Moonlock Engine

What is Moonlock Engine?

Moonlock Engine is the technology that powers all anti-malware features in CleanMyMac X. These include the Malware Removal module, real-time malware monitoring, and background scanning. Introduced in version 4.14.0 of the app, Moonlock Engine makes threat detection with CleanMyMac X much faster and even more effective.

At MacPaw, we have always cared a lot about your security and strived to make CleanMyMac your tool of choice against malware. Building on the expertise gained over the years, we finally decided to focus on cybersecurity as one of our key domains. As a result, the team of engineers behind malware protection features in CleanMyMac X has grown and become a separate, dedicated company division — Moonlock. Moonlock Engine is an outcome of their ongoing work and a major upgrade to the app's anti-malware technology.

What's great about Moonlock Engine?

Up to two times higher scan speed. We ran rigorous tests of malware scanning speed on various Mac models. Compared to the previous scanning algorithm, Moonlock Engine makes scanning for malware faster by 49% on Intel-based Mac computers and by 89% on those with the M1 chip.

More locations to scan for malware. With Moonlock Engine, the app goes the extra mile to inspect:

  • Mail attachments
  • Archives
  • USB drives
  • Browser extensions
  • Launch items

Control over the speed and depth of scanning. To learn more about the scan modes and options, see Configure the speed and depth of scanning.

On top of that, Moonlock Engine successfully passed a quality check by AV-TEST, detecting 93.3% of the malicious samples provided in the test.

Visit the Moonlock website for more info about the engine. Also, feel free to reach out to us with any feedback or questions.

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