'Spigot' malware deleted but browsers still not responding?

[Tsims01]

Hi I'm new here!
I somehow managed to infect my poor Mac with the 'spigot' malware (also labelled under searchme.safariextz ???) which came up detected on my AVG Antivirus installed
I put it in quarantine unsure whether to delete it or not
Ended up deleting it
But since then my browsers still haven't been responding??? I'll open the safari application but the browser won't open - the icon will just appear on the dock, if I right click on it it'll just say application not responding...

My mac in general has been pretty slow as of late with pre installed apps such as Keynote and Pages, I think because of my almost-full disk but my browsers always worked up until the discovery of the satanic creation that is malware

What I don't get is why, after deleting the virus and reinstalling El Capitan, my chrome and safari browsers still aren't working? I reinstalled chrome after managing to get safari working for A BIT before it started not responding again but no hope for either browser!

Please help me!!!

 

[KALLT]

It would be a good starting point to have an overview of your system and some of the software you have installed. You can do this with the application Etrecheck and then paste the full report here between [code][/code] tags.

 

[simonsi]

Did you follow this removal advice?

Did you erase and reinstall the OS?

 

[Tsims01]

It would be a good starting point to have an overview of your system and some of the software you have installed. You can do this with the application Etrecheck and then paste the full report here between [code][/code] tags.

Thank you so much! I removed the spigot and now chrome seems to be working fine, however safari still keeps crashing!
(I hope I did this right)

EtreCheck version: 3.0.1 (304)

Report generated 2016-08-17 10:41:04

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 6:17

Performance: Below Average


Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Remove] links to remove adware.


Problem: Apps are crashing

Description:

Safari won’t open and Chrome won’t load


Hardware Information:ⓘ

  MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015)

  [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

  MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir7,2

  1 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

  4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

  BANK 0/DIMM0

  2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

  BANK 1/DIMM0

  2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

  Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

  Wireless:  en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

  Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 347


Video Information:ⓘ

  Intel HD Graphics 6000

  Color LCD 1440 x 900


System Software:ⓘ

  OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G31) - Time since boot: less than an hour


Disk Information:ⓘ

  APPLE SSD SM0128G disk0 : (121.33 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

  EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

  Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

  Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 120.11 GB (25.43 GB free)

  Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

  Core Storage: disk0s2 120.47 GB Online


USB Information:ⓘ

  Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

  Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

  Imation ImationFlashDriv 3.88 GB

  T (disk2s1) /Volumes/T : 3.87 GB (58 MB free)


Thunderbolt Information:ⓘ

  Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Configuration files:ⓘ

  /etc/sysctl.conf - File exists but not expected


Gatekeeper:ⓘ

  Mac App Store and identified developers


Adware:ⓘ

  ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.spigot.ApplicationManager.plist

  One adware file found.[Remove]


Kernel Extensions:ⓘ

  /Applications/AVG AntiVirus.app

  [loaded]  com.avg.Antivirus.OnAccess.kext (4791 - SDK 10.8 - 2016-08-16) [Support]


  /Applications/Utilities/NoSleep.app

  [loaded]  com.protech.NoSleep (1.4.0 - SDK 10.10 - 2016-07-24) [Support]


System Launch Agents:ⓘ

  [not loaded]  7 Apple tasks

  [loaded]  165 Apple tasks

  [running]  66 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons:ⓘ

  [not loaded]  45 Apple tasks

  [loaded]  155 Apple tasks

  [running]  90 Apple tasks


Launch Agents:ⓘ

  [not loaded]  com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-07-17) - /Library/Application Support/Adobe/OOBE/PDApp/UWA/UpdaterStartupUtility: Executable not found!

  [failed]  com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a23d420d.plist (2016-07-13)

  [running]  com.avg.Antivirus.gui.plist (2015-12-04)


Launch Daemons:ⓘ

  [loaded]  com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (2016-07-13) [Support]

  [loaded]  com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (2016-07-13) [Support]

  [failed]  com.adobe.agsservice.plist (2016-03-30) - /Library/Application Support/Adobe/AdobeGCClient/AGSService: Executable not found!

  [loaded]  com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (2016-05-18)

  [loaded]  com.avg.Antivirus.crashpad.plist (2015-12-04)

  [running]  com.avg.Antivirus.infosd.plist (2015-12-04) [Support]

  [running]  com.avg.Antivirus.services.plist (2015-12-04)

  [failed]  com.fitbit.galileod.plist (2015-10-30) - /Library/Application Support/Fitbit Connect/galileod: Executable not found!

  [loaded]  net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist (2016-07-24) [Support]


User Launch Agents:ⓘ

  [loaded]  com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2015-11-29) - /Library/Application Support/Adobe/OOBE/PDApp/UWA/UpdaterStartupUtility: Executable not found!

  [loaded]  com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-08-15)

  [failed]  com.spigot.ApplicationManager.plist (2015-08-28) Adware!  [Remove]

  [failed]  com.spotify.webhelper.plist (2016-07-28) - ~/Library/Application Support/Spotify/SpotifyWebHelper: Executable not found!


User Login Items:ⓘ

  Flux  Application  (/Applications/Flux.app)

  ShazamHelper  SMLoginItem  (/Applications/Shazam.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/ShazamHelper.app)


Internet Plug-ins:ⓘ

  AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.017.20053 - SDK 10.11 (2016-08-03) [Support]

  AdobePDFViewer: 15.017.20053 - SDK 10.11 (2016-08-03) [Support]

  QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-07-09)

  Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-07-09)


3rd Party Preference Panes:ⓘ

  NoSleep (2016-07-24) [Support]


Time Machine:ⓘ

  Auto backup: YES

  Volumes being backed up:

  Macintosh HD: Disk size: 120.11 GB Disk used: 94.68 GB

  Destinations:

  Talei [Local]

  Total size: 999.86 GB

  Total number of backups: 24

  Oldest backup: 10/09/2015, 8:37 PM

  Last backup: 16/08/2016, 5:08 PM

  Size of backup disk: Excellent

  Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk size 120.11 GB X 3)


Top Processes by CPU:ⓘ

  7%  coreaudiod

  4%  kernel_task

  3%  bluetoothaudiod

  2%  iTunes

  0%  Shazam


Top Processes by Memory:ⓘ

  642 MB  kernel_task

  168 MB  mdworker(11)

  143 MB  iTunes

  98 MB  avgscand

  74 MB  ocspd


Virtual Memory Information:ⓘ

  584 MB  Free RAM

  3.43 GB  Used RAM (1.48 GB Cached)

  0 B  Swap Used


Diagnostics Information:ⓘ

  Aug 17, 2016, 10:35:20 AM  ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/iTunes_2016-08-17-103520_[redacted].crash

  com.apple.iTunes - /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes

  Aug 17, 2016, 10:33:31 AM  Self test - passed

[doublepost=1471400074][/doublepost]

Did you follow this removal advice?

Did you erase and reinstall the OS?

I think I tried to follow through with it but it wasn't making much of a difference in terms of loading safari properly.
I didn't erase OS, I just reinstalled - that might be part of the problem.
I'll probably back up my laptop and do so if safari still fails to load. Thank you!

 

[KALLT]

There is one remaining file of Spigot that you can get rid of (although it is likely ineffective by now). In Finder, click on the ‘Go’ menu at the top, press the option key and click on ‘Library’. There should be a folder there called LaunchAgents. Delete this file within it: ‘com.spigot.ApplicationManager.plist’.

That Etrecheck took six minutes to complete this report is indeed not normal. This suggests that something is hampering your computer’s performance, which may also be the reason for the Safari crashes. Possible causes: (1) your anti-malware program AVG, (2) Monolingual (which removes files from system applications and Safari), (3) the existence of /etc/sysctl.conf, which can interfere with your networking settings and might affect the browser too, (4) file-system corruptions, (5) hardware problems.

First, you should perform a first-aid operation on your Apple SSD with Disk Utility, to rule out any problems with your file system or disk. Second, consider moving the sysctl.conf file out of the way, with this command:

sudo mv /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.conf~

Reboot afterwards. See whether anything changes or comes up. Third, consider uninstalling AVG temporarily (you might need to reboot afterwards). Fourth, to replace the files that Monolingual removed and rule out problems because of this, you should reinstall the system (this will just repair your base system, everything will stay in place). To do that, reboot the computer and press command–R immediately after the tone. From there you can select ‘Reinstall OS X’ and select your Macintosh HD drive as the destination. I see that you have a Time Machine backup in place, make sure that you complete one more backup before you attempt the reinstallation (and make sure you have your encryption password!). Finally, if this still doesn’t work, perform an Apple Diagnostic Test according to instructions here.

That is all that comes to mind right now.