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I am running Norton AntiVirus on my MacBook Pro with OSX 10.6.7. Today (26 May 2011) Norton reported that the computer was infected with virus "youtubeBRwatch.com.exe," which it had "safely quarantined but could not repair."

I Googled "youtubeBRwatch" but can find only this reference. http://www.prevx.com/filenames/2159897571621317258-X1/YOUTUBEBRWATCH.COM.html Previx claims to be a subsidiary of Webroot. That could be true, or it could be a malware site pushing fake cleaner software, and falsely claiming to be a subsidiary of Webroot, for all I know.

A search for youtubeBRwatch on the Norton website returned nothing.

What is youtubeBRwatch.com.exe? Is it really malware, or is this a false positive from Norton Antivirus?

I do see that youtubeBRwatch.com.exe shows up in my Downloads directory, which is highly suspicious since I certainly never requested to download such a file. Is this new malware that can somehow force a download by your browser through an attack against Flash or something?

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  • This is just some advice... I would not run Nortn Antivirus on anything. I would not run any antivirus on a Mac. Mac's are not targets for viruses. Windows is the target. I know I am probably stirring up something with someone, but this is just a helpful tip to speed up your computer and save a lot of money.
    – David
    Commented May 26, 2011 at 18:36
  • Macs are just as vulnerable to many virus/spyware issues. There are plenty of free options out there that are low overhead. I do however agree with ditching Norton though, never been a fan.
    – MaQleod
    Commented May 26, 2011 at 18:45
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    Not trying to be doom and gloom @David. But to say there is no such thing as a virus on a Mac is being Naive. it.slashdot.org/story/11/05/26/1355243/…
    – Nixphoe
    Commented May 26, 2011 at 18:46
  • @David: that is some pretty bad advice there. Just because MacOS is not usually the target and may be more difficult to attack, does not mean it is never the target and is impossible to attack (even a system completely unbreakable without user intervention is at risk to "human engineering". Search for news of macdefender and its family of self-installing malware for instance.
    – David Spillett
    Commented May 26, 2011 at 18:47
  • Indeed, as there is now a case of widespread malware in the wild on OS X, "macs don't get viruses" is simply not acceptable any more.
    – Phoshi
    Commented May 26, 2011 at 18:58

2 Answers 2

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Delete the file.

http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/updated-macdefender-malware-appears-no-longer-needs-password-052611

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This virus was written for Windows, so will probably do nothing having it on your Mac anyway. However, you should delete it anyway. If you're not sure where it came from, you can right click and get info and if it was downloaded with Safari/Chrome on OS X then it should show you the origin domain name/IP.

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