Apple Updates Anti-Malware Definitions to Address Fake Flash Player Trojan

MacRumors · Aug 12, 2011

Fake Flash Player trojan installer

While things have been relatively quiet on the malware front for OS X since a raid on Russian payment processing firm ChronoPay appeared to have taken down MacDefender nearly two months ago, one new trojan horse did pop up earlier this month. As detailed by F-Secure, the trojan known as "OSX.QHost.WB.A" masquerades as a Flash Player installer but actually adds entries to a computer's hosts file to redirect users attempting to visit certain Google sites.

Once installed, the trojan adds entries to the hosts file to hijack users visiting various Google sites (e.g., Google.com.tw, Google.com.tl, et cetera) to the IP address 91.224.160.26, which is located in Netherlands.

The server at the IP address displays a fake webpage designed to appear similar to the legitimate Google site.

Search results on the fake Google pages actually lead to pop-up windows that load external content which was broken at the time of discovery but presumably consisted of advertisements of some sort. While the threat as implemented at the time of discovery was relatively mild, inexperienced users falling for the trojan could find themselves unaware of what had happened to their systems and how to fix the hijacked routing added by the malware.

Consequently, Apple earlier this week made its first significant addition to its "XProtect.plist" file since the spate of MacDefender variants surfaced in June. The XProtect.plist file contains malware definitions to enable users' systems to recognize and warn users of malicious downloads, a feature that debuted with Mac OS X Snow Leopard back in 2009.

The original anti-malware system required manual updates to account for new threats, and as such was updated only rarely by Apple as part of larger software updates. But with an Apple software update issued in response to the MacDefender threat earlier this year, Mac OS X systems are now able to make daily checks for updates to that file to ensure up-to-date protection against malware.

Article Link: Apple Updates Anti-Malware Definitions to Address Fake Flash Player Trojan

KnightWRX · Aug 12, 2011

Let's get this out of the way right now : This is not an OS X virus.

Apple... · Aug 12, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

^ Thank you.

And go Apple!

mabaker · Aug 12, 2011

A virus! a virus!! Stop the presses! Macintosh is done! D O N E!

hassiman · Aug 12, 2011

Do BOTH Leopard and Snow Leopard have this protection?

Do BOTH Leopard and Snow Leopard have this updateable Malware protection?

Stridder44 · Aug 12, 2011

Awesome, I was not aware that it updated daily.

And yes, this is not a virus. This is malware.

redbotsoftware · Aug 12, 2011

That's why you need to disable flash.

Mal · Aug 12, 2011

hassiman said:
Do BOTH Leopard and Snow Leopard have this updateable Malware protection?

No. Only Snow Leopard and Lion offer this protection.

jW

devilstrider · Aug 12, 2011

Been out of the loop for 10 weeks and MacRumors is getting my up to speed fast. I love this site.

Sjhonny · Aug 12, 2011

Is this a sign?

Or just coincidence that in less then half a year two trojans show up in mac land.

winston1236 · Aug 12, 2011

devilstrider said:
Been out of the loop for 10 weeks and MacRumors is getting my up to speed fast. I love this site.

being here will def keep you on point

Sjhonny · Aug 12, 2011

redbotsoftware said:
That's why you need to disable flash.

This has nothing to do with Flash.

KnightWRX · Aug 12, 2011

Sjhonny said:
Is this a sign?

Or just coincidence that in less then half a year two trojans show up in mac land.

Trojans have been around for much longer than that on OS X, this is a sign of status quo is anything. It just gets reported more than it used to.

RASTERMAN · Aug 12, 2011

Flash... A Rose by any other name...

In some circles, Flash is considered malware (a Trojan) whether it comes from Adobe or any other source.

Cheers!

---RASTER

Macintox · Aug 12, 2011

what to do

menu go to folder ..type this: /etc/
then open - hosts
the inside should look like this if it has not been modified
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

BC2009 · Aug 12, 2011

Funny.... I updated Flash yesterday on my kids' Mac mini and I thought that writing a Trojan that masquerades as an update to Flash would be brilliant since Flash is updated so often and getting prompted that you need to update Flash to view a website is very common..... And then today, here it is.

longofest · Aug 12, 2011

No, it's not a "virus". It's a trojan. You think it's good, but its bad. (heh... depending on if you think "flash" is "good").

A question I have though, is under what conditions should ANY software modify the hosts file? Should Apple even allow programs that have been granted administrative rights to alter the hosts file? There is only a very limited benvolent use case for such an action, and that very related to what they did here: some anti-ad or anti-spyware utilities modify a host file to redirect known ad-producing domains to a "safe" domain. I personally think any modification of the host file should be given a warning like this:

The program _____ is trying to update a core Mac OS X system file that is used to provide network connectivity. While online advertisement blocking programs may require legitimate use of this file, most others applications may represent an attempt to install malicious software onto your computer. Are you sure you want to allow program _____ to modify this file?

nylonsteel · Aug 12, 2011

re flash player trojans

ugh = flash player
better buy some trojans to protect yourself from trojans

"cherry pie..." - warrant

iDuel · Aug 12, 2011

Let's be thankful that Apple is on the ball with these.

Xian Zhu Xuande · Aug 12, 2011

Stridder44 said:
And yes, this is not a virus. This is malware.

A virus is malware. A trojan, which is what this is, is also malware. Malware is just a generic term to describe, generally speaking, malicious software.

Sjhonny said:
Is this a sign?
Or just coincidence that in less then half a year two trojans show up in mac land.

As the Mac platform becomes more popular we will probably see more trojans. With a response time like this from Apple, though, I'm not sure it is likely to become a very big problem. Apple would have to fall significantly behind the game and the trojan itself would have to spread efficiently. And it is, of course, completely unrelated to viruses. Any platform (outside one which is completely controlled like iOS) is susceptible to trojans, which depends on a user to fall for a trick and take necessary actions.

nwcs · Aug 12, 2011

Another reason to use OpenDNS as your DNS. Even if you get fooled by something this obvious there's at least a net to catch you before you fall.

richardhunt · Aug 12, 2011

The frequency of malware will only increase over time as OSX gets adopted at a higher rate. It's inevitable and so are viruses. There's no such thing as a virus proof OS. So just because we as OSX users have not had to deal with this for now, it doesn't mean it's never going to happen. Awareness is key and to believe OSX is virus proof would be foolish.

Sjhonny · Aug 12, 2011

Xian Zhu Xuande said:
...Any platform (outside one which is completely controlled like iOS) is susceptible to trojans, which depends on a user to fall for a trick and take necessary actions.

Ever heard of the site jealbreakme.com?

There's no single man made OS (with extensive GUI elements and under the hood frameworks etc.) currently Trojan free.

KnightWRX · Aug 12, 2011

nwcs said:
Another reason to use OpenDNS as your DNS. Even if you get fooled by something this obvious there's at least a net to catch you before you fall.

OpenDNS does not prevent this at all and OpenDNS has all sorts of other issues.

lostngone · Aug 12, 2011

To BAD!

I was hoping Apple updated the Anti-Malware definitions to detect Flash AS Malware...

Apple Updates Anti-Malware Definitions to Address Fake Flash Player Trojan

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