Fundamental configuration problems that may affect your home or office Wi-Fi.If you downloaded Office from the Mac App Store, and have automatic updates turned on, your apps will update automatically. Often managed by a third-party provider, this rolling password system aims to reduce unauthorized intrusions to systems via compromised accounts.After installing macOS Catalina, you may notice your Mac is a bit sluggish. If you've followed the steps to connect your Mac to a Wi-Fi network , but the connection to your network or the Internet isn't reliable, the steps in this article might help.A one-time password (OTP) system involves the use of a generated password that can only be used once to log in and access specific online services. If your Mac is set up to connect to a Wi-Fi network, it can analyze the connection for issues that affect its performance, including its connection to the Internet.The strings that the trojan’s command and control (C&C) server uses to communicate with the storage samples links it to previous deployments by the cybercriminal group Lazarus.Dashboard applications supplied with macOS include a stock ticker, weather report, calculator and notepad users can create or download their own. However, further investigation showed the application bearing a striking resemblance to Dacls remote access trojan (RAT), a Windows and Linux backdoor that 360 Netlab discovered in December 2019. Click Updates on the left side menu, then click Update All, or the Update button next to the apps that you want to update.We found an application sample in April called TinkaOTP that seemed like a normal OTP authentication tool.
![]() Office 2011 Configure Vault Plugin Plist Password System AimsLoading the bot plugins, this enables connection to the server to open and wait for commands, update the configuration file based on the commands received, and encrypt the file via AES CBC. It initiates the configuration file /Library/Caches/com.applestore.db to set the C&C server IP and for remote session information. This was confirmed by matching the latest IP assignment and HTTP certificate from the download address of the new variant.The backdoor installation sequence shows that it’s meant for persistence via /LaunchAgents/com.aex-loop.agent.plist and /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.aex-loop.agent.plist. Payload address of another variantThe group appeared to have made this version as a quick follow-up to the Windows/Linux Dacls RAT variants. Despite the differences, the hidden payload downloaded is the same in both variants.Figure 6. The config file will then be dropped as /Library/Caches/com.applestore.db and encrypted. The initial C&C server IPs — 6743239146 and 1856258207 — the bot connects to are hardcoded in the backdoor file and written to the config file. If not, it creates a config file and writes data related to the setup such as C&C server addresses and other C&C session information. Related code disassembly for persistenceOnce installed, it checks if an existing configuration file exists. ![]() Start Socks4 Thread to setup SSL connectionThe bash/cmd plugin is used for executing shell commands in the form of appending them as a bash script and then running it on the terminal. Setup network proxy between bot and server Check network access to specified address issued by server Grammarly extension for word macMeanwhile, the socks plugin creates a connection via socks4 for Secure Sockets Layer-related (SSL) transactions. This creates another connection to another C&C specified in the commands to act as a proxy, redirecting traffic from the infected machine to the real C&C server.The logsend plugin collects system information by scanning the system using function start_scan_worm and send data to the log server specified. Meanwhile, the reverse P2P plugin creates a proxy server to bridge the C&C and the client. Process plugin formatting the collected information before sendingThe test plugin attempts to connect to a provided address to check access to the network. The process information collected includes the username, user ID, group ID, and process parent ID of the target process.Whereas the other plugins may directly call and execute for the arguments’ function passed by the server, the process plugin differs in that the server indirectly calls the function from the plugin itself the location of the process plugin functions’ addresses are first called prior to the execution.Figure 15. OTP authentication tools have also been used to manage cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges, another common target for fraud by the cybercriminal group. While considerably not as sophisticated yet, given how the AppleJeus malware quickly followed with a fileless version, we could expect the group to deploy a similar execution of this routine soon.We also suspect that the group may be targeting specific users for bot distribution, taking advantage of users’ needs for layered security. Related to this routine, the dropper from the first variant’s only implemented evasion method was the use of copying the payload into a hidden file the second variant improved on this by downloading the payload instead. It also shows that they’re experimenting for future-related cases, highlighted by the additional plugin that has not been observed in similar routines.To note, shortly after our first discovery of Lazarus’ interest in MacOS in 2019 via poisoned spreadsheets, the group was able to follow up with fileless AppleJeus, showing a rapid development in research. As mentioned in a previous Lazarus discovery involving MacOS, this shift in focus towards attacking multiple operating systems indicate an expansion of targets.
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