"It was also written in Perl, a language that's "archaic" for malware" Perhaps why it's good at running under the radar.
Sounds like a disgruntled sys admin.
Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
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Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#12Does anyone know of a good way to check whether my Mac is infected with this (or any other) malware programs? I rarely, if ever, download unknown programs, and my OS is always up-to-date, but still... Would appreciate for any pointers.
Install MalwareBytes — https://www.malwarebytes.com/
Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#13The details for the infection can be found at Malwarebytes, the discoverer of this issue:
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2017/01/new-ma...
This article has the signature of the infection as well as listing the servers with which it communicates.
Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#14>the widespread belief that they are virus-free, Macs aren't immune from invasive and dangerous malware.
This is an area where it's really hard to extrapolate from my personal experience to the entire population, but is this really an accurate statement of many people's beliefs?
I think what people actually think is that the chances are much lower of encountering malware in the wild on a Mac. In support of that, having an article this long on a single piece of malware that isn't particularly damaging, would indicate that it's not the normal state of affairs in Mac land.
I would similarly expect that the chances of drive-by malware on Linux are tiny, perhaps even less common than on a Mac, and thus it would be newsworthy if there were some widespread (in relative terms) Gnome malware, or similar.
It's one thing to think that it's uncommon, and another to think that it's impossible.
Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#15Does anyone know of a good way to check whether my Mac is infected with this (or any other) malware programs? I rarely, if ever, download unknown programs, and my OS is always up-to-date, but still... Would appreciate for any pointers.
If abakker's comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14840063 is the same issue, then it sounds like you just need to look for `~/.client` and `~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.client.client.plist`.
Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#16Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#17"It was also written in Perl, a language that's "archaic" for malware" Perhaps why it's good at running under the radar.
I think the main reason it was running under the radar is that the script itself did not contain an exploit that bypassed any security mechanisms. The only difference between a remote desktop app and a new command and control malware is the way it is installed.
It is not all that surprising to me that any targeted malware could operate unnoticed for years. The odds of discovery are directly proportional to the volume of distribution and inversely proportional to the importance of the targets. This malware apparently infected a small number of low profile targets.
Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#18>the widespread belief that they are virus-free, Macs aren't immune from invasive and dangerous malware. This is an area where it's really hard to extrapolate from my personal experience to the entire population, but is this really an accurate statement of many people's beliefs? I think what people actually think is that the chances are much lower of encountering malware in the wild on a Mac. In support of that, havi…
I think it is a holdover from the early Mac days, where a large part of the base OS was in ROM.
Thus a simple reboot would clear out any infection.
That, and over time the lack of a general market presence, is likely what lead to the belief (never mind that Apple pushed the message with their I'm a Mac ads).
Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2017/07/24/apple...
Forbes, the site that served malware in their ads(you can't view their page with an adblocker on either).
Re: Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Victims for Years
#20>the widespread belief that they are virus-free, Macs aren't immune from invasive and dangerous malware. This is an area where it's really hard to extrapolate from my personal experience to the entire population, but is this really an accurate statement of many people's beliefs? I think what people actually think is that the chances are much lower of encountering malware in the wild on a Mac. In support of that, havi…
It's been a few years, but the "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" ad series talked up virus immunity quite a bit. I suppose one could argue that "don't get malware" was narrowly accurate in the sense that it wasn't presently happening, but there was a strong suggestion of "can't get malware" too.