Tag: Flashback Trojan

Posts Tagged: Flashback Trojan

Apple Releases Fix for Critical Java Flaw

Apple has issued an update for Mac OS X installations of Java that fixes at least one critical security vulnerability in the software.

If you own a Mac, take a moment today to run the Software Update application and check if there is a Java update available. Delaying this action could set your Mac up for a date with malware. In April, the Flashback Trojan infected more than 650,000 Mac systems using an exploit for a critical Java flaw.

Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 10 and Java for OS X 2012-005 are available for Java installations on OS X 10.6, OS X Lion and Mountain Lion systems, via Software Update or from Apple Downloads.

Apple stopped bundling Java by default in OS X 10.7 (Lion), but it offers instructions for downloading and installing the software framework when users access webpages that use it. The latest iteration of Java for OS X configures the Java browser plugin and Java Web Start to be deactivated if they remain unused for an extended period of time.

Update, 8:14 p.m.: It looks like I may have misread Apple’s somewhat hazy advisory, which appears to state that this update addresses CVE-2012-4681, the Java flaw that was recently spotted in increasingly widespread attacks against Java 7 installations on Windows. Upon closer inspection, it looks like this patch applies just to CVE-2012-0547. The above blog post has been changed to reflect that. In any case, Mac users should not delay in updating (or better yet, removing) Java.

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Correction to Java Update Story

An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly stated that Oracle had shipped security updates for its Java software. Oracle did push out an update for Java earlier this month — Java 6 Update 32 — but the new version was a maintenance update that did not include security fixes. My apologies for any confusion this may have caused.

Latest Warnings / Security Tools / Time to Patch — 58 Comments
4
Apr 12

Urgent Fix for Zero-Day Mac Java Flaw

Apple on Monday released a critical update to its version of Java for Mac OS X that plugs at least a dozen security holes in the program. More importantly, the patch mends a flaw that attackers have recently pounced on to broadly deploy malicious software, both on Windows and Mac systems.

Distribution of 550,000 Flashback-infected Macs. Source: Dr.Web.com

The update, Java for OS X Lion 2012-001 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7, sews up an extremely serious security vulnerability (CVE-2012-0507) that miscreants recently rolled into automated exploit kits designed to deploy malware to Windows users. But in the past few days, information has surfaced to suggest that the same flaw has been used with great success by the Flashback Trojan to infect large numbers of Mac computers with malware.

The revelations come from Russian security firm Dr.Web, which reports that the Flashback Trojan has successfully infected more than 550,000 Macs, most which it said were U.S. based systems (hat tip to Adrian Sanabria). Dr.Web’s post is available in its Google translated version here.

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A Little Sunshine / The Coming Storm — 31 Comments
28
Sep 11

Inside a Modern Mac Trojan

Mac malware is back in the news again. Last week, security firm F-Secure warned that it had discovered a Trojan built for OS X that was disguised as a PDF document. It’s not clear whether this malware is a present threat — it was apparently created earlier this year — but the mechanics of how it works are worth a closer look because it challenges a widely-held belief among Mac users that malicious software cannot install without explicit user permission.

Image courtesy F-Secure.

F-Secure said the Mac malware, Trojan-Dropper: OSX/Revir.A, may be attempting to copy the technique implemented by Windows malware, which opens a PDF file containing a “.pdf.exe” extension and an accompanying PDF icon. F-Secure was careful to note that the payload installed by the dropper, Backdoor:OSX/Imuler.A, phones home to a placeholder page on the Web that does not appear to be capable of communicating back to the Trojan at the moment.

I wanted to understand a bit more about how this Trojan does its dirty work, so I contacted Broderick Aquilino, the F-Secure researcher who analyzed it. Aquilino said the sample is a plain Mach-O binary — which we’ll call “Binary 1”, that contains PDF file and another Mach-O binary (Binary2). Mach-O, short for Mach object, is a file format for executable files on OS X.

According to Aquilino, when you run Binary1, it will extract the PDF file from its body, drop it in the Mac’s temporary or “tmp” directory, and then open it. This is merely a decoy, as Binary1 continues to extract Binary2 from itself — also into the “tmp” directory — and then runs the file.

Upon execution, Binary2 downloads another binary from [omitted malware download site] and saves it as /tmp/updtdata. For the sake of continuity, we’ll call this latest file “Binary3.” Binary2 then executes and downloads the third binary, which opens up a backdoor on the OS X host designed to allow attackers to administer the machine from afar.

“All of this happens without the user needing to input their password,” Aquilino said.

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