I'm running OSX 10.11.3 and I keep finding files named /xEy4O all over my file system. I've opened them in a text editor and they are completely empty. So they appear to be a marker file of some sort. If I list directory contents in the console the name is actually :xEy4O. I can run find / -name ':xEy4O' the files only seem to be located in directories I've opened at some point but I don't know which application is putting them there.
Also, the files seem to be confined to my home directory and it's subdirectories. I'm thinking it isn't a virus, but I'm not sure what it actually is.
Here's the output from find:
/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA 15 CE.app/Contents/bin/:xEy4O
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory
/Users/hammer/.Trash/:xEy4O
/Users/hammer/:xEy4O
/Users/hammer/dev/tools/eclipse/che-4.0.0-beta-13/:xEy4O
/Users/hammer/dev/tools/eclipse/che-4.0.0-RC1-SNAPSHOT/conf/:xEy4O
/Users/hammer/dev/tools/eclipse/che-4.0.0-RC1-SNAPSHOT/plugins/examples/:xEy4O
/Users/hammer/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/e1509ec4913dcca752e7dc0579fc6a1320cab6d2/:xEy4O
I keep deleting the files when I find them but is there someway to determine the process that's creating them? Maybe a way to get a notification when a file is created?
Best Answer
Open terminal.app (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal or via Spotlight) and issue this command:
sudo fs_usage | grep [path_to_file]. Path_to_file may be to any of your found 'xEy40' files. See, if it'll show anything.