This article has been made with the main idea in mind to explain what is the Mrt.app and how you can remove it completely from your Mac.
A new infection, attacking Mac users has been detected to hijack the MRT.app in the Library of your Mac. The program is believed by researchers to be a hijacking Trojan horse which affects legitimate processes of the victims’ Macs, so that the malware remains persistent on them. In addition to this, the MRT.app may have something to do with a false positive in relation to some antivirus programs that display detection. If you see the MRT.app infection to be detected n your mac, we recommend that you read this article to be able to understand when the MRT is malware on your Mac and when it’s a false positive and how you can remove the MRT.app if it is, in fact, malicious.
Threat Summary
| Name | MRT.app "Virus" |
| Type | Malware or a false-postive for Mac OS |
| Short Description | Believed to come from the Malware Removal Tool (MRT), but could also be detected in relation with a virus on your Mac. |
| Symptoms | Detections continue to reappear in relation to MRT.app and the virus can replicate onto different legitimate Mac apps. |
| Distribution Method | Either a false positive or if malware, may be distributed via e-mail or files, pretending to be legitimate. |
| Detection Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by MRT.app "Virus" Download Combo Cleaner | User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss MRT.app "Virus". |
MRT.app Detection – How Did I Get It
Users on reddit have complained of getting the MRT.app detected as infection on their antivirus software. The reports were associated with the app, located in the follwing path:
→ /System/Library/CoreServices/MRT.app
The reports were quickly answered as this is the Malware Removal Tool which is enabled by default on the users’ Macs. The tool is part of the embedded malware protection and likely detected by third-party antivirus programs as a virus itself, because of the escalated permissions it has over the apps. Avast support had the following to reply on their security forums:
“Re: False positive in Swift standard library? « Reply #7 on: Today at 10:26:55 PM » Hello,
sorry for your inconvenience, we are working on fix and it will be release asap.”
Other users report that the core of the conflict is within how Apple Swift library interacts with any third party antivirus programs, although no specific details were yet revealed.
What Does MRT.app Do If Malicious
Even though most reports have outlined the MRT.app detection as being a false positive, reappearing of the detection after users have reported it to most antivirus vendors may mean that it could be malicious. One of the strongest symptoms of the MRT.app being malicious is for the file to have another location as the one we have shown above. If so, then you would need to consider understanding the risks of any virus-related attack that uses the name MRT.app as a pretext to conduct it’s malicious activities.
In the events that the MRT.app is malicious, be advised that you should be aware of the fact that it can perfrom the following malicious activities on your Mac:
- Migrate to other processes and apps.
- Obtain information from your Mac’s drive.
- Cause your Mac to crash.
- Erase important information from your Mac.
- Gain live access to what you do on your Mac’s Desktop.
- Take screenshots.
- Track the keystrokes you type.
- Steal your Apple ID and other account names and passwords.
- Install other viruses on your Mac.
- Run a cryptocurrency miner malware.
If you have seen one of those symptoms, then you should do a second check up on your Mac for any viruses that may be MRT.app related or interfering with MRT so that they remain undetected.
Remove MRT.app – Related Viruses from Your Mac
If you want to stop the false positive detection of the MRT.app on your Mac it is rather easy – simply white list the folder of MRT.app in your antivirus program. If you, however believe that your Mac has been infected by malware, we would recommend that you follow the removal instructions underneath this article to remove any apps that might cause you trouble. If you cannot identify the source of the problem, then experts always recommend to download and run a scan, using an advanced anti-malware program. Such tool will automatically detect and remove any malware that may be causing issues on your Mac.
Note! Your computer system may be affected by MRT.app "Virus" and other threats.
Scan Your MAC with Combo Cleaner
Combo Cleaner is a powerful malware removal tool designed to help users with in-depth system security analysis, detection and removal of threats such as MRT.app "Virus".
Keep in mind, that Combo Cleaner needs to purchased to remove the malware threats. Click on the corresponding links to check Combo Cleaner’s EULA and Privacy Policy.
To remove MRT.app "Virus" follow these steps:
Remove MRT.app "Virus" from your Mac
