Is the expertsearchmodule process legitimate or malware? Mac Mojave 10.14.5

I recently found when using the physics stack exchange site that an unwanted program had installed itself on my Mac. This happened a few times before I managed to isolate the source. In some instances the program was called 'managerpages', and in others 'coveropen'. The behaviour of the program seemed to be the same in both sets of cases-it placed an icon on my dock and appeared as an extension in both safari and chrome. I deleted the program from application finder and removed the extensions.

However, I now notice a process named 'expertsearchmodule' consuming significant network resources, sending and receiving megabytes of data in a short time period. I have forced it to quit and it restarts.

Can anyone tell me if this is a bonafide process, or something fishy. If the latter, is there an easy way to expunge processes from my system? I have tried searching for the process on Google but have found very few references to it.

Many thanks

Solution 1:

It is definitely not a part of the standard macOS install.

From the name and the story you're telling, it seems very likely that it is malware!

It might however be from a legitimate piece of software that you have installed. I would try closing the process down, and check the apps you normally use to see if you have any problems. If this is a legitimate piece of software, you should be able to get the process running again by rebooting.

If you did not knowingly install an app that is the "expert search module" - then I would recommend disconnecting the system from the internet, take backups (without deleting older backups) - and if at all possible - reinstall the system from scratch from a known-good backup. If that is not possible, use software such as MalwareBytes to track down the offender and remove it from the system.