How to get rid of BYOB botnet on a Mac

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “there’s an app for that.” It means that regardless of what you want to do, there’s more than likely already an app on the market that can help you do that thing.

Well, the same is true for hacks. And the problem is only seemingly getting worse. Hackers and scammers will find a way to exploit anything — that includes educational apps like BYOB or Build Your Own Block.

If you’ve got BYOB installed on your computer, intentionally or not, this article is here to help you. There are a lot of reasons you might want to uninstall BYOB, and you’ll read about the best ways to do it. You’ll also read more about what the BYOB botnet even is. And, if you’re confused about the word botnet, don’t worry. I’ll explain that, too.

What is BYOB?

First, let’s get into what even is BYOB. The acronym stands for Build Your Own Blocks, and it’s an educational game aimed at helping kids get into the world of coding and programming.

The biggest issue with BYOB is that it’s open-source. That opens the door to quite a few different scenarios.

The first issue is that anyone can modify the source code and then re-upload it to trick people into downloading a corrupted or malicious version. The second problem is that it leaves itself wide-open for hackers to play with it and figure out how to exploit, which they’ve done repeatedly and with some success.

How can a Mac get infected with BYOB botnet?

BYOB is almost always manually installed by the user. When the user downloads the BYOB installer from a malicious source, a Mac may get exploited by the botnet.

So although you may download BYOB voluntarily, you may not know this exact framework is malicious. Once BYOB is installed on your Mac, hackers can remotely control your machine along with other devices by setting up a BYOB botnet. It won’t necessarily be obvious and may be more hidden so that the hackers can use the machine's processing power.

How can it harm my Mac?

When the BYOB botnet is installed on a Mac, a hacker may try to use your computer’s power to run certain tasks. Usually, those are nefarious tasks and sometimes less than legal. But, at any rate, if a machine is being used for its background processing power, it will run slower, using up every last CPU resource, potentially overworking and damaging your internal components.

How to remove BYOB from Mac automatically with CMM

Thankfully, even if you don’t know where to start with uninstalling BYOB from your Mac, there’s an app that can make it easy for you. CleanMyMac X is an app that you can download for free and will help you scan and quickly remove any type of malicious software.

Once you download CleanMyMac X and install it, just follow these instructions:

1. Open CleanMyMac X.
2. Click Malware Removal.
3. Then, click the Scan button.
4. After the scan is complete, click the Remove button to delete.

That’s how easy it is to clean up your Mac and get it running like it used to again.

Manual steps to remove BYOB botnet from Mac

Now, if you prefer to do things your way, then you can definitely remove the BYOB botnet from Mac manually. It’s not difficult per se, but it is a bit time-consuming. There are multiple steps to the process: the first one is to delete the BYOB app itself.

1. Open a new Finder window.
2. Click Go > Applications.
3. Then, find BYOB.
4. Now, drag the icon to the Trash in your dock.

Unfortunately, BYOB also installs quite a few support files along with it. So, you’ll need to hunt for those and delete them too. But, you can do that by following these steps:

1. In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder…
2. Type in: ~/Library
3. Open the Application Support folder.
   
   

   

   
   
4. Then, delete any files you see related to BYOB.
5. Click the back arrow.
6. Repeat steps 3-5, but go into the folders for: Caches, Preferences, and Saved Application State.

Once you’re done deleting the files, go ahead and empty your Trash. Then, reboot your Mac for good measure. Rebooting will shut down currently running software and remove unneeded cache – this includes all of the support files that might have been used in the background.

How to prevent infecting a Mac with botnets

The best you can prevent botnets like BYOB and others from infecting your Mac is to get in the habit of regularly scanning your computer.

That’s where an app like CleanMyMac X comes in handy. There are so many suspicious and dangerous pieces of software online, it’s hard for any one person to keep up with them. But, if you set up real-time monitor in CleanMyMac X you’ll be able to catch anything dubious before it causes any severe damage on your computer.

This is how easy it is to turn on real-time protection with CleanMyMac X:

1. Open CleanMyMac X.
2. Click the CleanMyMac X menu icon.
3. In the “Real-time malware monitor” section click Turn On.

Now your Mac will stay protected from all kinds of malware.

Finding out your Mac has been infected with a botnet can be scary. But getting rid of it doesn’t have to be a pain. Hopefully, after reading this article, you see how easy it actually is to keep your Mac safe from botnets like BYOB – thanks in part to the help of apps like CleanMyMac X.