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A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Anonymous
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A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Janicab .app

A new piece of digitally signed spyware for Mac OS X uses a special Unicode character in its file name to hide its real file extension from users and trick them into installing it.
Opening the Janicab .app file will trigger a standard Mac OS X pop-up dialog warning the user that the file was downloaded from the Internet.
However, because of the RLO character in the file name, the entire warning text will be written right to left making it confusing and hard to read.
If users agree to open the file, the malware will install itself in a hidden folder in the user's home directory and will open a decoy PDF document containing what appears to be a news article in Russian.
Janicab continuously takes screenshots and records audio and uploads the collected data to command and control (C&C) servers that it finds by parsing the description of specific YouTube videos.
It also queries the C&C servers for commands to execute, the F-Secure researchers said in the blog post.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/security/3457840/new-digitally-signed-mac-malware-confuses-users-wit...
17 REPLIES 17
HairyMcbiker
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Again the users HAVE to install it, and it is not auto install like M$ virii.
Mac users should be a bit more savy about running strange apps.
dvorak
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

you'd have thought so wouldn't you...
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HairyMcbiker
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

But then again they have spent £1000's on their shiny mac, maybe they just like the colour? Wink
Oldjim
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

You would be surprised - or perhaps not - that many Mac users are totally ignorant about malware etc. and only went for a Mac instead of a Windows PC because they had been convinced by the publicity that it just works out of the box and doesn't get malware.
You should have seen the problem a friend of my better half had who wanted to transfer pictures from her Mac to a USB stick. Eventually she brought the laptop round and I did it for her (it wasn't at all obvious how to do it for a complete noob on a Mac - Me.)
Windows Explorer for all its problems at least makes it easy to do
dvorak
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

disagree it's very obvious, i found it very intuitive and it does just work out of the box Wink
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Anonymous
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Quote from: Hairy
But then again they have spent £1000's on their shiny mac, maybe they just like the colour? Wink

£999 for my latest iMac !
Oldjim
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Quote from: dvorak
disagree it's very obvious, i found it very intuitive and it does just work out of the box Wink
So why did I find it very non intuitive
Answer - I have never ever used a Mac before and all I wanted to do was view the folder and copy the files to a USB stick
Also I never did find out how to copy the jpg pictures across I finished up using the export system which re-encodes them
Anonymous
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

.jpg to USB, just Drag & Drop, is that what you need to do ?
Most of my USB transfers of images, files, folders etc I Drag & Drop.
Oldjim
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

The odd thing is that she had already tried doing that by dragging the folder containing the files across but it didn't bring the files with it - it was empty on the USB stick
Apologies for taking this thread off topic - please let it drop as I no longer have any access to the Mac and so couldn't even try again.
By the way - also have problems doing anything on my better half's android tablet which is a problem when she gets stuck
Strat
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Fortunately I have used iTunes in the past which put me firmly off anything Apple related.
I used iTunes for an iPhone 3 company phone which sadly just worked.
Malware writers will target anything if there's a profit in it.
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Anonymous
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Quote from: Oldjim
The odd thing is that she had already tried doing that by dragging the folder containing the files across but it didn't bring the files with it - it was empty on the USB stick
Apologies for taking this thread off topic - please let it drop as I no longer have any access to the Mac and so couldn't even try again.

One last thought, perhaps the USB stick needed formatting to a Mac format, via disc utility.
If it was formatted to Windows PC NTFS, it is not write-able to from iMac, unless an extra bit of software is used, which I use.
NTFS is extended FAT for Windows USB
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Here's another Apple mac dodgy trick to be aware of
Apple browsers targeted by simple JavaScript ransom scam
The attack noticed by security firm Malwarebytes is a mixture of sleight of hand and social engineering that the firm reports that it will work against several Mac-based browsers (using an OSX interpreter) with JavaScript enabled.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/security/3458426/apple-browsers-targeted-by-simple-javascript-ransom...
PeeGee
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Quote from: PlusComUK
NTFS is extended FAT for Windows USB

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Shocked
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VileReynard
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Re: A new Mac OSX Malware to be aware of.

Returning to the OP - why would a Mac use a "file extension" - I thought only Windows considered that the bit after the dot has any particular meaning?
I've never used any Apple fashion accessory, though.

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