- #Fake adobe flash on mac malware for mac os
- #Fake adobe flash on mac malware for mac
- #Fake adobe flash on mac malware movie
- #Fake adobe flash on mac malware pdf
- #Fake adobe flash on mac malware install
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#Fake adobe flash on mac malware for mac
Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition is fully-functioning and free for home use. But that doesn’t mean it’s non-existent, and it’s no excuse for leaving Apple Macs unprotected.
#Fake adobe flash on mac malware for mac os
We all know that there is much much more malware written for Windows than there is for Mac OS X.
#Fake adobe flash on mac malware pdf
The OSX/Revir-B Trojan was discovered, displaying a political hot potato of a PDF as a distraction while it did its dirty work. This is just one example of if happening in real life, there have been plenty of others.įlashback is just the latest example of Mac malware follows hot on the heels of another Trojan horse for the OS X platform. While this update was more successful in spreading malware in the past, it still exists and might still trick people in clicking on its fake update links and lead to a malware infection. One of the most common fake updates that might crop up while you browse online is the fake Adobe Flash Player update. Fake software updates pushed as pop-ups or page redirects in your browser are a common way used by hackers to spread malware. Maybe now you can see just how easy it is for some folks to fall for this kind of trick. Fake Adobe Flash Player Update Malware Popups on Mac. (Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like)
#Fake adobe flash on mac malware movie
Here’s a video of another malware attack that tripped up Mac and Windows users, by duping them into installing a fake update to watch a sex movie of Leighton Meester: Similar tricks have certainly worked well in the past – against both Windows and Mac users.
Of course, rather than the genuine Flash you would be installing the Trojan horse.
#Fake adobe flash on mac malware install
It’s easy to imagine how cybercriminals could trick Mac users into infecting their computers with this malware.įor instance, it would be child’s play to create a website which pretends to show something salacious (“Scarlett Johansson nude video!” would probably do well at the moment, for instance) and then when you try to view it, you’re prompted to install an update to Adobe Flash. Sophos products, including Sophos’s free anti-virus for Mac home users, detects the Flashback malware as OSX/FlshPlyr-A. Once in place, Trojan horse could allow a remote hacker to gain access to your computer or download further malicious code to your Mac. The OSX/Flshplyr-A Trojan horse (called “Flashback” by our friends at Intego, who first publicised it), is disguised as an installer for the popular Adobe Flash program. “Organizations with decent web filtering and educated users have a much lower risk of infection by these fake updates.Mac users are once again being reminded to keep their anti-virus software up-to-date, following the discovery of a Trojan horse that poses as an update to Adobe Flash.
“This campaign uses legitimate activity to hide distribution of cryptocurrency miners and other unwanted programs,” the research team said. While the Adobe pop-up and update features make the fake installer seem more legitimate, potential victims will still receive warning signs about running downloaded files on their Windows computer, said Duncan. Interestingly, the infected Windows host generate an HTTP POST request to com], a domain associated with updaters or installers pushing cryptocurrency miners.īut, the research team noticed that their infected systems soon generated traffic associated with the XMRig cryptocurrency mining over TCP port 14444 – as the malicious cryptominer began to take sway and utilize the systems’ power for mining. Network traffic during the infection process consists mainly of the Flash update. The downloads always contain the string “flashplayer_down.php?clickid=” in the URL.ĭuncan said he could not determine how potential victims were arriving at the URLs delivering the fake Flash updates, however. While searching for fake Flash updates, researchers noticed Windows executable file names starting with AdobeFlashPlayer, from non-Adobe, cloud-based web servers. These fake Flash updates install unwanted programs like an XMRig cryptocurrency miner, but this malware can also update a victim’s Flash Player to the latest version.”
“As early as August 2018, some samples impersonating Flash updates have borrowed pop-up notifications from the official Adobe installer. “A recent type of fake Flash update has implemented additional deception,” said Brad Duncan Threat Intelligence Analyst with Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 group, in a post about the new campaign Thursday. Unbeknownst to the victims, while the legitimate Flash update has occurred, a tricky XMRig cryptocurrency miner is quietly downloaded and runs in the background of the infected Windows computers. The samples act as Flash updates, borrowing pop-up notifications from the official Adobe installer, and even actually updating a victim’s Flash Player to the latest version. To the average user, the newly discovered samples, which have been active as early as August, seem legitimate.
While fake Flash updates that push malware have traditionally been easy to spot and avoid, a new campaign has employed new tricks that stealthily download cryptocurrency miners on Windows systems.