XCSSET | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Microsoft said it has discovered a new variant of a known Apple macOS malware called XCSSET as part of limited attacks in the wild. "Its first known variant since 2022, this latest XCSSET malware features enhanced obfuscation methods, updated persistence mechanisms, and new infection strategies," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a post shared on X. "These enhanced features add to this malware family's previously known capabilities, like targeting digital wallets, collecting data from the Notes app, and exfiltrating system information and files." XCSSET is a sophisticated modular macOS malware that's known to target users by infecting Apple Xcode projects. It was first documented by Trend Micro in August 2020. Subsequent iterations of the malware have been found to adapt to compromise newer versions of macOS as well as Apple's own M1 chipsets. In mid-2021, the cybersecurity company noted that XCSSET had been updated to exfiltrate d...

The operators of the XCSSET macOS malware have upped the stakes by making iterative improvements that add support for macOS Monterey by upgrading its source code components to Python 3. "The malware authors have changed from hiding the primary executable in a fake Xcode.app in the initial versions in 2020 to a fake Mail.app in 2021 and now to a fake Notes.app in 2022," SentinelOne researchers Phil Stokes and Dinesh Devadoss  said  in a report. XCSSET, first  documented  by Trend Micro in 2020, has many moving parts that allow it to  harvest sensitive information  from Apple Notes, WeChat, Skype, and Telegram; inject malicious JavaScript code into various websites; and dump cookies from Safari web browser. Infection chains entail using a dropper to compromise users' Xcode projects with the backdoor, with the latter also taking steps to evade detection by masquerading as either system software or the Google Chrome web browser application. The primary ex...

Everybody knows browser extensions are embedded into nearly every user's daily workflow, from spell checkers to GenAI tools. What most IT and security people don't know is that browser extensions' excessive permissions are a growing risk to organizations. LayerX today announced the release of the Enterprise Browser Extension Security Report 2025 , This report is the first and only report to merge public extension marketplace statistics with real-world enterprise usage telemetry. By doing so, it sheds light on one of the most underestimated threat surfaces in modern cybersecurity: browser extensions. The report reveals several findings that IT and security leaders will find interesting, as they build their plans for H2 2025. This includes information and analysis on how many extensions have risky permissions, which kinds of permissions are given, if extension developers are to be trusted, and more. Below, we bring key statistics from the report. Highlights from the Enterprise Browse...

A malware known for targeting macOS operating system has been updated once again to add more features to its toolset that allows it to amass and exfiltrate sensitive data stored in a variety of apps, including apps such as Google Chrome and Telegram, as part of further "refinements in its tactics." XCSSET was  uncovered  in August 2020, when it was found targeting Mac developers using an unusual means of distribution that involved injecting a malicious payload into Xcode IDE projects that's executed at the time of building project files in Xcode. The malware comes with numerous capabilities, such as reading and dumping Safari cookies, injecting malicious JavaScript code into various websites, stealing information from applications, such as Notes, WeChat, Skype, Telegram, and encrypting user files. Earlier this April, XCSSET  received an upgrade  that enabled the malware authors to target macOS 11 Big Sur as well as Macs running on M1 chipsets by circumventing ne...