Cnet is reporting that a new trojan threatening Macs has emerged. While technically it was discovered in July, the threat has only recently became semi-functional, and was thus in turn discovered by antivirus companies. As for the malware application itself, it comes in two parts. The first known as “OSX/Revir.A” is meant to distract users […]
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Apple Updates Anti-Malware Database To Fight New Trojan Threat

Sep 26th 2011 by

Software_Update_icon.pngCnet is reporting that a new trojan threatening Macs has emerged. While technically it was discovered in July, the threat has only recently became semi-functional, and was thus in turn discovered by antivirus companies.

As for the malware application itself, it comes in two parts. The first known as “OSX/Revir.A” is meant to distract users by repeatedly opening a PDF document entitled “offensive political statements”. While the PDF is exploding in the users face, a second part known as “OSX/Imuler.A” is opening a backdoor into the system, which could allow for unauthorized access.

On the upside, the malware isn’t yet functioning correctly, due to the lack of instructions arriving fro a remote server. That said, the groundwork would still be in place for malicious activity to occur.

Further good news in this story comes in the form of Apple’s swift response to the threat. After the MacDefender battle earlier this year, Apple released an update that allowed their Malware tools to update automatically behind the scenes. In other words, if you’re running an up to date version of Snow Leopard or Lion, the malware definitions have likely already been downloaded to your system.

Also worth noting at this time, is that there is now a second malware threat pretending to be a Flash plugin installer, very similar to the threat we reported on last month. The new trojan horse is known as “OSX/flashback.A”. So if you’re needing to download Flash, it would be best to acquire it from Adobe’s website, and nowhere else.

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