Friday, June 20,2008 @ 8:40am
New Mac OS X Trojan horse identified
Multiple variants of a new 'Trojan Horse', designed to allow a malicious user complete remote access to a Mac OS X system have been discovered in the wild earlier this week according to makers of Mac anti-spyware and anti-virus solutions SecureMac. Dubbed 'Applescript.THT Trojan' and disguised as an application bundle called 'AStht_v06' (3.1MB in size), the malware seemingly originated, and is distributed via a 'hacker' website, as well as Limewire and iChat. Post system infiltration, the malicious script can reportedly "log keystrokes, take pictures with the built-in Apple iSight camera, take screenshots, and turn on file sharing". A 'copy cat' program based on the OS X Remote Management exploit was discovered earlier this week.
For added security, and protection against 'Applescript.THT' as well as other OS X malware, Macscan advises using anti-virus software, including its Macscan 2.5.2 with the latest spyware definitions (2008011); the company also cautions users to download files only from known, trusted sources.