What is this mystery process: “-i”?











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I have a mystery process visible in Activity Monitor, simply called "-i" - don't remember ever seeing this before. Its parent process is launchd, and belongs to root.




  • Persists between reboots;

  • Sometimes high CPU use.


Can't find any reference to it online anywhere either!



enter image description here



Macos 10.13.6










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  • And when you press "quit"...?
    – Mateus Ribeiro
    Nov 30 at 23:36










  • what does it say when you run Sample process on it ?
    – Buscar웃
    Dec 1 at 0:02






  • 3




    In Terminal run sudo /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/Activity Monitor to launch Activity Monitor with more privileges, then get info on the process and look at the "Open Files and Ports" for a hint.
    – Redarm
    Dec 1 at 0:16










  • The 'open files and ports' option is not something I've tried, works as well as the lsof command.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:04















up vote
5
down vote

favorite












I have a mystery process visible in Activity Monitor, simply called "-i" - don't remember ever seeing this before. Its parent process is launchd, and belongs to root.




  • Persists between reboots;

  • Sometimes high CPU use.


Can't find any reference to it online anywhere either!



enter image description here



Macos 10.13.6










share|improve this question
























  • And when you press "quit"...?
    – Mateus Ribeiro
    Nov 30 at 23:36










  • what does it say when you run Sample process on it ?
    – Buscar웃
    Dec 1 at 0:02






  • 3




    In Terminal run sudo /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/Activity Monitor to launch Activity Monitor with more privileges, then get info on the process and look at the "Open Files and Ports" for a hint.
    – Redarm
    Dec 1 at 0:16










  • The 'open files and ports' option is not something I've tried, works as well as the lsof command.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:04













up vote
5
down vote

favorite









up vote
5
down vote

favorite











I have a mystery process visible in Activity Monitor, simply called "-i" - don't remember ever seeing this before. Its parent process is launchd, and belongs to root.




  • Persists between reboots;

  • Sometimes high CPU use.


Can't find any reference to it online anywhere either!



enter image description here



Macos 10.13.6










share|improve this question















I have a mystery process visible in Activity Monitor, simply called "-i" - don't remember ever seeing this before. Its parent process is launchd, and belongs to root.




  • Persists between reboots;

  • Sometimes high CPU use.


Can't find any reference to it online anywhere either!



enter image description here



Macos 10.13.6







macos activity-monitor






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Nov 30 at 23:48









Monomeeth

45.2k796137




45.2k796137










asked Nov 30 at 22:50









Simbamangu

195210




195210












  • And when you press "quit"...?
    – Mateus Ribeiro
    Nov 30 at 23:36










  • what does it say when you run Sample process on it ?
    – Buscar웃
    Dec 1 at 0:02






  • 3




    In Terminal run sudo /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/Activity Monitor to launch Activity Monitor with more privileges, then get info on the process and look at the "Open Files and Ports" for a hint.
    – Redarm
    Dec 1 at 0:16










  • The 'open files and ports' option is not something I've tried, works as well as the lsof command.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:04


















  • And when you press "quit"...?
    – Mateus Ribeiro
    Nov 30 at 23:36










  • what does it say when you run Sample process on it ?
    – Buscar웃
    Dec 1 at 0:02






  • 3




    In Terminal run sudo /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/Activity Monitor to launch Activity Monitor with more privileges, then get info on the process and look at the "Open Files and Ports" for a hint.
    – Redarm
    Dec 1 at 0:16










  • The 'open files and ports' option is not something I've tried, works as well as the lsof command.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:04
















And when you press "quit"...?
– Mateus Ribeiro
Nov 30 at 23:36




And when you press "quit"...?
– Mateus Ribeiro
Nov 30 at 23:36












what does it say when you run Sample process on it ?
– Buscar웃
Dec 1 at 0:02




what does it say when you run Sample process on it ?
– Buscar웃
Dec 1 at 0:02




3




3




In Terminal run sudo /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/Activity Monitor to launch Activity Monitor with more privileges, then get info on the process and look at the "Open Files and Ports" for a hint.
– Redarm
Dec 1 at 0:16




In Terminal run sudo /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/Activity Monitor to launch Activity Monitor with more privileges, then get info on the process and look at the "Open Files and Ports" for a hint.
– Redarm
Dec 1 at 0:16












The 'open files and ports' option is not something I've tried, works as well as the lsof command.
– Simbamangu
Dec 1 at 1:04




The 'open files and ports' option is not something I've tried, works as well as the lsof command.
– Simbamangu
Dec 1 at 1:04










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
5
down vote



accepted










The best way to find out is to note the Process ID (PID) listed in Activity Monitor for the mysterious "-i" process.



Then open Terminal.app and execute the following command:



sudo lsof -p 1234


where 1234 should be replaced with the PID number you've found in Activity Monitor.



The lsof command will give you a list of files that are opened by the mysterious process. The first line of output will tell you the "cwd", which is the current working directory of the process. It is probably not going to tell you much.



The second line of output is usually a "txt" file descriptor that will tell you the name of the executable (i.e. the program) that is running in the program.



This should tell you which program is running as "-i".






share|improve this answer

















  • 2




    This worked - turns out it's Malwarebytes RTProtectionDaemon, which must have changed in recent update as I've not seen that before. lsof is a great tool, thanks for the tip.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:02










  • Wow. You'd really think that malware prevention software—of all things—would give their processes intelligent names. Hopefully this is a bug of some sort.
    – Wowfunhappy
    Dec 1 at 1:46











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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes








up vote
5
down vote



accepted










The best way to find out is to note the Process ID (PID) listed in Activity Monitor for the mysterious "-i" process.



Then open Terminal.app and execute the following command:



sudo lsof -p 1234


where 1234 should be replaced with the PID number you've found in Activity Monitor.



The lsof command will give you a list of files that are opened by the mysterious process. The first line of output will tell you the "cwd", which is the current working directory of the process. It is probably not going to tell you much.



The second line of output is usually a "txt" file descriptor that will tell you the name of the executable (i.e. the program) that is running in the program.



This should tell you which program is running as "-i".






share|improve this answer

















  • 2




    This worked - turns out it's Malwarebytes RTProtectionDaemon, which must have changed in recent update as I've not seen that before. lsof is a great tool, thanks for the tip.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:02










  • Wow. You'd really think that malware prevention software—of all things—would give their processes intelligent names. Hopefully this is a bug of some sort.
    – Wowfunhappy
    Dec 1 at 1:46















up vote
5
down vote



accepted










The best way to find out is to note the Process ID (PID) listed in Activity Monitor for the mysterious "-i" process.



Then open Terminal.app and execute the following command:



sudo lsof -p 1234


where 1234 should be replaced with the PID number you've found in Activity Monitor.



The lsof command will give you a list of files that are opened by the mysterious process. The first line of output will tell you the "cwd", which is the current working directory of the process. It is probably not going to tell you much.



The second line of output is usually a "txt" file descriptor that will tell you the name of the executable (i.e. the program) that is running in the program.



This should tell you which program is running as "-i".






share|improve this answer

















  • 2




    This worked - turns out it's Malwarebytes RTProtectionDaemon, which must have changed in recent update as I've not seen that before. lsof is a great tool, thanks for the tip.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:02










  • Wow. You'd really think that malware prevention software—of all things—would give their processes intelligent names. Hopefully this is a bug of some sort.
    – Wowfunhappy
    Dec 1 at 1:46













up vote
5
down vote



accepted







up vote
5
down vote



accepted






The best way to find out is to note the Process ID (PID) listed in Activity Monitor for the mysterious "-i" process.



Then open Terminal.app and execute the following command:



sudo lsof -p 1234


where 1234 should be replaced with the PID number you've found in Activity Monitor.



The lsof command will give you a list of files that are opened by the mysterious process. The first line of output will tell you the "cwd", which is the current working directory of the process. It is probably not going to tell you much.



The second line of output is usually a "txt" file descriptor that will tell you the name of the executable (i.e. the program) that is running in the program.



This should tell you which program is running as "-i".






share|improve this answer












The best way to find out is to note the Process ID (PID) listed in Activity Monitor for the mysterious "-i" process.



Then open Terminal.app and execute the following command:



sudo lsof -p 1234


where 1234 should be replaced with the PID number you've found in Activity Monitor.



The lsof command will give you a list of files that are opened by the mysterious process. The first line of output will tell you the "cwd", which is the current working directory of the process. It is probably not going to tell you much.



The second line of output is usually a "txt" file descriptor that will tell you the name of the executable (i.e. the program) that is running in the program.



This should tell you which program is running as "-i".







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Dec 1 at 0:17









jksoegaard

14.8k1641




14.8k1641








  • 2




    This worked - turns out it's Malwarebytes RTProtectionDaemon, which must have changed in recent update as I've not seen that before. lsof is a great tool, thanks for the tip.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:02










  • Wow. You'd really think that malware prevention software—of all things—would give their processes intelligent names. Hopefully this is a bug of some sort.
    – Wowfunhappy
    Dec 1 at 1:46














  • 2




    This worked - turns out it's Malwarebytes RTProtectionDaemon, which must have changed in recent update as I've not seen that before. lsof is a great tool, thanks for the tip.
    – Simbamangu
    Dec 1 at 1:02










  • Wow. You'd really think that malware prevention software—of all things—would give their processes intelligent names. Hopefully this is a bug of some sort.
    – Wowfunhappy
    Dec 1 at 1:46








2




2




This worked - turns out it's Malwarebytes RTProtectionDaemon, which must have changed in recent update as I've not seen that before. lsof is a great tool, thanks for the tip.
– Simbamangu
Dec 1 at 1:02




This worked - turns out it's Malwarebytes RTProtectionDaemon, which must have changed in recent update as I've not seen that before. lsof is a great tool, thanks for the tip.
– Simbamangu
Dec 1 at 1:02












Wow. You'd really think that malware prevention software—of all things—would give their processes intelligent names. Hopefully this is a bug of some sort.
– Wowfunhappy
Dec 1 at 1:46




Wow. You'd really think that malware prevention software—of all things—would give their processes intelligent names. Hopefully this is a bug of some sort.
– Wowfunhappy
Dec 1 at 1:46


















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