Weird link in notifications center, could this be malware?

sesc2 wrote:

Looks like the screencastomatic file could be malicious according to what I saw in the report, but I was told to download that when I was in university, I just never got rid of it.

It's not malicious. It's just behaving maliciously, if that makes sense. 😄

There are many traits and behaviours that seem like the kinds of things malicious apps would do, but that actual malicious apps never do. It's a long story.

I think you're just seeing developer incompetence and bugs on multiple levels.

There is a "DialPad" platform that uses AI agents to pretend to be customer service representatives. I'm sure that's their main business, but it could also be used for all kinds of messaging solutions. They have a web interface, which makes perfect sense. And that's the URL showing up in your notifications. Such a website would be a good use of Safari's notifications capability. Safari notifications are really popular with adware and scammers, but this seems to be a more legitimate use.

At this point, everything's fine. No problems. However, these Safari notifications should not show up in your System Notifications system. I've seen people report this problem before. It's just an Apple bug.

Then your EtreCheck report innocently displays that old screencastomatic app from years ago. That should have always been properly signed, but some developer years ago either didn't want to do that or didn't know how. It isn't malicious, but you should probably get rid of it.

This is a good example of the malware catch-22. People who actually do have malware are always totally clueless about it. People don't get malware and discover it 3 days later. At best, it takes 3 years.

But on the other extreme, anyone who goes poking around in the internals of their Mac are absolutely going to find all kinds of junk apps, broken stuff, bugs, and just really weird stuff. I recommend you don't poke too deeply. Nothing good will come of it.

I don't have an actual answer for you. See if you can remove that notification entry if you don't want it. But it's really nothing to be worried about.

Please download and run (free) EtreCheck, and share the results to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the Additional Text button that looks like a printed page, and paste and post the hardware and software configuration report here. From that, we can get a little more detail about what is installed and what is running here.

You do have a Safari browser extension.....I have no idea what it is since I avoid most extensions...it may be innocent:

Safari extensions:

[Loaded] LingQ Import Extension - /Applications/LingQ.app

You can also turn off browser notifications using the information in the following article so you don't get such notifications in the future:

Stop unwanted Notifications - Apple Community

If you no longer have any reason for those files you should get rid of them. Start your Mac in "Safe Mode" and drag the problematic Launch Daemon to the Trash. That will inactivate the app, which can then be dragged to the Trash as well.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

None of those apps are necessarily malware but it's fundamental principle to familiarize yourself with what you choose to install on your Mac before installing them, the reasons for installing them, what they do, how they work, their effects on your Mac's operation, your responsibilities for their maintenance, and how to get rid of what you don't want when they are no longer required.

Excerpted from Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community:

• Never install something without first knowing what it is, what it does, how it works, and how to get rid of it when you don't want it any more.

As for the installed apps beyond that screencasting app, OP has an old Cisco AnyConnect VPN app installeded. Check with your organization’s IT group, and see if they have newer-version preferences. And if they don’t, they probably should.

John Galt wrote:

• Never install something without first knowing what it is, what it does, how it works, and how to get rid of it when you don't want it any more.

And my own personal favorite: don‘t install something you didn’t go looking for.

There are various Dialpad apps and Dialpad browser extensions around. That familiar?