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Category — macOS malware
RustDoor macOS Backdoor Targets Cryptocurrency Firms with Fake Job Offers

RustDoor macOS Backdoor Targets Cryptocurrency Firms with Fake Job Offers

Feb 16, 2024 Endpoint Security / Cryptocurrency
Multiple companies operating in the cryptocurrency sector are the target of an ongoing malware campaign that involves a newly discovered Apple macOS backdoor codenamed RustDoor. RustDoor was  first documented  by Bitdefender last week, describing it as a Rust-based malware capable of harvesting and uploading files, as well as gathering information about the infected machines. It's distributed by masquerading itself as a Visual Studio update. While prior evidence uncovered at least three different variants of the backdoor, the exact initial propagation mechanism remained unknown. That said, the Romanian cybersecurity firm subsequently told The Hacker News that the malware was used as part of a targeted attack rather than a shotgun distribution campaign, noting that it found additional artifacts that are responsible for downloading and executing RustDoor. "Some of these first stage downloaders claim to be PDF files with job offerings, but in reality, are scripts that downl
N. Korean Hackers 'Mixing' macOS Malware Tactics to Evade Detection

N. Korean Hackers 'Mixing' macOS Malware Tactics to Evade Detection

Nov 28, 2023 Malware / Cyber Espionage
The North Korean threat actors behind macOS malware strains such as RustBucket and KANDYKORN have been observed "mixing and matching" different elements of the two disparate attack chains, leveraging RustBucket droppers to deliver KANDYKORN. The  findings  come from cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, which also tied a third macOS-specific malware called ObjCShellz to the RustBucket campaign. RustBucket  refers to an  activity cluster  linked to the Lazarus Group in which a backdoored version of a PDF reader app, dubbed SwiftLoader, is used as a conduit to load a next-stage malware written in Rust upon viewing a specially crafted lure document. The  KANDYKORN campaign , on the other hand, refers to a malicious cyber operation in which blockchain engineers of an unnamed crypto exchange platform were targeted via Discord to initiate a sophisticated multi-stage attack sequence that led to the deployment of the eponymous full-featured memory resident remote access trojan. The t
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Online Master's in Applied Intelligence

websiteGeorgetown UniversityCyber Security
More than 90% of respondents expressed concern over their team and tooling's ability to detect identity-based attacks. Learn about critical gaps in security programs and what environments pose the most risk to security teams. Download the Report.
ClearFake Campaign Expands to Target Mac Systems with Atomic Stealer

ClearFake Campaign Expands to Target Mac Systems with Atomic Stealer

Nov 22, 2023 SEO poisoning / Malware Analysis
The macOS information stealer known as Atomic is now being delivered to target via a bogus web browser update chain tracked as ClearFake. "This may very well be the first time we see one of the main social engineering campaigns, previously reserved for Windows, branch out not only in terms of geolocation but also operating system," Malwarebytes' Jérôme Segura  said  in a Tuesday analysis. Atomic Stealer (aka AMOS),  first documented  in April 2023, is a commercial stealer malware family that's sold on a subscription basis for $1,000 per month. It comes with capabilities to siphon data from web browsers and cryptocurrency wallets. Then in September 2023, Malwarebytes  detailed  an Atomic Stealer campaign that took advantage of malicious Google ads, tricking macOS users searching for a financial charting platform known as TradingView into downloading the malware. ClearFake, on the other hand, is a nascent malware distribution operation that employs compromised Wor
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Permiso Security's 2024 State of Identity Security Report

websitePermisoThreat Detection / Identity Security
More than 90% of respondents expressed concern over their team and tooling's ability to detect identity-based attacks. Learn about critical gaps in security programs and what environments pose the most risk to security teams. Download the Report.
Microsoft Warns of Fake Skills Assessment Portals Targeting IT Job Seekers

Microsoft Warns of Fake Skills Assessment Portals Targeting IT Job Seekers

Nov 11, 2023 Threat Intelligence / Cybercrime
A sub-cluster within the infamous Lazarus Group has established new infrastructure that impersonates skills assessment portals as part of its social engineering campaigns. Microsoft attributed the activity to a threat actor it calls  Sapphire Sleet , describing it as a "shift in the persistent actor's tactics." Sapphire Sleet, also called APT38, BlueNoroff, CageyChameleon, and CryptoCore, has a track record of orchestrating cryptocurrency theft via social engineering. Earlier this week, Jamf Threat Labs implicated the threat actor to a new macOS malware family called  ObjCShellz  that's assessed to be a late-stage payload delivered in connection with another macOS malware known as RustBucket. "Sapphire Sleet typically finds targets on platforms like LinkedIn and uses lures related to skills assessment," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team  said  in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter). "The threat actor then moves successful communication
N. Korea's BlueNoroff Blamed for Hacking macOS Machines with ObjCShellz Malware

N. Korea's BlueNoroff Blamed for Hacking macOS Machines with ObjCShellz Malware

Nov 07, 2023 Endpoint Security / Malware
The North Korea-linked nation-state group called BlueNoroff has been attributed to a previously undocumented macOS malware strain dubbed  ObjCShellz . Jamf Threat Labs, which disclosed details of the malware, said it's used as part of the RustBucket malware campaign, which came to light earlier this year. "Based on previous attacks performed by BlueNoroff, we suspect that this malware was a late stage within a multi-stage malware delivered via social engineering," security researcher Ferdous Saljooki said in a report shared with The Hacker News. BlueNoroff, also tracked under the names APT38, Nickel Gladstone, Sapphire Sleet, Stardust Chollima, and TA444, is a subordinate element of the infamous  Lazarus Group  that specializes in financial crime, targeting banks and the crypto sector as a way to  evade sanctions  and  generate illicit profits  for the regime. The development arrives days after Elastic Security Labs disclosed the Lazarus Group's use of a new ma
Mac Users Beware: Malvertising Campaign Spreads Atomic Stealer macOS Malware

Mac Users Beware: Malvertising Campaign Spreads Atomic Stealer macOS Malware

Sep 07, 2023 Malvertising / Endpoint Security
A new malvertising campaign has been observed distributing an updated version of a macOS stealer malware called  Atomic Stealer  (or AMOS), indicating that it's being actively maintained by its author. An off-the-shelf Golang malware available for $1,000 per month, Atomic Stealer  first came  to light in April 2023. Shortly after that, new variants with an expanded set of information-gathering features were detected in the wild, targeting gamers and cryptocurrency users. Malvertising via Google Ads has been observed as the primary distribution vector in which users searching for popular software, legitimate or cracked, on search engines are shown bogus ads that direct to websites hosting rogue installers. The latest campaign involves the use of a fraudulent website for TradingView, prominently featuring three buttons to download the software for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. "Both the Windows and Linux buttons point to an MSIX installer hosted on Discord that drops
Iranian Hackers' Sophisticated Malware Targets Windows and macOS Users

Iranian Hackers' Sophisticated Malware Targets Windows and macOS Users

Jul 06, 2023 Endpoint Security / Malware
The Iranian nation-state actor known as TA453 has been linked to a new set of spear-phishing attacks that infect both Windows and macOS operating systems with malware. "TA453 eventually used a variety of cloud hosting providers to deliver a novel infection chain that deploys the newly identified PowerShell backdoor GorjolEcho," Proofpoint  said  in a new report. "When given the opportunity, TA453 ported its malware and attempted to launch an Apple flavored infection chain dubbed NokNok. TA453 also employed  multi-persona impersonation  in its unending espionage quest." TA453, also known by the names APT35, Charming Kitten, Mint Sandstorm, and Yellow Garuda, is a threat group linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that has been active since at least 2011. Most recently, Volexity highlighted the adversary's use of an updated version of a Powershell implant called  CharmPower  (aka GhostEcho or POWERSTAR). In the attack sequence discove
North Korea Hackers Spotted Targeting Job Seekers with macOS Malware

North Korea Hackers Spotted Targeting Job Seekers with macOS Malware

Aug 17, 2022
The North Korea-backed Lazarus Group has been observed targeting job seekers with malware capable of executing on Apple Macs with Intel and M1 chipsets. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET linked it to a campaign dubbed " Operation In(ter)ception " that was first disclosed in June 2020 and involved using social engineering tactics to trick employees working in the aerospace and military sectors into opening decoy job offer documents. The latest attack is no different in that a job description for the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform was used as a launchpad to drop a signed Mach-O executable. ESET's analysis comes from a sample of the binary that was uploaded to VirusTotal from Brazil on August 11, 2022. "Malware is compiled for both Intel and Apple Silicon," the company  said  in a series of tweets. "It drops three files: a decoy PDF document ' Coinbase_online_careers_2022_07.pdf ', a bundle  'FinderFontsUpdater.app ,' and a downloa
Nasty macOS Malware XCSSET Now Targets Google Chrome, Telegram Software

Nasty macOS Malware XCSSET Now Targets Google Chrome, Telegram Software

Jul 23, 2021
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 new sec
New 'Silver Sparrow' Malware Infected Nearly 30,000 Apple Macs

New 'Silver Sparrow' Malware Infected Nearly 30,000 Apple Macs

Feb 22, 2021
Days after the  first malware  targeting Apple M1 chips was discovered in the wild, researchers have disclosed yet another previously undetected piece of malicious software that was found in about 30,000 Macs running Intel x86_64 and the iPhone maker's M1 processors. However, the ultimate goal of the operation remains something of a conundrum, what with the lack of a next-stage or final payload leaving researchers unsure of its distribution timeline and whether the threat is just under active development. Calling the malware "Silver Sparrow," cybersecurity firm Red Canary said it identified two different versions of the malware — one compiled only for Intel x86_64 and uploaded to VirusTotal on August 31, 2020 ( version 1 ), and a second variant submitted to the database on January 22 that's compatible with both Intel x86_64 and M1 ARM64 architectures ( version 2 ). Adding to the mystery, the x86_64 binary, upon execution, simply displays the message "Hello,
North Korean Hackers Spotted Using New Multi-Platform Malware Framework

North Korean Hackers Spotted Using New Multi-Platform Malware Framework

Jul 23, 2020
Lazarus Group, the notorious hacking group with ties to the North Korean regime, has unleashed a new multi-platform malware framework with an aim to infiltrate corporate entities around the world, steal customer databases, and distribute ransomware. Capable of targeting Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems, the MATA malware framework — so-called because of the authors' reference to the infrastructure as "MataNet" — comes with a wide range of features designed to carry out a variety of malicious activities on infected machines. The MATA campaign is said to have begun as early as April of 2018, with the victimology traced to unnamed companies in software development, e-commerce and internet service provider sectors situated in Poland, Germany, Turkey, Korea, Japan, and India, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said in its Wednesday analysis. The report offers a comprehensive look at the MATA framework, while also building on previous evidence gathered by researche
A New Ransomware Targeting Apple macOS Users Through Pirated Apps

A New Ransomware Targeting Apple macOS Users Through Pirated Apps

Jul 01, 2020
Cybersecurity researchers this week discovered a new type of ransomware targeting macOS users that spreads via pirated apps. According to several independent reports from K7 Lab malware researcher Dinesh Devadoss , Patrick Wardle , and Malwarebytes , the ransomware variant — dubbed " EvilQuest " — is packaged along with legitimate apps, which upon installation, disguises itself as Apple's CrashReporter or Google Software Update. Besides encrypting the victim's files, EvilQuest also comes with capabilities to ensure persistence, log keystrokes, create a reverse shell, and steal cryptocurrency wallet-related files. With this development, EvilQuest joins a handful of ransomware strains that have exclusively singled out macOS, including KeRanger and Patcher . The source of the malware appears to be trojanized versions of popular macOS software — such as Little Snitch, a DJ software called Mixed In Key 8, and Ableton Live — that are distributed on popular torre
New Mac Malware Exploits GateKeeper Bypass Bug that Apple Left Unpatched

New Mac Malware Exploits GateKeeper Bypass Bug that Apple Left Unpatched

Jun 25, 2019
Cybersecurity researchers from Intego are warning about possible active exploitation of an unpatched security vulnerability in Apple's macOS Gatekeeper security feature details and PoC for which were publicly disclosed late last month. Intego team last week discovered four samples of new macOS malware on VirusTotal that leverage the GateKeeper bypass vulnerability to execute untrusted code on macOS without displaying users any warning or asking for their explicit permission. However, the newly discovered malware, dubbed OSX/Linker , has not been seen in the wild as of now and appears to be under development. Though the samples leverage unpatched Gatekeeper bypass flaw, it does not download any malicious app from the attacker's server. According to Joshua Long from Intego, until last week, the "malware maker was merely conducting some detection testing reconnaissance." "One of the files was signed with an Apple Developer ID (as explained below), it is
This Cryptomining Malware Launches Linux VMs On Windows and macOS

This Cryptomining Malware Launches Linux VMs On Windows and macOS

Jun 21, 2019
Cybersecurity researchers from at least two firms today unveiled details of a new strain of malware that targets Windows and macOS systems with a Linux-based cryptocurrency mining malware. It may sound strange, but it's true. Dubbed " LoudMiner " and also " Bird Miner, " the attack leverages command-line based virtualization software on targeted systems to silently boot an image of Tiny Core Linux OS that already contains a hacker-activated cryptocurrency mining software in it. Isn't it interesting to use emulation to run single-platform malware on cross-platforms? Spotted by researchers at ESET and Malwarebytes , attackers are distributing this malware bundled with pirated and cracked copies of VST (Virtual Studio Technology) software on the Internet and via Torrent network since August 2018. VST applications contain sounds, effects, synthesizers, and other advanced editing features that allow tech-centric audio professionals to create music.
Beware!! New Windows .exe Malware Found Targeting macOS Computers

Beware!! New Windows .exe Malware Found Targeting macOS Computers

Feb 12, 2019
A malicious Windows EXE file can even infect your Mac computer as well. Yes, you heard me right — a .exe malware on macOS. Security researchers at antivirus firm Trend Micro have discovered a novel way hackers are using in the wild to bypass Apple's macOS security protection and infect Mac computers by deploying malicious EXE files that normally run only on Windows computers. Researchers found several samples of malicious macOS application (.dmg) masquerading as installers for popular software on a torrent site that includes an EXE application compiled with Mono framework to make it compatible with macOS. Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework that allows developers to create cross-platform .NET applications, which work across all supported platforms, including Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. Usually, running any Windows executable results in error on macOS systems, and its built-in protection mechanisms such as Gatekeeper also skips scann
Beware! Undetectable CrossRAT malware targets Windows, MacOS, and Linux systems

Beware! Undetectable CrossRAT malware targets Windows, MacOS, and Linux systems

Jan 25, 2018
Are you using Linux or Mac OS? If you think your system is not prone to viruses, then you should read this. Wide-range of cybercriminals are now using a new piece of 'undetectable' spying malware that targets Windows, macOS, Solaris and Linux systems. Just last week we published a detailed article on the report from EFF/Lookout that revealed a new advanced persistent threat (APT) group, called Dark Caracal , engaged in global mobile espionage campaigns. Although the report revealed about the group's successful large-scale hacking operations against mobile phones rather than computers, it also shed light on a new piece of cross-platform malware called CrossRAT (version 0.1), which is believed to be developed by, or for, the Dark Caracal group. CrossRAT is a cross-platform remote access Trojan that can target all four popular desktop operating systems, Windows, Solaris, Linux, and macOS, enabling remote attackers to manipulate the file system, take screenshots, ru
Warning: New Undetectable DNS Hijacking Malware Targeting Apple macOS Users

Warning: New Undetectable DNS Hijacking Malware Targeting Apple macOS Users

Jan 12, 2018
A security researcher has revealed details of a new piece of undetectable malware targeting Apple's Mac computers—reportedly first macOS malware of 2018. Dubbed OSX/MaMi , an unsigned Mach-O 64-bit executable, the malware is somewhat similar to DNSChanger malware that infected millions of computers across the world in 2012. DNSChanger malware typically changes DNS server settings on infected computers, allowing attackers to route internet traffic through malicious servers and intercept sensitive information. First appeared on the Malwarebytes forum, a user posted a query regarding unknown malware that infected his friend's computer that silently changed DNS settings on infected macOS to 82.163.143.135 and 82.163.142.137 addresses. After looking at the post, ex-NSA hacker Patrick Wardle analysed the malware and found that it is indeed a ' DNS Hijacker, ' which also invokes security tools to install a new root certificate in an attempt to intercept encrypte
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