How to uninstall InitiatorSignal app/extension from Mac (Virus removal guide)

What is InitiatorSignalod

According to security researchers, InitiatorSignal is an adware application that targets Mac platform. Adware is form of malicious software designed to infect a user’s computer, display unwanted ads, redirects search requests to advertising pages and collects confidential info for marketing purposes. InitiatorSignal can show banner advertisements, full-screen ads, pop ups, videos, or other varieties of online advertising. It can attack your computer’s web browsers such as Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari. Maybe you approve the idea that the ads or popups is just a small problem. But these unwanted advertisements eat MAC resources and slow down your machine performance.

Does adware steal your data? The InitiatorSignal adware can gather confidential info, including:

• IP addresses;
• URLs visited;
• search queries/terms;
• clicks on links and advertisements;
• web-browser version information.

If you would like to uninstall InitiatorSignal and get rid of unwanted ads and are unable to do so, you can use the guide below to scan for and remove adware software and any other malware for free.

How does InitiatorSignal get on your MAC

Most often, adware software is bundled within the installers from file sharing and torrents web sites. So, install free software is a a good chance that you will find a bundled adware. If you don’t know how to avoid it, then use a simple trick. During the installation, choose the Custom or Advanced installation mode. Next, press ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install additional apps. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any applications or otherwise you can end up with another unwanted program on your computer such as this adware.

Threat Summary

Name	InitiatorSignal
Type	adware software, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Adware/Adload!OSX, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, OSX.Trojan.Gen, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and ApplicUnwnt
Distribution	Free software installers, torrent downloads, fake updaters and suspicious pop-up advertisements
Symptoms	The web site links redirect to a web pages different from what you expected, pop-ups and newtabs are loaded without your request, unexpected program installed without your consent, an unwanted extension appears in your web browser, your web-browser startpage has changed and you cannot change it back, fast Internet but slow browsing speeds.
Removal	InitiatorSignal removal guide

How to Remove InitiatorSignal adware (removal steps)

Without a doubt, the InitiatorSignal adware is harmful to your computer. So you need to quickly and completely remove this adware software. To delete this adware, you can use the manual removal steps that are given below or free malware removal utility such as MalwareBytes (it is free). We recommend you use automatic removal way that will help you to get rid of InitiatorSignal adware easily and safely. Manual removal is best used only if you are well versed in Apple Mac or in the case where adware is not deleted automatically. Some of the steps will require you to restart your machine or exit this web page. So, read this instructions carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove InitiatorSignal, complete the steps below:

1. Remove profiles created by InitiatorSignal
2. Check the list of installed applications
3. Remove InitiatorSignal related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove InitiatorSignal from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove profiles created by InitiatorSignal

InitiatorSignal can install a configuration profile on the Mac system to block changes made to the browser settings. Therefore, you need to open system preferences, find and delete the profile installed by the adware.

Click Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, select Profiles. if there is no Profiles in the list of preferences, that means there are no profiles installed on the Mac device. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile related to InitiatorSignal.

To delete a malicious profile, click on the minus button ( – ) located at the bottom-left of the Profiles screen.

Check the list of installed applications

Some adware, PUPs and browser hijackers may be uninstalled by uninstalling the freeware they came with. If this way does not succeed, then looking them up in the list of installed applications in the Finder. Use the “Move to Trash” command in order to delete them.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Carefully browse through the list of installed programs and remove all dubious and unknown software.

After you’ve found anything suspicious that may be the InitiatorSignal adware software or other potentially unwanted program, then right click this program and select “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.

Remove InitiatorSignal related files and folders

Now you need to try to find InitiatorSignal related files and folders, and then delete them manually. You need to look for these files in certain directories. To quickly open them, we recommend using the “Go to Folder…” command.

InitiatorSignal creates several files, these files must be found and removed. Below is a list of files associated with this unwanted application.

• /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.InitiatorSignal.system.plist
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.InitiatorSignal.service.plist
• /Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/System/com.InitiatorSignal.system
• ~/Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/Services/com.InitiatorSignal.service.app

Some files created by InitiatorSignal are hidden from the user. To find and delete them, you need to enable “show hidden files”. To do this, use the shortcut CMD + SHIFT + . Press once to show hidden files and again to hide them. There is another way. Click Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal. In Terminal, paste the following text: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Press Enter. Hold the ‘Option/alt’ key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.

Click on the Finder icon. From the menu bar, select Go and click “Go to Folder…”. As a result, a small window opens that allows you to quickly open a specific directory.

Check for InitiatorSignal generated files in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchAgents

This will open the contents of the “/Library/LaunchAgents” folder. Look carefully at it and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files: com.machelper.plist, macsearch.plist, com.net-preferences.plist, com.InitiatorSignal.service.plist, search.plist, com.google.defaultsearch.plist, and installapp.plist. Most often, potentially unwanted programs, browser hijackers and adware create several files with similar names.

Check for InitiatorSignal generated files in the /Library/Application Support folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/Application Support

This will open the contents of the “Application Support” folder. Look carefully at its contents, pay special attention to recently added/changed folders and files. Check the contents of suspicious folders, if there is a file with a name similar to com.InitiatorSignal.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders and files to the Trash.

Check for InitiatorSignal generated files in the “~/Library/LaunchAgents” folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
~/Library/LaunchAgents

Proceed in the same way as with the “/Library/LaunchAgents” and “/Library/Application Support” folders. Look for suspicious and recently added files. Move all suspicious files to the Trash.

Check for InitiatorSignal generated files in the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Carefully browse the entire list of files and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files to be deleted: com.machelper.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist, com.InitiatorSignal.system.plist, com.search.system.plist and com.macsearch.system.plist. In most cases, potentially unwanted programs, adware software and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you carefully followed the previous steps, then you should be able to get rid of InitiatorSignal. Of course, very often potentially unwanted programs, browser hijackers and adware hides on a Mac device, disguising itself as legitimate apps and files. Therefore, in some cases, it is difficult for an inexperienced user to decide whether a particular file is part of browser hijackers, adware and potentially unwanted programs. Therefore, we suggest you to use MalwareBytes to scan the Mac computer.

1. Click the link below to download the latest version of MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) for Apple Mac.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20841 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. When the download is done, close all apps and windows on your Apple Mac. Open a folder in which you saved it. Run the downloaded file and follow the prompts.
3. Press the “Scan” button for scanning your MAC system for the InitiatorSignal adware software. While the tool is scanning, you can see number of objects and files has already scanned.
4. Once the scan is done, MalwareBytes Free will create a list of unwanted apps and adware. You may remove threats (move to Quarantine) by simply press “Quarantine”.

Remove InitiatorSignal from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you have ‘InitiatorSignal adware’ removal problem, then remove unwanted plugins can help you. In the steps below we’ll show you the way to get rid of harmful plugins without reinstall. This will also help to get rid of InitiatorSignal adware software from your internet browser.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right hand corner, click on ‘three vertical dots’, and this will open up the main menu on Chrome. When the drop-down menu appears, select ‘More tools’ and click on ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove InitiatorSignal adware by reset Google Chrome settings.	Click on ‘menu’ button and select ‘Add-ons’. Go to ‘Extensions’ tab. To uninstall an add-on, click on ‘Remove’ button next to it. If you are still experiencing issues with InitiatorSignal adware removal, you need to reset Firefox browser.
Safari
On the top menu select ‘Safari’, then ‘Preferences’. Select ‘Extensions’ tab. Select an extension you want to delete and click ‘Uninstall’ button next to it.

How to stay safe online

Run adblocker program such as AdGuard in order to block ads, malvertisements, pop-ups and online trackers, avoid having to install harmful and adware browser plug-ins and add-ons that affect your Apple Mac performance and impact your machine security. Browse the Web anonymously and stay safe online!

Please go to the following link to download AdGuard.

Once the downloading process is finished, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.

Each time, when you start your machine, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted ads, block harmful and misleading web-sites.

Finish words

We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop up advertisements and intrusive malicious web pages) and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) (to periodically scan your MAC system for new adwares and other malware).

If you are still having problems while trying to remove InitiatorSignal from the Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Chrome, then ask for help here here.