What is Chisel?
Chisel is the type of malicious software that has been designed to cause a lot of different unwanted activities on your Mac. It may get inside without you even realising it and begin to set up different modules that obtain permissions, making them appear legitimate applications for your Mac. In reality, they may steal data from your device and obtain different kinds of critical information concerning it and they may also damage macOS.
Read this article to learn how to deal with this nasty Trojan and remove it from your Mac.
Chisel Summary
| Name | Chisel |
| Type | Trojan Horse Mac |
| Brief Description | Aims to perform mining activities multiple spyware activities. |
| Symptoms | Your computer could become very slow and even freeze from time to time. |
| Distribution Technique | Bundled downloads. Web pages which may promote it. |
| Detection Tool |
See if the System is impacted by Chisel
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|
User Experience | Join Our Forum to go over Chisel. |
Chisel Trojan – How Did I Get It?
Chisel is the type of software, which has been designed in order to infect your Mac without you realizing. This can happen through a variety of methods. One of those if it gets sent to you, while pretending to be a legitimate document in an email. Such documents often include:
- A flight ticket.
- Paycheck document.
- Payment due type of document.
- An e-receipt or invoice.
In reality, these documents may not be documents at all and they may lead to a lot of dangerous threats, including the Chisel malware.
Chisel Virus – What Does It Do?
Chisel virus could be dangerous in different kinds of ways to your computer system. For once, it may be a Bitcoin Miner virus, which could run mining activities on your Mac without you realising and use its CPU and GPU resources to obtain crypto at your expense.
Other activities that this virus may run once it’s on your Mac is collect different kinds of data without your permission, like the following details:
- What searches you have made.
- Your bookmarked websites.
- What you have visited.
- Your mouse clicks.
- IP and Mac addresses.
- Your mouse movements.
- The browsing history from your browser.
- Different personally identifiable information you may type.
This information may be transferred to third parties and you do not know what happens to it afterwards.
Chisel Malware – How Dangerous Is It?
Chisel is a typical malware for Mac. Just like such, it may be responsible for the following malicious activities occurring on your device:
- Download other viruses.
- Update its miners, control them.
- Take screenshots.
- Steal files.
- Log the keystrokes you type.
- Obtain data from your PC.
- Control your microphone and audio.
This is why it is imperative that you find and remove this nasty virus immediately.
Remove Chisel Virus from Your Mac
Chisel virus can be detected and delete it if you follow the steps in the removal guide below. make sure to follow them only if you have extensive experience in getting rid of this nasty application and other malware. Other than that, the best way to go for us to automatically scan your computer using a professional anti-malware for mac. This is the kind of software, which will scan your device and automatically make sure to detect and remove any components of this malware from it and do it in a safe way as well.
Ventsislav Krastev
Ventsislav is a cybersecurity expert at SensorsTechForum since 2015. He has been researching, covering, helping victims with the latest malware infections plus testing and reviewing software and the newest tech developments. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for learning new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management, Network Administration and Computer Administration of System Applications, he found his true calling within the cybersecrurity industry and is a strong believer in the education of every user towards online safety and security.
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Steps to Prepare Before Removal:
Before starting to follow the steps below, be advised that you should first do the following preparations:
- Backup your files in case the worst happens.
- Make sure to have a device with these instructions on standy.
- Arm yourself with patience.
- 1. Scan for Mac Malware
- 2. Uninstall Risky Apps
- 3. Clean Your Browsers
Step 1: Scan for and remove Chisel files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as Chisel, the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
Quick and Easy Mac Malware Video Removal Guide
Bonus Step: How to Make Your Mac Run Faster?
Mac machines maintain probably the fastest operating system out there. Still, Macs do become slow and sluggish sometimes. The video guide below examines all of the possible problems that may lead to your Mac being slower than usual as well as all of the steps that can help you to speed up your Mac.
Step 2: Uninstall Chisel and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
2. Find Activity Monitor and double-click it:
3. In the Activity Monitor look for any suspicious processes, belonging or related to Chisel:
4. Click on the "Go" button again, but this time select Applications. Another way is with the ⇧+⌘+A buttons.
5. In the Applications menu, look for any suspicious app or an app with a name, similar or identical to Chisel. If you find it, right-click on the app and select “Move to Trash”.
6. Select Accounts, after which click on the Login Items preference. Your Mac will then show you a list of items that start automatically when you log in. Look for any suspicious apps identical or similar to Chisel. Check the app you want to stop from running automatically and then select on the Minus (“-“) icon to hide it.
7. Remove any leftover files that might be related to this threat manually by following the sub-steps below:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove Chisel via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
1. Click on "Go" and Then "Go to Folder" as shown underneath:
2. Type in "/Library/LauchAgents/" and click Ok:
3. Delete all of the virus files that have similar or the same name as Chisel. If you believe there is no such file, do not delete anything.
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 3: Remove Chisel – related extensions from Safari / Chrome / Firefox
Chisel-FAQ
What is Chisel on your Mac?
The Chisel threat is probably a potentially unwanted app. There is also a chance it could be related to Mac malware. If so, such apps tend to slow your Mac down significantly and display advertisements. They could also use cookies and other trackers to obtain browsing information from the installed web browsers on your Mac.
Can Macs Get Viruses?
Yes. As much as any other device, Apple computers do get malware. Apple devices may not be a frequent target by malware authors, but rest assured that almost all of the Apple devices can become infected with a threat.
What Types of Mac Threats Are There?
According to most malware researchers and cyber-security experts, the types of threats that can currently infect your Mac can be rogue antivirus programs, adware or hijackers (PUPs), Trojan horses, ransomware and crypto-miner malware.
What To Do If I Have a Mac Virus, Like Chisel?
Do not panic! You can easily get rid of most Mac threats by firstly isolating them and then removing them. One recommended way to do that is by using a reputable malware removal software that can take care of the removal automatically for you.
There are many Mac anti-malware apps out there that you can choose from. SpyHunter for Mac is one of the reccomended Mac anti-malware apps, that can scan for free and detect any viruses. This saves time for manual removal that you would otherwise have to do.
How to Secure My Data from Chisel?
With few simple actions. First and foremost, it is imperative that you follow these steps:
Step 1: Find a safe computer and connect it to another network, not the one that your Mac was infected in.
Step 2: Change all of your passwords, starting from your e-mail passwords.
Step 3: Enable two-factor authentication for protection of your important accounts.
Step 4: Call your bank to change your credit card details (secret code, etc.) if you have saved your credit card for online shopping or have done online activiites with your card.
Step 5: Make sure to call your ISP (Internet provider or carrier) and ask them to change your IP address.
Step 6: Change your Wi-Fi password.
Step 7: (Optional): Make sure to scan all of the devices connected to your network for viruses and repeat these steps for them if they are affected.
Step 8: Install anti-malware software with real-time protection on every device you have.
Step 9: Try not to download software from sites you know nothing about and stay away from low-reputation websites in general.
If you follow these reccomendations, your network and Apple devices will become significantly more safe against any threats or information invasive software and be virus free and protected in the future too.
More tips you can find on our MacOS Virus section, where you can also ask any questions and comment about your Mac problems.
About the Chisel Research
The content we publish on SensorsTechForum.com, this Chisel how-to removal guide included, is the outcome of extensive research, hard work and our team’s devotion to help you remove the specific macOS issue.
How did we conduct the research on Chisel?
Please note that our research is based on an independent investigation. We are in contact with independent security researchers, thanks to which we receive daily updates on the latest malware definitions, including the various types of Mac threats, especially adware and potentially unwanted apps (PUAs).
Furthermore, the research behind the Chisel threat is backed with VirusTotal.
To better understand the threat posed by Mac malware, please refer to the following articles which provide knowledgeable details.