In late 2021, Volexity discovered an intrusion in an environment monitored as part of its Network Security Monitoring service. Volexity detected a system running frp, otherwise known as fast reverse proxy, and subsequently detected internal port scanning shortly afterward. This traffic was determined to be unauthorized and the system, a MacBook Pro running macOS 11.6 (Big Sur), was isolated for further forensic analysis. Volexity was able to run Surge Collect to acquire system memory (RAM) and select files of interest from the machine for analysis. This led to the discovery of a macOS variant of a malware implant Volexity calls GIMMICK. Volexity has encountered Windows versions of the malware family on several previous occasions. GIMMICK is used in targeted attacks by Storm Cloud, a Chinese espionage threat actor known to attack organizations across Asia. It is a feature-rich, multi-platform malware family that uses public cloud hosting services (such as Google […]

A comprehensive analysis of the year's new malware

While conducting routine threat hunting for macOS malware on Ad networks, I stumbled upon an unusual Shlayer sample. Upon further analysis, it became clear that this variant was different from the known Shlayer variants such as OSX/Shlayer.D, OSX/Shlayer.E, or ZShlayer. We have dubbed it OSX/Shlayer.F.

Get root on macOS 13.0.1 with CVE-2022-46689 (macOS equivalent of the Dirty Cow bug), using the testcase extracted from Apple’s XNU source.

Learn about all the new malware targeting macOS users in 2022 and how to stay safe from the latest Mac-focused campaigns.

WeightBufs is a kernel r/w exploit for all Apple devices with Neural Engine support. Bugs and Exploit by @simo36, you can read my presentation slides at POC for more details about the vulnerabilities and the exploitation techniques.

True or false? Apple supports macOS for three years. Apple’s security updates are sufficient. New versions of macOS are full of bugs. It’s safer to delay upgrading.

The offensive macOS cyber capabilities of the WINDSHIFT APT group provide us with the opportunity to gain insight into the Apple-specific approaches employed by an advanced adversary. In this talk we’ll comprehensively dissect OSX.WindTape, a second-stage tool utilized by the WINDSHIFT APT group when targeting Apple systems. First we’ll discuss the malware’s anti-analysis mechanisms, and then once these have been thwarted, we’ll explore its capabilities. To conclude, we’ll present heuristic methods that can generically both detect and prevent WindTape, as well as other advanced macOS threats.

Some time ago I was using Logic Pro to record some of my music and I needed a way to start and stop the recording from an iPhone, so I found about Logic Remote and was quite happy with it.

Read how macOS vulnerability in Archive Utility could lead to the execution of an unsigned and unnotarized application without displaying security prompts.

First Coinbase, now Crypto.com. Lazarus campaign targets more crypto exchange platform job seekers with multi-stage malware.

With the enterprise adoption of MacOS and iOS devices increasing, the Apple security landscape is becoming increasingly complex.

With iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, Apple is introducing passkeys—a more convenient and secure alternative to passwords.

One of the things Apple cares about in terms of its bug bounty program is your location data. Apple rightly categorizes real-time or historical precise location data as "sensitive data" which in some cases qualifies for a significant monetary award.

Here are two proof-of-concepts for CVE-2022-26766 (CoreTrust allows any root certificate) and CVE-2022-26763 (IOPCIDevice::_MemoryAccess not checking bounds at all), two issues discovered by @LinusHenze and patched in macOS 12.4 / iOS 15.5.

New domains and new behavioral indicators, but malware authors stick to tried and tested architecture despite Apple’s updates.

North Korean hackers from the Lazarus group have been using a signed malicious executable for macOS to impersonate Coinbase and lure in employees in the financial technology sector.

Zoom has issued a patch for a bug on macOS that could allow a hacker to take control of a user’s operating system (via MacRumors). In an update on its security bulletin, Zoom acknowledges the issue (CVE-2022-28756) and says a fix is included in version 5.11.5 of the app on Mac, which you can (and should) download now.

In macOS 12.0.1 Monterey, Apple fixed CVE-2021-30873. This was a process injection vulnerability affecting (essentially) all macOS AppKit-based applications. We reported this vulnerability to Apple, along with methods to use this vulnerability to escape the sandbox, elevate privileges to root and bypass the filesystem restrictions of SIP.

With a recent market cap of over $100 billion and the genericization of its name, the popularity of Zoom is undeniable. But what about its security? This imperative question is often quite personal, as who amongst us isn't jumping on weekly (daily?) Zoom calls? In this talk, we’ll explore Zoom’s macOS application to uncover several critical security flaws. Flaws, that provided a local unprivileged attacker a direct and reliable path to root. The first flaw, presents itself subtly in a core cryptographic validation routine, while the second is due to a nuanced trust issue between Zoom’s client and its privileged helper component. After detailing both root cause analysis and full exploitation of these flaws, we’ll end the talk by showing how such issues could be avoided …both by Zoom, but also in other macOS applications.

If you’re still running macOS Mojave or earlier, now is the time to take action to ensure your Mac maintains protection against malware.