Hackers Exploit MacKeeper Flaw To Spread OS X Malware

An anonymous reader writes: Controversial OS X 'clean-up utility' MacKeeper is being exploited by cybercriminals to diffuse Mac malware OSX/Agent-ANTU, according to the BAE cyber security unit. A single line of JavaScript on a malicious web-page is enough to hand over control of the user's system via MacKeeper. Lead security researcher Sergei Shevchenko said 'attackers might simply be 'spraying' their targets with the phishing emails hoping that some of them will have MacKeeper installed, thus allowing the malware to be delivered to their computers and executed,' The malware enables remote control over commands, uploads and downloads, and the setting of execution permissions, as well as granting access to details of VPN connections, user names, and lists of processes and statuses.

Comments

Huh?

[jomama717]

I thought MacKeeper was already malware. If you get suckered into installing it in the first place then anything goes.

Re:Huh?

[phishybongwaters]

Thank you for the first non flaming fanboy post. 100% accurate, we're seeing more mac infections and malware now not because of more exploits, it's because the market share is getting large enough to make them useful targets. This was not the case for some time. This "mac is safer" BS is the same as "linux is safer" no, it's not at all safer. Linux has so many flavors and variations it's not really feasible to blanket attack them. Moreover, most linux users have a better understanding of the OS than windows users (I use all 3, win, ios,linux, lest ye think I'm fanboying) and I'm fairly confident that we can NOT say the same thing about the average Mac user, the AVERAGE (I said average) Mac user is the average windows user with a different skin on the OS, they know not of the things that lie beneath the gui. Most average mac users wouldn't even know their MAC as a BASH terminal built in. We are seeing more ios attacks because they are getting sloppy at the same time they are gaining popularity. I can't go a single day without seeing a Macbook somewhere and I bet you dollars to doughnuts that if I asked them ,they would happily tell me how much more secure their Mac is. Mac users have a false sense of security, linux users have a false sense of superiority, and windows users like to click popups to get 100 free emoticons. And I am still LOLing over "you shouldn't have to do anything on a Mac for OS maintenance". That's the exact crap I'm talking about, that's why it's ridiculously expensive to get your Mac cert to.... wait for it..... REPAIR AND MAINTAIN MACS. That's why apple has "geniuses" to help you with your Mac problems, because there are no problems. We've always been at war with Eurasia.

You don't say?

[Anonymous Coward]

A crapware "product" to "solve" a usually non-existent "problem", most heavily promoted by deceptive pop-ups on porn sites, turns out not to be entirely trustworthy? I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you!