PUP.Optional.Catalina

PUP.Optional.Catalina is Malwarebytes’ detection name for a family of adware related potentially unwanted programs published by Catalina Group Ltd. for Windows and MacOS.

PUP.Optional.Catalina downloads and installs extensions on the affected system that have no benefit for the user. PUP.Optional.Catalina comes bundled with the applications published by the Catalina Group like the Citrio browser (a Chromium project).

PUP.Optional.Catalina gains persistence by installing Scheduled Tasks and a Run registry key. These processes are designed to “update” the application without user consent. Some of these updates were connected to privacy issues.

Malwarebytes blocks PUP.Optional.Catalina

Malwarebytes can detect and remove PUP.Optional.Catalina without further user interaction.

• Please download Malwarebytes to your desktop.
• Double-click MBSetup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
• When your Malwarebytes for Windows installation completes, the program opens to the Welcome to Malwarebytes screen.
• Click on the Get started button.
• Click Scan to start a Threat Scan.
• Click Quarantine to remove the found threats.
• Reboot the system if prompted to complete the removal process.

Should users wish to keep this program and exclude it from being detected in future scans, they can add the program to the exclusions list. Here’s how to do it.

• Open Malwarebytes for Windows.
• Click the Detection History
• Click the Allow List
• To add an item to the Allow List, click Add.
• Select the exclusion type Allow a file or folder and use the Select a folder button to select the main folder for the software that you wish to keep.
• Repeat this for any secondary files or folder(s) that belong to the software.

If you want to allow the program to connect to the Internet, for example to fetch updates, also add an exclusion of the type Allow an application to connect to the internet and use the Browse button to select the file you wish to grant access.