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MBAM 1.0.2.8 hangs at VSearch: Mac OSX 10.7


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Hi there. I was recently made aware of MBAM by a very knowledgeable colleague and so downloaded and installed it.

I have a 'MacBook 13-inch Mid 2007' 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running OSX 10.7.5, so I opted for MBAM 1.0.28.

Whenever I select to scan, MBAM works for a few seconds but then enters a 'non-responding' state, each time almost immediately after progressing to Adware.VSearch'. I've left it in this state for over two hours to no avail.

Having looked at the forums here, I saw a suggestion that a scan under 'Safe boot' conditions may be the way forward, but all that then happened was that MBAM wouldn't work, showing an error that it requires an internet connection. WiFi appears not to be available following a Safe Boot so no joy there. I also disabled Firmware Password requirement in case that was the culprit, again with no benefit.

It would please me to be know that the machine is free of malware and would be grateful for any suggestion as to how I may achieve that end.

With kind regards

JB

Oh, and the answer to the question, 'Why not ask your knowledgeable colleague, then?' is simple: I was grateful for his recommendation, but I didn't feel it was then fair to then ask him for support ;-)

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  • Staff

JB,

There appears to have been an issue with a recent change we made to the VSearch signatures that causes this very rarely. We made some changes to those signatures yesterday evening that seems to have fixed the issue. If you try again now, does it work as expected?

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Hey Thomas; thank you for taking the time to look into and respond to my issue. Especially as this is a superseded rev...

Sadly, my news is not good. It still hangs after it had updated the signatures (about 20 minutes ago).

Console shows many (40+) errors some being along the lines of: 

'Object 0xa46fa30 of class __NSCFDictionary autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug'

and most being along the lines of:

'Object 0xa46fa30 of class __NSCFNumber autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug'

All are prefixed with 'Timestamp [0x0-0x29029].com.malwarebytes.antimalware: objc[349]:'

I don't know if that helps, or whether you'd like a dump of the .com.malwarebytes Console entries for a session?

Is there any way I can set MBAMto ignore the VSearch element and see if it then proceeds to a result?

Again, thanks

JB

 

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That's definitely unusual. Can you filter all the errors on "malwarebytes" in the Console and then send that info to me? You can send it via a private message if you're concerned about posting that info publicly. Just click on my avatar at left, then click the Message button to send me a private message.

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  • Staff

It looks like there's a memory leak being caused by some third-party code used in that version of the app. I'm not sure why it's leaking on your system, but it should not cause the problem you're seeing.

I notice that you said you couldn't scan in safe mode, but Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac should be able to scan in safe mode even if you don't have a network connection. It will not be able to download the latest signatures if there's no network connection, but that will not prevent it from scanning with the signatures it already has. What happens when you try to scan in safe mode?

Note that a firmware password will prevent you from actually booting into safe mode. You'll need to temporarily remove the firmware password before attempting to boot in safe mode. You will know that you have rebooted in safe mode because it will take much longer, and the screen may redraw very slowly now and then. Also, none of the programs that will normally load at startup will be loaded.

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Hi Thomas

Thanks for all your help...

I had already removed the Firmware Password requirement, so I safe booted and connected to Ethernet for safety, and, yes, the MBAM from Mac proceeded to completion. Sadly, (in some ways!) without detecting any malware.

For what its worth, I then climbed slowly back down the tree, and MBAM completed without issue in every case: regular boot with EtherNet connection, regular boot with WiFi, regular boot with WiFi with Firmware Password required.

So, all in all, a storm in a tea cup; sorry to have wasted your time and thanks for prompt helpful responses.

JB

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JB,

No problem, whatever happened I'm glad it's all worked out now!

I didn't think it would find anything, as I couldn't identify anything in your snapshot as adware, but you never know... sometimes these things change names. If you're having problems that you believe are due to adware or (much less likely) malware, let me know and I can advise you on some things to try.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

I have just come across this problem (MAM 1.2.5.715) getting stuck at Adware.VSearch. Running Signature file 141, and OS X 10.8.5.

Interestingly it doesn't stop in a new admin account on this machine and the only difference that comes to mind is that Avast Mac Security is loaded in the client's admin account. Switched off for this testing.

 

 

regards

hugh browton

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  • 1 month later...

Followup to above on current beta release as of today.

Beta Version 1.2.6.730 with Signature file version 156 ( 2017-1-5 ) is good on a second machine that previously was getting stuck on Version 1.2.5 with same signature file.

Run time of Malwarebytes is still a very reasonable 6 minutes on even a very busy instance of Yosemite with an SSD and 20GB RAM on an old MacPro - Early 2008.

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  • 6 months later...

Hi - I just found out about Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac yesterday and installed and tried running it. I seem to be having similar issues as described in this thread. It was hanging at VSearch, but now is hanging without the progress bar moving at all. I've tried in Safe Boot mode as well.

I'm running macOS 10.11.6 on a MacBook Pro 2012; Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac 1.2.6.730

Thanks!

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