How To Check A Mac For Keyloggers

/Mac Tips /What Is A Keylogger on Mac and How to Detect One?

Primarily, keyloggers are used for monitoring activities from a computer or Smartphone. People who usually use this software are parents who want to check on their kids’ computer activities, companies who want to see how their employees deliver their daily tasks, and more.

However, keyloggers are also being used to stalk other computers unethically and illegally. We received concerns from Mac users asking “Do I have a keylogger on Mac?” and wanted to know how to get rid of this software from their systems. Together, let’s find out how to safely remove the keylogger from Mac in this post.

Checking for Keylogger through internet usage Checking your internet usage report also is an effective way of confirming a keylogger’s presence on your system. Follow the steps below Press the Window button on your keyboard and “I” simultaneously, which would open up the Windows setting’s tab. Alternate ways to be safe from keylogger without checking. If you are not sure and you don’t bother to check if keylogger is installed or not on the pc which you are using each and every time, try using online keyboard for filling passwords. Its a keylogger safe method. They can not track your mouse activity. Preparing: Ensure the system is fully protected from any known vulnerabilities.

A simple keylogger for Windows, Linux and Mac. Website - Keylogger wiki. Help support the project: Welcome to the simple keylogger repo! A keylogger is a program that records your keystrokes, and this program saves them in a log file on your local computer. Check out below to learn how to install them.
Activity Monitor Activity Monitor shows you real-time events happening on your Mac. Click the Finder icon in the Dock, select the 'Go' menu and choose 'Utilities.' Double-click 'Activity Monitor' to launch the application.

Article GuidePart 1. Do I Have Keylogger on Mac?Part 2. How to Manually Check for Keyloggers on Mac via Activity MonitorPart 3. How to Protect your Mac from Keyloggers?Part 4. Summary

Part 1. Do I Have Keylogger on Mac?

Keyloggers monitor a user’s activity by recording the things that have been typed on the keyboard including your username, password, personal records, bank details, and other highly-sensitive information. They can either be software installed or hardware that connects to a USB port. There are many keylogger software and hardware that can be installed on Mac computers.

You cannot easily detect a keylogger on a Mac computer unless you have some technical background to search through your system or use an alternative program. Keyloggers are installed via Malware infection or via user-installed.

Part 2. How to Manually Check for Keyloggers on Mac via Activity Monitor

Another option you can do to verify if there are keyloggers installed on your Mac is to search for it manually. The process may be tedious but then again, it’s better to be safe than suffer the consequences later on.

If you are confident that there are no hardware keyloggers installed on your Mac, then your next step is to check the Activity Monitor. Your Activity Monitor shows real-time activities and occurrences on your Mac. Follow these steps:

Open the Utilities folder and choose Activity Monitor
Find or locate any suspicious-looking processes that might be keyloggers
Note down the name and then launch the Terminal
Inside the Terminal window, type in man (name of the processes you listed) – where (name of the processes) is the process you wrote down. Remember to type the name removing the brackets
The Terminal will begin to detect and find the description of the keylogger that was installed.

At this point, you can run a deep scan using your anti-virus software so it will remove unwanted software and notify you of various suspicious-looking processes.

Part 3. How to Protect your Mac from Keyloggers?

‘Do I have a keylogger on Mac?’ is a common concern from most users that can be addressed easily. You can protect your device from these suspicious apps by following good practices.

Here are a few tips you can do:

Never open suspicious-looking emails and messages. Apart from phishing, some of these emails and messages contain malware and viruses. Only open emails from trusted senders or better yet, check the URL address.
You can also install ad-blockers on your browser to trap those unwanted pop-ups whenever you are browsing the web
Always use strong passwords and save them in secure areas or use a safe password manager
Use anti-virus software to maintain and clean your Mac on a regular basis. Otherwise, you can always rely on iMyMac PowerMyMac to thoroughly clean, uninstall, and optimize your system.

What is iMyMac PowerMyMac?

iMyMac PowerMyMac is an all-in-one software solution that analyzes, optimizes, and cleans your Mac computers in just a few steps. All you need is to simply get this program running and let it do the work. It can easily scan your computer to find all the keyloggers that might have been installed on your Mac. Once found it can easily let you uninstall in just a few clicks.

It also does the following features:

Delete Junk files
Finds Duplicate files
Clears Photo Cache
Similar Photo Finder
Uninstaller
Removes Large & Old Files
And many more…

Apart from keyloggers, this powerful cleaner can also find unwanted programs that have been hiding inside your system, plus other significant features you can use to get more from your device. You can also take advantage of the powerful scanning feature which shows you all the files and apps on your Mac.

With all these tips mentioned above, you are assured that your system is free from any tracking software that can put your personal details at risk. Make sure to regularly check your system and avoid installing suspicious apps and visiting unknown websites.

Part 4. Summary

There you have it; we have finally covered and answered the question about ‘Do I have a keylogger on Mac?’ Keyloggers have both positive and negative impacts. Positively, if being used legally and ethically like monitoring a minor’s computer activities or employers trying to track down their employees’ tasks.

However, if you are not aware of that a keylogger may have been installed on your personal Mac computer, and then it is considered illegal and unethical. You can be a victim of identity theft by taking your personal details like bank account information, usernames, passwords, and more.

It is best to have reliable anti-virus software installed on your system to block and remove such programs. If you are not sure where to find keyloggers, you can install iMyMac PowerMyMac and it will scan your device for all the programs and software installed on your system. After that, you can uninstall the keyloggers from your Mac. This program will also help you optimize your system by checking its overall status, and a lot more features. To better learn more about iMyMac PowerMyMac, you can download and try it for free.

I hope this has helped you get rid of this unwanted program and assisted you in getting more protection for your Mac.

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How do Keyloggers Work

Keylogger or keystroke logger is a spyware application that runs invisibly for users and logs (saves on the local disk or sends to the cloud) every key that users press on the computer.

Usually, keyloggers are used by hackers to collect your credit card information you enter on various web sites. They also collect your usernames and passwords, so they can steal money from your bank accounts.

The goal of a keylogger is not to collect information for as long as possible, that’s why you may never know that it was installed.

It does not suddenly slow down your computer (unless it is sending information over the internet), it does not pop up scary messages in Safari or Chrome, it does not redirect your browser to wrong web sites. It just quietly hides on your computer and gathers your data in order to use it later.

How keyloggers get installed

Typically, they get installed as part of free software you download from the Internet. The free software may contain a keylogger code inside of it so the former installs the latter on the computer.

Once installed the keyloggers starts collecting information and sends it to storage in the cloud where the hacker can access it. Keyloggers can also be installed as browser extensions.

Hardware keyloggers

There are two types of keyloggers: hardware and software. While hardware keyloggers apply mostly to desktops they are impossible to detect with the software. The hardware keylogger is usually attached to the computer and a keyboard is attached to the device.

Every time you press a key on the keyboard the device records it in its local storage and then passes the key information to the computer. If you want, you can buy a hardware keylogger on Amazon.

Software-based keystroke loggers are much more powerful because they run on the computer itself and they have access to the entire computer, not just a keyboard.

Is Keylogger Malware?

A keylogger can be either malware, like rootkit, or legitimate software installed on your computer. Commercial applications that log the keyboard input on the computer can be installed by parents who want to monitor which sites their children are visiting on the Internet. Or the company may want to track employee activities.

Believe it or not, you can easily download and install a keylogger on your own Mac. Most popular keyloggers for Mac OS are:

Perfect Keylogger for Mac

Besides recording key presses these tools are capable of capturing screenshots, data in the clipboard, keep web browsing history.

In case of chat applications such as Skype, Viber or iMessage they can log messages from both sides: anything typed on your computer and incoming chat messages.

Some keyloggers are equipped with geolocation features. If the MacBook was stolen, they can be used to track it down because they will secretly send keystrokes and screenshots to the cloud. Keyloggers can also control your webcam and record videos or you can watch live from another computer.

How To Get A Keylogger

You decide if it is ethical or legal to spy after children, spouse or employees. The goal of this article is to educate people about possibilities and describe ways to protect yourself from spying.

How to Install a Keylogger on Mac

To test how MacScan and Malwarebytes are capable of finding keyloggers I decided to install all four keyloggers on my Mac.

IMPORTANT: I don’t endorse any keylogger here. Moreover, if you want to avoid getting malware on your Mac, do not download software from anywhere except Apple App Store. Personally, I do not trust any of the above-mentioned keyloggers, so before installing them on my MacBook I did the following:

Took a backup of my drive
Reset MacBook to factory settings
Installed and tested keyloggers so I can report my findings here
Restored everything from the backup.

There is something fundamentally sleazy about spying after other people. No wonder that installing a keylogger reminded me of installing apps with potential viruses in it.

Elite Keylogger sent me to a jumpshare url, it didn’t let me download from their site. The problem I had with installing Elite is that its installer did not want to close, so I had to force shutdown my Mac. Check here if you want to know more about potential issues with force shutdowns.

The Perfect Keylogger sent me two emails: one with the link from which I could download an encrypted zip file and another with the password for the zip file. Google immediately flagged both messages as dangerous spam.

Spyrix and Aobo didn’t have such problems and Refog looked like a legit app with a proper installer. The interesting thing is that I was able to install all 5 of them at the same time and all four of them were recording keystrokes.

Does Malwarebytes or MacScan detect keyloggers?

Once I installed Malwarebytes it immediately recognized Elite keylogger as malware and put into quarantine. It was also able to detect Aobo and Refog. Unfortunately, it didn’t find anything wrong with Perfect Keylogger and Spyrix.

MacScan was more successful: it found 4 out of 5 apps, but it still missed Perfect Keylogger.

Conclusion: If you want to install a keylogger on your Mac go with Perfect one from Blazing tools. It didn’t get detected by either Malwarebytes or MacScan.

But again, do it at your own risk. If you ask my opinion, I would never install such an application on the computer where I entered my credit card information or password to my bank accounts.

On the other hand, I was disappointed with Malwarebytes and MacScan missing some apps. This experiment does not give me high confidence in malware protection tools.

So, what would I recommend you do if you believe that there is a keylogger app on your MacBook? Reset and reinstall your MacOS and immediately change all passwords for all web sites you were using.

Keylogger myths

Some people suggest a couple of workarounds that in their opinion can trick keyloggers. One of them is to use software-based keyboards. You can start such a keyboard by going to System Preferences and clicking on the “Keyboard” icon.

In “Input Sources” tab click on “Show input menu in menu bar”. Once you do it you can see a keyboard icon in the top bar near the battery icon. If you click on that icon and select “Show Keyboard Viewer” it will bring a software keyboard which you can use to type information and which supposedly will not be tracked by a keylogger.

Another workaround is to type a part of the password or the credit card number in the browser, then bring up a text editor, type a garbage text in it, switch back to the browser and type the second part of the secret password.

These workarounds possibly worked a long time ago when malware was not sophisticated, but now when they can take screenshots and have some intelligent software, I would not rely on the workarounds anymore.

How to Detect Keylogger on Mac with Activity Monitor

Some people suggest checking for malware in Activity Monitor. The typical suggestion is to bring up the Activity Monitor and find the application that looks suspicious or you do not recognize.

This advice may work for someone who knows all applications running on Mac, but for an average user, all applications running on Mac are unfamiliar.

I am not claiming this is impossible however. For instance, Spyrix Keylogger appear in Activity Monitor as skm, and Perfect Keylogger as DashboardClient.

What to do when getting a scam email?

As said in the beginning everyone is getting emails which state that they set up malware on the certain web sites and “your browser began working as a RDP that has a key logger which provided me access to your display as well as cam”. It continues with a threat to send embarrassing information to your friends unless “you will make the payment via Bitcoin”.

Normally, these emails end up in a Spam folder, but if you are using an email other than Gmail chances are that they will appear in your Inbox. So, what should you do in this case? The answer is to Delete the email. This is called extortion

The hackers send such emails to millions of people with the hope that someone will be scared and will pay a ransom. They do not install keyloggers, it is cheaper to scare people by sending emails then target specific people.

How to Detect Commercial Keyloggers on Mac?

If you suspect that someone you know (your employer, spouse, parent, friend or enemy) is spying after you chances are that they installed one of the commercial keyloggers.

There is very little chance that they were able to find a malware soft built by hackers to infect your system because the malware will be sending your information to the hacker, not your personal enemy.

If you are looking to find if commercial keyloggers have been installed on your Mac, there are three ways to find: using Activity Monitor, checking default key combinations and checking the list of application with Full Disk Access.

Using Activity Monitor

Activity Monitor is still a good way to quickly find applications as long as you know their names:

Perfect Keylogger appears as DashboardClient in the monitor
Spyrix as skm
Look for ‘coreservicesd’ to find Aobo
Check for ‘Elite Keylogger’ when searching Elite Keylogger. However, the version I installed was free and it did not hide, so I don’t know how the process name will change for someone who buys a product.
And finally, ‘Refog’ appears as ‘syslogd’

Note: there are legit services called ‘syslogd‘ and ‘coreservicesd‘, so their presence doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a keylogger. To find out if the Mac was infected, scan it with the free version of Malwarebytes.

Using default key combinations

All keyloggers have secret key combinations which will bring them from the place they are hiding to the screen. After all, if you can get to the data collected by a keylogger it is pretty much useless.

Default key combinations for keyloggers are:

But, what if whoever was installing the spyware was smart enough to change the default key combination. Then you won’t be able to find keyloggers by a key combination.

Check which applications have Full Disk Access

In order to do their job, most keyloggers must have full access to the disk or accessibility option.

Go to System Preferences -> Security and Privacy, click on the Privacy tab and check two sections: Accessibility and Full Disk Access.

Here how it may look like on your Mac if the app was installed:

How to Detect Malware Keystroke Loggers on Mac?

If you think that your Mac was infected by a keylogger when you’ve been browsing the internet or opened an email then steps above will not help because hackers do not use commercial keyloggers as malware.

You can still try to open the Activity Monitor, go over each process in it and search Google for the process name. This way, you can at least eliminate the good applications from the keyloggers (note, however, a good process can still be infected with a malware which installs a keylogger on Mac).

For instance, if you don’t know what “cloudd” process is on Mac then Google following:
cloudd mac

The first response will say something like “This process is part of macOS and is related to iCloud”. So now you can move to the next process in the list.

Another option is to install Malwarebytes, MacScan, Intego Mac Internet Security or another antivirus and antimalware application. Some people suggested ReiKey for keystroke logger detection, but last time I checked the code was not updated for more than 8 months, which means is not being actively maintained.

How To Use Keylogger

And finally, the best way to get rid off a malware is remove the macOS and reinstall everything from scratch.

Other resources:

If you still feel that you are being watched then:

buy a webcam cover: recommended webcam covers for MacBooks
check my other article:How to Tell if Someone is Remotely Accessing Your Mac

Check Mac For Keylogger

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