Web attack detected with new malware against Mac

A Web attack using a new malicious program against Mac OS X computers has been detected, McAfee Avert Labs reports on July 7, 2009.

Called 'Puper,' the Trojan virus while attacking pretends to be a video application named "MacCinema" for users of the Mac OS X.

State the security researchers from McAfee Avert Labs that the new assault seems like a disk pictorial that subsequently downloads an installer program, designed to run the fictitious 'MacCinema.' And when this installer has carried out its job fully, a malicious script called AdobeFlash infects the user's system.

Thereafter the script downloads itself at intervals of five hours to take down and install additional malicious programs onto the infected PC.

Meanwhile, the new Mac attack is very much the same as others that previously targeted OS X computers over recent months. One example is that of the OSX/Jahlav-C Trojan, which canvassed a lewd movie of Leighton Meester the star of "Gossip Girl" and projected a web-link that would take the user onto a site where an attempt to watch the movie through a supposed codec download would result in the installation of a Trojan known as OSX/Jahlav-C on the infected Mac PC.

Other Mac assaults, meanwhile, have used Trojan installers on counterfeit software. One of these assaults was employed for building a botnet with Mac machines, researchers explain.

Further, according to the researchers, hackers are increasingly employing social-engineering tactics such as telling Web surfers to necessarily take down a plug-in to view a movie on their Mac system, a trickery to enter the computer.

As a matter of fact, certain computers users might think that they are safe on their Mac systems while surfing for pornographic content, but they could be proved wrong as Mac systems are now being attacked with novel as also increasingly sophisticated malware.

Hence, researchers warn that despite Mac malware being fewer in number compared to that of Windows, computer users must even then deploy fundamental security measures. Therefore, security specialists suggest that users of Mac similar as those of Windows must use up-to-date software for their anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware solutions.

Related article: Web Browsers Too Have Security Exploits

» SPAMfighter News - 7/27/2009