The infallibility of Mac Book and the operating system OS X against virus and Trojan is no longer a reality when a Flashback Trojan infected around 600 thousand Mac worldwide. Adding to Apple headache is the discovery of the new malware Sabpab that acts like Flashback infecting the Mac.
Sabpab is like Flashback that does not require any user interaction to infect Apple Mac. It is also using the vulnerability of Java and is being used to create Flashback botnet.
The discovery of the new Mac Book Trojan is revealed by security firm Sophos, and is considered to be a basic backdoor Trojan horse. The attacker is controlling the Trojan using control server via HTTP protocol. With the Trojan, the hacker can grab screenshots from infected Mac, upload and download files and execute commands remotely.
Sophos said that Sabpab is creating files such as:
/Users/
/Users/
The Trojan is exploiting the vulnerability of Exp/20120507-A, but was patched by Apple last week. But OSX/Sabpab-A is not cleaned up on Time Machine backups. This can be manually cleaned up within time machine by deleting the above mentioned pfile and plist files.
The files then create encrypted logs and sent back to the control server where the attacker can monitor the activity of the Mac users.
Symantec identifies the trojan as OSX.Sabpab which exploits the Oracle Java SE Remote Java Runtime Environment Denial Of Service Vulnerability (BID 52161) in order to install itself on to the compromised computer.
Symantec recommendations on how to avoid being infected by this new OSX trojan variant:
Use a firewall to block all incoming connections from the Internet to services that should not be publicly available. By default, you should deny all incoming connections and only allow services you explicitly want to offer to the outside world.
Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. This helps to prevent or limit damage when a computer is compromised.
Ensure that programs and users of the computer use the lowest level of privileges necessary to complete a task. When prompted for a root or UAC password, ensure that the program asking for administration-level access is a legitimate application.
Disable AutoPlay to prevent the automatic launching of executable files on network and removable drives, and disconnect the drives when not required. If write access is not required, enable read-only mode if the option is available.
Turn off file sharing if not needed. If file sharing is required, use ACLs and password protection to limit access. Disable anonymous access to shared folders. Grant access only to user accounts with strong passwords to folders that must be shared.
Turn off and remove unnecessary services. By default, many operating systems install auxiliary services that are not critical. These services are avenues of attack. If they are removed, threats have less avenues of attack.
If a threat exploits one or more network services, disable, or block access to, those services until a patch is applied.
Always keep your patch levels up-to-date, especially on computers that host public services and are accessible through the firewall, such as HTTP, FTP, mail, and DNS services.
Configure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread threats, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files.
Isolate compromised computers quickly to prevent threats from spreading further. Perform a forensic analysis and restore the computers using trusted media.
Train employees not to open attachments unless they are expecting them. Also, do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses. Simply visiting a compromised Web site can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched.
If Bluetooth is not required for mobile devices, it should be turned off. If you require its use, ensure that the device’s visibility is set to “Hidden” so that it cannot be scanned by other Bluetooth devices. If device pairing must be used, ensure that all devices are set to “Unauthorized”, requiring authorization for each connection request. Do not accept applications that are unsigned or sent from unknown sources.
via Sophos, Symantec
