Accountsd wants to use the login keychain

Accountsd

Accountsd is a newly discovered malware app for Mac browsers that “steals” the browser’s settings and enforces unwanted changes to them. Accountsd is known for altering the homepage of Safari, Chrome, and Firefox as well as replacing their default search engines.

The goal of those changes is to turn the browser into a site-promoting platform by forcing it to constantly redirect users to certain sites that pay to get advertised in this way. This type of online advertising is very common and there are many potentially unwanted apps that employ it in order to generate income for their creators. The umbrella term used for this kind of applications is browser hijackers and Accountsd is simply one of the latest browser hijacker versions. In general, any app that attaches itself to the browser and triggers sudden page redirects and generates popups and banners and/or makes any unwanted and unauthorized modifications in the browser can be labeled as a browser hijacker. In some cases, a specific hijacker like QSearch or Yahoo Search, may even possess certain useful functions that may make the user keep it on their computer despite the obstructive ads and site redirects. However, so far, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly useful about Accountsd, which is why it is advisable to remove it from your Mac.

Accountsd wants to use the login keychain

“Accountsd wants to use the login keychain“ is a browser hijacker app, compatible with Mac browsers, that triggers page redirects within the browser without user permission. “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain“ also tampers with the browser settings in order to make its redirects more frequent and more difficult to stop.

In most cases, the only way to ensure that this site-promoting activity would cease is to fully uninstall the browser hijacker. Otherwise, the unwanted app would just keep flooding your screen with aggressive ads and would keep sending your browser to sites you probably don’t want to visit.

Accountsd on Mac

Accountsd on Mac is a small malware app that attaches to the browsers of macOS computers and uses their tabs for site promotion. Accountsd is not aimed at harming your computer but its uncontrolled advertising of different sites may still put the machine in serious danger.

Unfortunately, even though the goal of the creators of apps like this one isn’t to harm your Mac, this may still end up happening if the hijacker redirects you to some unsafe site it is tasked with promoting. In the more severe instances of this, you may even get your computer attacked by virus threats and malware the likes of Trojans, spyware, or Ransomware.

What is Accountsd wants to use the login keychain on Mac?

“Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” is a PUA (potentially unwanted app) that targets the browsers of Mac machines and forces them to promote ad-heavy sites. “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” is primarily distributed as an optional component included in the installer of another program or application.

With this in mind, you should make sure to avoid downloading new apps from unreliable sources or opening any spam emails or sketchy ads as those are the main sources of hijackers like this one.

Now, if you want help with the uninstallation of this hijacker, check out the removal instructions from the following guide manual. 

SUMMARY:

How to Remove Accountsd wants to use the login keychain

If your Mac has been infected with “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” and you don’t know what to do, here is what we suggest you to try to remove the nagging browser hijacker from your system:

1. Start with launching Safari (if this is your main web browser) and clicking on its Safari menu.
2. Then, select Preferences and open it.
3. You should find an extensions icon in the new Preferences window. Open it and take a look at the extensions that have been installed.
4. If you find some unfamiliar entries, including “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain”, make sure that you uninstall them from the browser by clicking on the trash bin/remove button.
5. After you do that, you can check if the hijacker is still disturbing you and how Safari operates, by using it for a while.

If you keep seeing nagging ads and sponsored pop-ups that are powered by “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” all over your screen, then we recommend you use the more detailed instructions on how to remove “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” in the guide below.

You cannot clean your Mac properly if dozens of sponsored messages keep interrupting you. Therefore, to stop the ads invasion coming from Safari, you need to Quit it (if it is opened). In case there is some trouble and the browser is unresponsive, you can use the Force Quit option that is found in Safari’s Apple menu.

With the browser closed, now you can safely proceed to the next step.

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

In your Mac, open Finder and go to Applications>>>Utilities, then select Activity Monitor and start it.

You will see a number of processes running in the background of your OS. Try to find a process that is related to “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” and its activity by looking and the names and the CPU and Memory usage of the listed processes. If you find something that you believe is problematic, highlight it and then click the “i” button at the top. An information window with details about the selected process will appear on the screen:

Note: In the images below, we are using a Google Chrome process for demonstration:

Go to the bottom and click on Sample. Once you do this, a sample file for the selected process will be created:

Please, safe the file and then run it through the powerful online virus scanner below:

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Then, wait for the scan and if danger is detected in the file, this is a sure sign that you need to stop the related process from running by right-clicking on it.

If you find more than one suspicious-looking process in the Activity Monitor, you can use the scanner above to check anything you believe are part of the threat, and then stop the dangerous processes and delete the malicious files.

After you have stopped anything related to “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain”, it is time to open Safari safely.

We recommend you to press and hold the Shift key while starting Safari because this will prevent the browser from launching sponsored pages powered by “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain”, so you can complete the next steps in it without being interrupted.

In case that there are some intrusive pages that still manage to open on their own once you start Safari, simply Force Quit Safari (Apple menu>>>Force Quit) and switch OFF your Internet connection (Mac Menu>>>Wi-Fi OFF, or unplug the Ethernet cable) until you complete the next steps.

Then, re-launch Safari by pressing the Shift keyboard key and proceed to the next step.

Remove “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” from Safari

When the browser opens safely, go the Safari menu at the top, and click on Preferences:

Then, select the Extensions icon from the available options:

When the Extensions page opens, search for any extensions that look suspicious, have not been installed with your approval, or are obviously related to “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” and its browser hijacking activity. Then Uninstall the entries that look problematic or potentially unwanted by clicking on the Uninstall button next to them.

Once you are done, close the Extensions window, then click the Safari Menu once again >>>Preferences, and then open the Privacy tab:

In this tab, search for “Remove All Website Data” and select it. This action will delete any cookies, cache and other details about websites that “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” has loaded in the browser. You may need to confirm the action with clicking on Remove Now.

Just remember that after you remove all data about loaded websites, you will need to re-enter your passwords for sites that you have been previously logged in.

While you are still in Preferences, open the General tab:

Then, in the Homepage section, quickly check the address that is written there and if you detect that it has been changed with a sponsored URL, delete it and type an address that you trust to be your new homepage:

Finally, it is a good idea to clean the History logs from Safari in order to delete any traces of pages that have been loaded by the browser hijacker. For this, click on the History menu of the browser and then click on Clear History. Then, follow the steps there. You may need to wait for a while until all browsing history is cleared.

Then, check how Safari operates and if the disturbance caused by “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” is gone.

 In case that you have more than one browser installed on your Mac computer, or Safari isn’t the browser that you are using by default, the instructions below will help you to clear your other browsers from any hijacker-related traces.

How to Remove “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” From Firefox in OSX:

For Firefox, simply launch the browser and click on   that you will find at the top right corner of the window.

Next, click on  Add-ons and then, select the Extensions tab from the left panel:

Look at the installed extensions and if you find a problematic one –  Remove it. After that, don’t forget to Refresh Your Firefox Settings in order to clear any potential alternations that “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” might have made in its settings.

How to Remove “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” From Chrome in OSX:

 For Google Chrome, all you need to do is start it, then click  top right and then select —–>More Tools —–> Extensions. 

You can remove any extensions that look problematic by selecting the Trash bin icon .

Before you close the browser, click  once again, click on Settings and open the Search tab in the Settings Window. Next, select Manage Search Engines.  If you detect that “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” has added some new suspicious search engines on the list, Delete everything that you don’t plan using and leave only the search engines you trust. Then, Reset Your Chrome Settings to eliminate any other changes that might have been made inside the browser without your direct approval.

If you complete the instructions from this manual guide, but “Accountsd wants to use the login keychain” is still present on your Mac and keeps disturbing you, then you may need to download the anti-virus program recommended on this page and scan the entire computer with it. If you need to scan specific files, you can also try our free online virus scanner. In case you run into any trouble or have questions, you can always ask us for help in the comments below!