New Variant of UpdateAgent Malware Infects Mac Computers with Adware

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https://thehackernews.com/2022/02/new-variant-of-updateagent-malware.html

Microsoft on Wednesday shed light on a previously undocumented Mac trojan that it said has underwent several iterations since its first appearance in September 2020, effectively granting it an "increasing progression of sophisticated capabilities."

The company's Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team dubbed the new malware family "UpdateAgent," charting its evolution from a barebones information stealer to a second-stage payload distributor as part of multiple attack waves observed in 2021. "The latest campaign saw the malware installing the evasive and persistent Adload adware, but UpdateAgent's ability to gain access to a device can theoretically be further leveraged to fetch other, potentially more dangerous payloads," the researchers said.

The actively in-development malware is said to be propagated via drive-by downloads or advertisement pop-ups that masquerade as legitimate software like video applications and support agents, even as the authors have made steady improvements that have transformed UpdateAgent into a progressively persistent piece of malware. Chief among the advancements include the capability to abuse existing user permissions to surreptitiously perform malicious activities and circumvent macOS Gatekeeper controls, a security feature that ensures only trusted applications from identified developers can be installed on a system.

New Variant of UpdateAgent Malware Infects Mac Computers with Adware

Microsoft warns users about a new version of UpdateAgent malware that’s targeting Mac computers with adware.

thehackernews.com