TapuFind

TapuFind is a browser hijacker that redirects the Safari browser's searches to Search.tapufind.com. While this website has no verifiably unsafe characteristics, it also has no advantages or unique results for acquiring search results and may expose you to potentially threatening, third-party content. You should let your anti-malware products uninstall TapuFind completely, which has a history of non-consensual reinstallations via related threats.

More Evidence that the OS X is Far from Invincible

From 2017 up to the present year, a search engine hijacker is in distribution through strategies ranging from torrents for pirated software, such as Microsoft's Office, to conventional malvertising attacks. Installations of the search-redirecting extension, TapuFind, show no evidence of causing severe security issues that malware experts would consider worthy of rating it as being a high-level threat. However, its environment of preference does indicate the vulnerability of Mac-brand software.

TapuFind is a Safari browser-specific extension that provides no significant features other than redirecting the browser's searches to a search-themed sub-domain of TapuFind.com. Like the software that's promoting it, this domain has no inherent, unsafe characteristics, such as exploit kits or script-based vulnerabilities. However, its search engine is nothing more than a redirector towards a legitimate domain (such as Bing, Google or Yahoo Search), with additional advertising content inserted for revenue generation.

Over the past years, malware analysts have failed at connecting TapuFind issues with any significant attacks directly. However, its installation exploits are including an additional component that can reinstall the extension when the user removes it. TapuFind's filename conventions, also, include an obfuscated text that makes arduous validating the extension's identity unnecessarily. Accordingly, all Mac users should treat TapuFind as being similar to a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) regarding its safety and the user experience issues.

Finding Your Way Clear of an Ad-Finding Extension

Besides not providing personalized results, the TapuFind's website doesn't use traditional certificate authentication or encryption for securing your connection or any information that you may input – such as your Web searches – on the site. Any exposure to non-secured ad networks can provoke other security problems that are beyond this article's scope, and malware experts, especially, recommend avoiding interactions with suspicious software updates, pop-ups, and 'click here' tactics. Disabling features like Flash, Java, and JavaScript while browsing an untrustworthy domain, also, is advisable for your overall Web-browsing security.

Most security products compatible with Mac-brand OSes (the extension has yet see confirmation for operating in other environments) should stop TapuFind's installation immediately. Likely infection strategies include compromised Flash Player updates seeded throughout torrent networks, which may bundle themselves with TapuFind and a variety of other PUPs. Like Windows, the Mac OSes also feature a software-restrictive Safe Mode option that may be helpful for removing TapuFind with the anti-malware program of your choice.

While malware experts can't place TapuFind in the same ranks as more significant threats, such as the KeRanger Ransomware, it does have common ground with the file-locker Trojan. Fans of the Mac brand may be less often targets of bad software campaigns, but less isn't the same as 'not at all.'