Mac OS X gets Another Bot Malware iWorm

According to Doctor Web the Russian anti-virus company, one fresh strain of malware which targets Mac machines and is dubbed Mac.BackDoor.iWorm has been discovered infecting about 17,000 computers worldwide with the greatest number being within USA, published macrumors.com dated October 4, 2014.

The security company explains that when iWorm infects a Mac, it tries to connect with its command-and-control (C&C) server. The installation of the iWorm creates a file on the contaminated computer as well as opens one port on it for obtaining an address list of the C&C server. And after the server link gets done, instructions flow in from remote hackers onto the contaminated computer else the botnet to which the contaminated computer is added. The purpose of any botnet is to employ it for dispatching spam mails alternatively overwhelm online sites with traffic to an extent that the sites would collapse.

Seemingly, iWorm managed in utilizing Reddit's search function (Reddit is a well-known social-networking website featuring link-sharing facility) for finding comments on the website which hackers posted during one discussion there about Minecraft.

In a remark about the still going assault, Graham Cluley, Security Specialist states that the malware's exploitation of Reddit doesn't make the website responsible for it. Securityweek.com published this dated October 3, 2014.

Cluley explains that even if Reddit closes all those accounts which have got into interacting with the network-of-bots still the hackers may create fresh accounts alternatively utilize another service like Twitter for continuing the communication with the hijacked PCs.

Meanwhile, Apple on its part has made the "Xprotect" anti-malware software it owns, up-to-date for tackling the threat. The software company has been able to identify 2 separate iWorm strains as also stop them from getting loaded onto Mac users' devices.

Here it maybe mentioned that in 2012, the notorious Flashback Trojan accumulated over 600,000 Mac bots thus not making an OS X malware any unique or distinctly enabling building up of Mac botnets. Then again during early 2014, Flashback created more bots out of over 22,000 compromised PCs, writes Intego, the Mac security firm, in a blogpost dated around beginning 2014.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/9/2014