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I need advice on how to remove Anydesk from my computer. I had received an email from someone that (I since found out that it was a fake) appeared to be from PayPal that said I needed to pay $XXX, I did not recognize the purchase and I was worried that they would affect my credit if I did not, so I called the number in the email and the person that answered ended up putting Anydesk on my computer. How? I don't know whether it was Flatpack, Snap, Deb file, or whatever. He did it without my permission.

I am running Linux Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS with Linux Kernel 6.2.

I have recently removed any and all traces I could find of Anydesk, but still it remains on my computer. Using the 'search' function in the files folder I have tried deleting all items related to Anydesk, and then I went to the hidden files and did the same thing. I was able to remove all but one file (that I was able to locate), and the one file that I tried to remove by deletion still indicated that the "file cannot be deleted".

In the upper right hand top of the screen there is an icon for Anydesk that I can't remove, try as I might. Even right clicking on it, I get the 'quit' message so I select it. After deletion efforts, I did an update and then did a reboot, and then the icon returns.

When I select the icon, I get this:

enter image description here

enter image description here

I do not think it actually is logged into anything I do, like my keyboard use, but I still want it removed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

George Generke

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    Please edit your question and add more information on how you installed Anydesk. Did you install using Flatpack, Snap, Deb file, or did you add the PPA repository? Also add how did you "remove any and all traces"? Also add what happens if you click on the icon of Anydesk? What happens if you right click on the icon, do you get the Quit option?
    – user68186
    Commented Dec 30, 2023 at 19:23
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    If you are unsure of how the program was installed, you might want to consider simply nuking and reinstalling your system from scratch. A clean install (after copying files you want to keep to external media) would allow you to make sure you've removed all traces of the bad guys programs.
    – Thomas Ward ♦
    Commented Dec 30, 2023 at 23:28
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    You might remove Anydesk or whatever it is by some means, but there's no guarantee that you will be able to remove any other backdoor that the attacker has set up, so you'll probably just end up having it installed again by the attacker.
    – muru
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 0:12
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    A compromised installation has become untrustworthy. Reinstalling is really the ONLY way to make sure that it's clean. Otherwise you can never know what evil things an attacker got onto your system.
    – HuHa
    Commented Dec 31, 2023 at 1:25
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    @user68186 at least wait until Valentine's day, seriously all answers are useful to someone in the future.
    – Raffles
    Commented Jan 16 at 0:03

1 Answer 1

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"I have recently removed any and all traces I could find of Anydesk, but still it remains on my computer."

You were the victim of criminal activity, not an honest mistake.
Consider your system compromised by professionals.
They know how to prevent you (and us) from easily removing their malware and backdoors.
Nuke it immediately.

"I do not want to do a re-installation of the hard drive after nuking everything. I do know how to do that, but it is VERY time consuming."

Yes, it can be.
Sorry.

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