Strange directory named 萇U found in home directory

tjp

6/10/23, 10:14 AM

Today I noticed a directory with the name 萇U in my home directory, created (or is it modified?) three days ago.

Can anyone identify what would create this directory? Or even tell me what the name means? Google translate gives a word I've never heard of, carambola, which it seems is another word for 'star fruit'. My best guess is it's a misinterpreted string given the mix of latin and Chinese characters.

I only speak English, I have no other input methods set up, and searching for that directory name, or just that character, gives nothing interesting.

I'm on Ubuntu 20.04.

The only clue I have is that I installed abcde around that time and ripped one (English language) album but that was done from ~/Music, not ~/.

The only other programs I've run in that time are Firefox, Zoom, Lollypop, Clementine, VLC, totem, and keepassxc.

I'm baffled and a tiny bit worried.

0 + 0

20.04

Jos

6/10/23, 10:57 AM

Is the directory empty? Is it owned by you? Anyway you shouldn't worry. This is far more likely a bug in some script than a malicious attempt to spy on your system.

tjp

6/10/23, 11:45 AM

Yeah it's empty and owned by me: drwxrwxr-x 2 myusername mygroupname 4096 Feb 7 08:27 萇U/ Same as what I see creating an empty dir, just with a different timestamp. I have nothing to spy on on this box anyway, but it's confusing that a web search doesn't show the same problem elsewhere. Would still like to get to the bottom of it. If it's abcde, that seems like an annoying bug.

Jos

6/10/23, 12:02 PM

I would delete it and move on, just occasionally checking if any strange directories popped up in the home folder. If it turns out to be `abcde`, file a bug.

user535733

6/10/23, 2:32 PM

Check your /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow to see if the account has a password. Check auth.log to see if the account has been logged into. Check `w` to see if somebody is currently logged into that account. Delete that user, of course...and check that it does not mysteriously return. Monitor your system carefully for other malware characteristics: Unusual network activity (botnet), or CPU/GPU activity (cryptominer). Review your logs regularly over the next couple weeks to look for intrusions and mysterious events. Were it my system, I would have already reinstalled Ubuntu because that's easier.

Sadaharu Wakisaka

6/11/23, 1:10 AM

Welcome to AskUbuntu, I found the word reference of 萇U in a sci-fi novel 'honeybee cloud' by [Ni Kuang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni_Kuang). 萇 is a character means 'nettle' or plant with thorns, 萇U means probably the kiwi plant or some sort. He is an agent of malicious party and I don't feel great about your OS health. If I were you, I would really erase everything and make a fresh reinstall or sell that computer.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Strange directory named 萇U found in home directory

TH: พบไดเร็กทอรีแปลกๆ ชื่อ èU ในโฮมไดเร็กทอรี

RO: Director ciudat numit èU găsit în directorul principal

RU: В домашнем каталоге обнаружен странный каталог с именем èU

VI: Thư mục lạ có tên èU được tìm thấy trong thư mục chính

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.