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Apple fans might remember 2010 mostly for the launch of the iPad, rather than the Boonana Trojan that hit Macs the same year. Boonana was one of the first pieces of malware to leverage the increased popularity of social media networks like Facebook to spread itself from one wall to another.
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Although most computer users are now familiar with threats and more careful with what they download, back in 2010, before the Mac App Store, hackers used screensavers and various free applications to spread spyware and scrape systems for information.
In 2011, hackers took advantage of the lack of information among Mac users and developed MACDefender, a fake antivirus that was extremely well crafted and presented. Most damaging, though, was BlackHole RAT that authorized remote access to all infected devices.
Shortly after, in 2012, a Java vulnerability led to the infection of 600,000 Mac users with Flashback Malware, which hackers used to steal data and download more malware onto the compromised device. This was one of the largest malware epidemics at the time, even when compared to Windows computers.
In 2013, Lamadai was reported after hacking Tibetan NGOs. Ms office for mac 2018 stand alone. Lamadai was a Mac payload that tricked users into visiting malicious websites and dropped a payload through a Java vulnerability. That same year saw the emergence of HackBack, mainly used to steal information and send it to a remote machine.
2014 started getting interesting in terms of Mac malware, after the sophisticated iWorm backdoor was identified on over 17,000 computers. To run undetected, hackers used subreddit pages of the popular Reddit website to instruct the computers where to connect so they could be herded by botmasters.
Around the same time, Chinese hackers designed Wirelurker, which spread through applications downloaded from unofficial stores, mostly targeting Chinese Mac and iPhone users. Other annoying Trojans worth mentioning are CoinThief, designed to steal Bitcoin from an infected computer, and LaoShu, which created a backdoor to harvest information.
The threat landscape suffered yet another major shift in 2015, with Mac malware peaking at almost 2,000 unique malware samples created specifically for Apple. That means five times more malware was detected in 2015 than in the previous five years combined. 2015 also revealed some interesting proof-of-concept attacks targeting Macs: Thunderstrike, Dark Jedi, and Mabouia ransomware, the first ransomware designed for Mac.
In 2016, however, ransomware finally made it into the wild. KeRanger, believed to be a variant of Linux.Encoder ransomware, was specifically designed to target Macs. It affected some 7,000 users. KeRanger spread through a compromised Transmission kit, a BitTorrent client. Also from 2016, Backdoor.MAC.Eleanor, detected by Bitdefender researchers, exposed Mac OS users to data theft and full remote control of the device.
In 2017, malware has reached new levels of sophistication in its ability to circumvent operating system defenses and outsmart even the savviest of users. As Apple devices have turned into an attractive target, cyber-criminal gangs the world over have unleashed highly advanced families of malware such as Dok, which poses as a Word document and FruitFly (a piece of surveillance malware). And let’s not forget Proton RAT, which spread after hackers managed to compromise the website hosting the HandBrake media conversion application. The hack was so well executed and disguised that it even tricked experienced, tech-savvy users, drawing even more attention to the importance of security software.
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By Malcolm Owen
Thursday, February 09, 2017, 07:06 am PT (10:06 am ET)
A second example of malware targeting macOS users has surfaced this week, with the discovery of a Word document that attempts to use an automatically-running macro, one that tries to download a hazardous payload to infect the target Mac. Thursday, February 09, 2017, 07:06 am PT (10:06 am ET)
The Word file, titled 'U.S. Allies and Rivals Digest Trump's Victory - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace' is noted in research compiled by Objective-See to show a usual Word macro warning when it is attempted to be opened by potential victims. The notice warns that macros could contain viruses, and gives the option to continue opening the file with and without macros enabled, as well as to back out from opening it at all.
If run with macros enabled, the automatic macro starts to run python script, which first checks if network monitoring tool Little Snitch is running, before attempting to download a second-stage payload from a specific URL, decrypting the payload, and then executing its contents. The python code itself is sourced from the open-source EmPyre project, an existing post-exploitation framework, with the code used 'almost verbatim.'
While the payload file is now inaccessible, making it impossible to know what exactly happened to victims, researchers found some second-stage components of EmPyre code that hints at what would take place. It is thought the payload would try to persist on the Mac, automatically running after a reboot, and then could perform functions based on one of many EmPyre modules.
The infected Word file is entitled 'U.S. Allies and Rivals Digest Trump's Victory - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace'
These modules offered a multitude of options for attackers to acquire data, including keyloggers, Keychain dumps, clipboard monitoring, taking screenshots, accessing iMessage, and even an attached webcam.
The malware 'isn't particularly advanced,' suggests security researcher Patrick Wardle of Synack, due to requiring interaction from users to open the document and needing macros to be enabled. The file's creators does receive some credit from Wardle, by exploiting users as 'the weakest link' in security, while also taking advantage of the 'legitimate' functionality of macros making it an infection vector that 'doesn't have to worry about crashing the system nor being 'patched' out.'
Malware embedded in documents is a relatively old technique of infection, largely affecting Windows users rather than Mac, and despite relying heavily on the user disregarding the initial warning notice, has found some success in the past. The notable Melissa virus of 1999 used a Word macro to infect systems, sending copies of the file to a number of the user's contacts to spread.