imac: File privileges for ‘staff’ and ‘everyone’ were changed to ‘read and write’ instead of default ‘read only’ I did not initiate this change.
The only security vulnerability I can think of was when I was installing an antivirus (mcafee) it redirected to a malicious website, I will not share the link but it is a Thai website (it is written in Thai characters) parodying the official Mcafee activate page.
I was able to activate the product via assistance through the mcafee tech support phone number provided on the physical product box and installed mcafee through the real mcafee website by manually typing the correct url and disabling siri suggestions, and url auto fill in addition to clearing safari history.
I have too many files to keep track so I cannot tell if any changes occured however recently I discovered file privileges were changed from ‘read only’ to ‘read and write’ for all users, could this be a glitch or evidence of hacker activity?
My imac only connects to the internet when I need to update applications perhaps 10-20 minutes every week or so. Wifi is usually disabled and computer is unpowered when not in use.
’Last’ command in terminal does not show evidence of suspicious user logins, there are several bizarre files including strange plist files under the folder ‘sharing’ in my user library but otherwise there is nothing remarkable. There are no unusual files in launchagents. Furthermore I will be doing a screen share with apple soon to ascertain if these files are legitimate.
Any idea why these privileges would be altered? I did not perform these changes so I was hoping for some insight regarding this. Fear mongering is not appreciated. I hope it has something to do with Mcafee. I will provide the potentially malicious link if requested for reference.
There was no evidence of malicious downloads from the link however I am concerned about arbitrary code execution.
To emphasize my mac is almost never connected to wifi, and never while I am working. There is no excessive heat or loud fans/ sluggish performance.
I appreciate your help. I do not appreciate Fear Mongering.
iMac 27″, macOS 12.4