Malwarebytes for Mac sending apps from Mac Store onto Quarantine

[morrig47]

I have tried to install an app from the Mac Store, but Malwarebytes for Mac keeps sending it into Quarantine. The app is Open Any Files: RAR Support. I understand that the Malwarebytes for Windows software allows an user to set exclusions so that the program will not send apps into Quarantine, but I cannot find similar functionality in the Malwarebutes for Mac programe. Can anyone advise?

Thanks

[alvarnell]

Believe me, you don't want Open Any File installed on your computer. It's just advertising for Trend Dr. AntiVirus and will likely cause most of your documents to be taken over by it instead of the apps that produced them.

See 

 

[morrig47]

Many thanks. I decided to follow your advice and remove it from my Mac.

 

[treed]

To add to what Al said, this is one of a number of apps that hijack the default functionality in macOS for handling unknown file types as a means for showing advertising... and in some cases, that advertising has been quite fraudulent, including claims that you might be having a problem opening the file because you're infected with malware.

Also, more generally, there's quite a lot of stuff that we detect that comes from the App Store. Just because something's on the App Store doesn't make it automatically legitimate.

[morrig47]

Many thanks for your further clarification. I must admit that I had assumed all apps in the Mac Store were check by Apple thoroughly before allowing them on the Store. Given your advice I will approach with more caution next time.

Again my thanks for helping me on this.

[treed]

They do get checked, but things do slip past. Also, it's important to keep in mind that when it comes to identifying PUPs (potentially unwanted programs), Apple's tolerance is much higher than ours, so there will be things that really shouldn't be used, but Apple won't always take a strong stance against them. (Case in point: MacKeeper is one of the worst, scammiest programs being marketed to Mac users today, but Apple has not taken a stand against it... and doing so could open them up to a protracted, messy lawsuit.)

[freelancertech]

Tom, et al,

I have always suspected Mackeeper of being scammy. I have often told my customers to avoid it and remove it if it gets on without asking (...truly a PUP). IMHO, it's almost as bad as a Trojan, but flies under many anti-virus programs radar. Thanks for vindicating my suspicions. And similar thoughts regarding Reimage.