Traditionally, Mac customers have not needed to fear about malware as a lot as their Home windows-using cousins.
Though malware focusing on Apple gadgets truly predates viruses written for PCs, and there have been some households of malware which have introduced a big risk for each working methods (as an example, the Phrase macro viruses that hit computer systems onerous from 1995 onwards), it’s typically the case that you just’re merely lots much less prone to encounter malware in your Mac than you might be in your Home windows PC.
However that does not imply that Mac customers ought to be complacent. And the current discovery of a brand new malware pressure emphasises that the risk – even when a lot smaller than on Home windows – stays actual.
Safety researchers at SentinelOne have warned that the brand new malware, dubbed “NotLockBit”, is focusing on macOS methods – suggesting that cybercriminals are searching for victims who could have made the error of being extra relaxed about their laptop safety.
Though it was initially suspected that the malware was linked to the infamous LockBit ransomware gang, additional evaluation means that the risk is a definite pressure falsely claiming affiliation.
In what might nearly be described as a “false-flag” operation, NotLockBit makes use of LockBit’s signature desktop wallpaper in what appears to be an try to mislead victims and safety researchers of its origin.
NotLockBit claims to be model 2.0, and but LockBit 3.0 was launched a while in the past, and key members of the LockBit gang have been arrested and its infrastructure seized.
Earlier ransomware threats in opposition to macOS customers have been largely proof-of-concept or haven’t change into widespread.
The real LockBit ransomware group was liable for producing a model of its ransomware for macOS final yr, however as a result of it was buggy and crashed simply it was not thought of a critical risk.
The brand new malware analysed by SentinelOne’s researchers has been distributed as an x86-64 binary – that means that it’s going to solely run on Intel-based Macs and Macs utilizing the Rosetta emulation service.
In line with consultants NotLockBit seems to be “very a lot in improvement,” and there are at present no recognized victims of the malware or proof that it’s being actively distributed within the wild.
However should you have been to come across NotLockBit, on a Mac that would run it, then it might try to exfiltrate recordsdata out of your laptop to AWS cloud storage buckets, encrypting information left behind in your Mac and including a .abcd suffix to their filenames.
The rapid risk of this specific ransomware pattern has been decreased by its discovery, after the risk actors introduced it to the eye of researchers by importing to VirusTotal (seemingly in an try to see if any anti-virus merchandise would detect it as malicious).
That act prompted the safety neighborhood to take motion, and the AWS accounts utilized by the hackers throughout the data-exfiltration course of have been eliminated.
However we might be silly to assume that extra work gained’t be completed on this and different Mac ransomware within the months and years forward. As ever, firms whose employees use Macs can be clever to guard them with safety options to scale back the prospect of them being the weak hyperlink via which a malicious hacker can wreak havoc all through an organisation.
Editor’s Notice: The opinions expressed on this visitor creator article are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially replicate these of Tripwire.
