other scanners as well. So I ran EtreCheckPro that gave me interesting results. 

1) Antivirus software problems - Antivirus software is causing performance problem. (The other "av" is Adguard, but stay off most of the time. Malwarebytes Real-time protection is always active.)

2) An app that continously crashing: 

2019-07-24 01:12:28 SIMBL Agent.app - Crash (14 times)

        Executable: /Library/ScriptingAdditions/SIMBL.osax/Contents/Resources/SIMBL Agent.app

        Details:

            dyld: launch, running initializers

            /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

 

Any help? I have no idea what app excites SIMBL Agent.app..

 

EtreCheck version: 6.0.2 (6A004)

Report generated: 2019-07-24 13:18:01

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 14:57

Performance: Poor



Problem: Computer is too slow



Major Issues:

    Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.



    Battery failure - Your battery is reporting that it needs to be serviced.

    Poor performance - EtreCheck report shows poor performance. This is unusual.

    Antivirus software problems - Antivirus software is causing performance problems.

    More than one antivirus app - This machine has multiple antivirus apps installed.



Minor Issues:

    These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement.



    High battery cycle count - Your battery may be losing capacity.

    Apps crashing - There have been numerous app crashes.

    Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

    System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background.



Hardware Information:

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

    MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro11,3

    1 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4850HQ) CPU: 4-core

    16 GB RAM - Not upgradeable

        BANK 0/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600  ok

        BANK 1/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600  ok

    Battery: Health = Service Battery - Cycle count = 908



Video Information:

    Intel Iris Pro - VRAM: 1536 MB

        Color LCD 2880 x 1800

    NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 2 GB



Drives:

    disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0512F 500.28 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

    Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA

        disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

        disk0s2 [APFS Container] 452.00 GB

            disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 452.00 GB (Shared by 4 volumes)

                disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) (Shared - 379.55 GB used)

                disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared - 46 MB used)

                disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared - 510 MB used)

                disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 1.07 GB used)

        disk0s3 - B******P (MS-DOS FAT12) 48.07 GB (29.29 GB used)



Mounted Volumes:

    disk0s3 - B******P

        48.07 GB (29.29 GB used - 18.78 GB free)

        MS-DOS FAT12

        Mount point: /Volumes/B******P


    disk1s1 - Macintosh HD

        452.00 GB (Shared - 379.55 GB used - 70.66 GB free)

        APFS

        Mount point: /

        Encrypted


    disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM]

        452.00 GB (Shared - 1.07 GB used - 70.66 GB free)

        APFS

        Mount point: /private/var/vm



Network:

    Interface en0: Wi-Fi

        802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

    Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN

    Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

    Interface bridge0: Ethernet

    Interface en3: Thunderbolt Ethernet

    iCloud Quota: 4.79 GB available



System Software:

    macOS Mojave 10.14.5 (18F132)

    Time since boot: About 11 hours



Configuration Files:

    /etc/hosts - Count: 1



Notifications:


    (Deleted)

        one notification

    /Applications/Telegram.app

        9 notifications

    /Applications/Flume.app

        2 notifications

    /Applications/Slack.app

        13 notifications

    /Applications/Windscribe.app

        16 notifications

    /Applications/Adguard.app

        one notification

    /Applications/EtreCheckPro.app

        2 notifications

    /Applications/Amphetamine.app

        one notification

    /Applications/Airmail 2.app

        one notification



Security:

    Gatekeeper: App Store and identified developers

    System Integrity Protection: Enabled


    Antivirus apps: AdGuard and MalwareBytes



Unsigned Files:

    Launchd: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist

        Executable: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Helper-Tool

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


    Launchd: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist

        Executable: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Java Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/Java Updater -bgcheck

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


    Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist

        Executable: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Java Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/Java Updater -bgcheck

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


    Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist

        Executable: /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Library/LaunchServices/com.skype.skype.shareagent.bundle/Contents/MacOS/com.skype.skype.shareagent

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


    Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.disconnect.networklistener.plist

        Executable: /Library/Application Support/disconnect/changednetwork.sh

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


    Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist

        Executable: /Library/ScriptingAdditions/SIMBL.osax/Contents/Resources/SIMBL Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/SIMBL Agent

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


    Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist

        Executable: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Helper-Tool

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK



Kernel Extensions:

    /Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Kext

        [Loaded] MB_MBAM_Protection.kext (Malwarebytes Corporation, 3.8 - SDK 10.14)


    /Library/Application Support/com.adguard.mac.adguard/kext

        [Not Loaded] com.adguard.nfext.kext (Adguard Software Limited, 1.0.25 - SDK 10.14)


    /Library/Extensions

        [Not Loaded] NIUSBGuitarRigMobile.kext (Native Instruments GmbH, 2.6.0 (R82) - SDK 10.8)

        [Not Loaded] NIUSBAudioDriver.kext (Native Instruments GmbH, 2.6.0 (R82) - SDK 10.8)

        [Not Loaded] Dropbox.kext (Dropbox, Inc., 1.8.1 - SDK 10.11)



System Launch Agents:

    [Not Loaded] 16 Apple tasks

    [Loaded] 168 Apple tasks

    [Running] 117 Apple tasks



System Launch Daemons:

    [Not Loaded] 36 Apple tasks

    [Loaded] 185 Apple tasks

    [Running] 116 Apple tasks



Launch Agents:

    [Running] com.bjango.istatmenus.agent.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2018-11-24)

    [Running] com.bjango.istatmenus.status.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2018-11-24)

    [Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2019-05-08)

    [Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2019-05-08)

    [Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.frontend.agent.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-05-10)

    [Loaded] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2019-07-19)

    [Not Loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (? 52024455 - installed 2019-07-04)

    [Loaded] com.radiosilenceapp.agent.plist (Juuso Salonen - installed 2017-09-24)

    [Not Loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2019-06-05)

    [Not Loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2019-06-05)

    [Not Loaded] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist (? 850e6250 - installed 2014-11-14)



Launch Daemons:

    [Loaded] com.BlueStacks.AppPlayer.bstservice_helper.plist (BlueStack Systems, Inc. - installed 2015-07-05)

    [Running] com.aaa.windscribe.OVPNHelper.plist (Windscribe Limited - installed 2018-12-08)

    [Loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-06-22)

    [Loaded] com.audirvana.SysOptimizerTool.plist (Audirvana - installed 2019-04-28)

    [Loaded] com.audirvana.audirvana-plus.SysOptimizerTool.plist (Audirvana - installed 2018-07-30)

    [Running] com.bjango.istatmenus.daemon.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2018-11-24)

    [Running] com.bjango.istatmenus.fans.plist (? 9a713d46 - installed 2018-11-24)

    [Loaded] com.bjango.istatmenus.installerhelper.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27)

    [Loaded] com.disconnect.networklistener.plist (? 5d49b512 - installed 2015-06-02)

    [Loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2019-05-08)

    [Loaded] com.malwarebytes.HelperTool.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2018-01-09)

    [Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-05-18)

    [Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.settings.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-05-10)

    [Loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2019-07-19)

    [Loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-10-10)

    [Not Loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (? e3fefdd2 - installed 2019-07-04)

    [Loaded] com.radiosilenceapp.nke.plist (Apple - installed 2019-05-04)

    [Loaded] com.teamviewer.Helper.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2019-06-05)

    [Not Loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2019-06-05)



User Launch Agents:

    [Loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2019-02-14)

    [Loaded] com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (? 0 - installed 2018-09-17)

    [Loaded] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist (Valve Corporation - installed 2019-07-20)



User Login Items:

    1Password Extension Helper (AgileBits Inc. - installed 2019-06-27)

        (Modern Login Item - /Applications/1Password 7.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/1Password Extension Helper.app)


    1Password Launcher (AgileBits Inc. - installed 2019-06-27)

        (Modern Login Item - /Applications/1Password 7.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/1Password Launcher.app)


    Airmail 2.app (App Store - installed 2019-07-06)

        (Application - /Applications/Airmail 2.app)


    AmphetamineLoginHelper (App Store - installed 2019-06-11)

        (Modern Login Item - /Applications/Amphetamine.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AmphetamineLoginHelper.app)


    AppCleaner SmartDelete (Julien Ramseier - installed 2018-11-23)

        (Modern Login Item - /Applications/AppCleaner.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AppCleaner SmartDelete.app)


    Backup and Sync.app (Google, Inc. - installed 2019-06-27)

        (Application - /Applications/Backup and Sync.app)


    Dropbox.app (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2019-07-18)

        (Application - /Applications/Dropbox.app)


    Magnet.app (App Store - installed 2019-06-16)

        (Application - /Applications/Magnet.app)


    NepTunesHelperApp (App Store - installed 2018-10-28)

        (Modern Login Item - /Applications/NepTunes.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/NepTunesHelperApp.app)


    Slack.app (App Store - installed 2019-07-15)

        (Application - /Applications/Slack.app)


    Telegram.app (TELEGRAM MESSENGER LLP - installed 2019-07-10)

        (Application - /Applications/Telegram.app)


    TickTick.app (App Store - installed 2019-06-20)

        (Application - /Applications/TickTick.app)


    Track-o-Bot.app (Steven Schmid - installed 2017-12-27)

        (Application - /Applications/Track-o-Bot.app)



Internet Plug-ins:

    Silverlight: 5.1.50901.0 (? - installed 2016-10-27)

    FlashPlayer-10.6: 32.0.0.223 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-07-10)

    Flash Player: 32.0.0.223 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-07-10)

    JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 221 build 11 (? - installed 2019-07-23)

    SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.4.8 (? - installed 2015-02-12)



Audio Plug-ins:

    AppleTimeSyncAudioClock: 1.0 (Apple - installed 2019-05-25)

    BluetoothAudioPlugIn: 6.0.12 (Apple - installed 2019-05-25)

    AirPlay: 2.0 (Apple - installed 2019-05-25)

    AppleAVBAudio: 740.1 (Apple - installed 2019-05-25)

    BridgeAudioSP: 5.46 (Apple - installed 2019-05-25)

    iSightAudio: 7.7.3 (Apple - installed 2019-05-25)



Safari Extensions:

    1Password - App Store (installed 2019-06-25)

    Open in IINA - App Store (installed 2019-05-27)



3rd Party Preference Panes:

    Flash Player (installed 2019-06-22)

    Java (installed 2019-07-23)

    Native Instruments USB Audio (installed 2015-04-11)



Time Machine:

    Skip System Files: No

    Auto backup: Yes

    Volumes being backed up:

        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 452.00 GB - Disk used: 381.34 GB

    Destinations:

        T**********e [Local] (Last used)

            Total size: 799.55 GB

            Total number of backups: 19

            Oldest backup: 2019-05-28 03:40:12

            Last backup: 2019-07-24 12:26:55

    6 local snapshots

    Oldest local snapshot: 2019-07-15 16:00:00

    Last local snapshot: 2019-07-24 10:59:34



Performance:

    System Load: 13.84 (1 min ago) 16.50 (5 min ago) 16.55 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O speed: 1.34 MB/s

    File system: 120.54 seconds (timed out)

    Write speed:  257 MB/s

    Read speed:  266 MB/s



CPU Usage Snapshot:

    Type Overall

    System 63 %

    User 6 %

    Idle 30 %



Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

    Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

    WindowServer 16.46 % (Apple)

    EtreCheckPro 12.16 % (Etresoft, Inc.)

    kernel_task 9.72 % (Apple)

    sandboxd 5.48 % (Apple)

    Track-o-Bot 5.14 % (Steven Schmid)



Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

    Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

    EtreCheckPro 689 MB (Etresoft, Inc.)

    kernel_task 542 MB (Apple)

    Airmail 3 368 MB (App Store)

    Dropbox (3) 311 MB (Dropbox, Inc.)

    Dropbox Web Helper (3) 311 MB (Dropbox, Inc.)



Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:

    Process Input / Output (Source - Location)

    Dropbox 81 KB / 785 KB (Dropbox, Inc.)

    mDNSResponder 37 KB / 24 KB (Apple)

    Slack 21 KB / 13 KB (App Store)

    Telegram 8 KB / 3 KB (TELEGRAM MESSENGER LLP)

    apsd 4 KB / 5 KB (Apple)



Top Processes Snapshot by Energy Use:

    Process (count) Energy (0-100) (Source - Location)

    WindowServer 7 (Apple)

    sandboxd 3 (Apple)

    iStat Menus Status 1 (Bjango Pty Ltd)

    airportd 1 (Apple)

    RTProtectionDaemon 0 (Malwarebytes Corporation)



Virtual Memory Information:

    Physical RAM: 16 GB



    Free RAM: 4.71 GB

    Used RAM: 6.91 GB

    Cached files: 4.38 GB



    Available RAM: 9.09 GB

    Swap Used: 0 B



Software Installs (past 30 days):

    Install Date Name (Version)

    2019-06-26 Evernote (7.11)

    2019-07-06 Kiwi for Gmail (2.0.22)

    2019-07-06 Airmail (3.6.71)

    2019-07-10 Adobe Flash Player (32.0.0.223)

    2019-07-15 Slack (4.0.0)

    2019-07-16 VirusBarrier Scanner (1.1.1)

    2019-07-17 Microsoft PowerPoint (16.27.19071500)

    2019-07-17 Microsoft Outlook (16.27.19071500)

    2019-07-17 Microsoft Excel (16.27.19071500)

    2019-07-17 Microsoft Word (16.27.19071500)

    2019-07-19 Microsoft AutoUpdate (4.13.19071800)

    2019-07-19 MRTConfigData (1.47)

    2019-07-20 ClamXAV v3.0.12

    2019-07-20 ClamXav Uninstaller (1)

    2019-07-23 Java 8 Update 221 (1.0)

    2019-07-23 Gatekeeper Configuration Data (173)

    2019-07-23 Radio Silence (2.3.0)



Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

    2019-07-24 01:12:28 SIMBL Agent.app - Crash (14 times)

        Executable: /Library/ScriptingAdditions/SIMBL.osax/Contents/Resources/SIMBL Agent.app

        Details:

            dyld: launch, running initializers

            /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib


    2019-07-22 09:01:23 1Password 7.app - Crash (3 times)

        Executable: /Applications/1Password 7.app


    2019-07-20 15:31:45 signpost_reporter - High CPU Use

        Executable: /usr/libexec/signpost_reporter


    2019-07-20 08:19:06 Slack.app - Crash

        Executable: /Applications/Slack.app


    2019-07-20 08:14:39 Uninstall.app - Crash

        Executable: /usr/local/ClamXAV3/bin/Uninstall.app

        Details:

            *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSGenericException', re

            ason: 'NSRunAlertPanel may only be invoked from the main thread. Behav

            ior on other threads is undefined.'

            terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

            abort() called


    2019-07-19 15:50:54 Discord.app - Crash

        Executable: /Applications/Discord.app


    2019-07-17 21:20:06 Scrivener.app - High CPU Use

        Executable: /Applications/Scrivener.app



End of report

Thank you.