![]() Yet another site offers a crack of popular video and screencast editing software Camtasia, among many other paid-for applications. However, after mounting the image we find no application at all, just a single mach-O file called “AdobeFlashPlayer”.Ī quick lookup of the hash on VirusTotal confirms that it’s malware.Ġd5b129d4e4f1da8847b4579cc8c4f59e12c17effa924bb2624983f0ade51ba4 Here’s one:Ĭlicking on the link for the Adobe Zii 2020 5.2.0 Universal Patcher appears to provide a disk image for the same software. In another example, a number of easy-to-find websites offer “cracked” versions of popular apps, including another Adobe Zii crack. Take this Torrent user’s offerings, for example.Īs they say on TV, “don’t try this at home, folks!” Taking the first offering in the list, the Adobe Photoshop DMG unpacks to contain both the genuine software, a patch for it, and a hidden cryptominer. ![]() Those that frequent torrent sites in search of free access to copyrighted material – from books and TV series to blockbuster movies and proprietary software – share something in common with those that frequent adult entertainment sites (regardless of whether they are or are not the same users): they are disproportionately likely to expose themselves to macOS malware. ![]() ![]() However, before we get further into that, let’s first take a look at the kind of threats we’re talking about here. Rather, this is the view of a certain vociferous subsection of Apple enthusiasts. I also don’t believe this attitude is representative of Apple itself, if you look at the kind of things that Apple’s own security tools try to detect. I believe such moralizing hinders rather than helps the real security effort needed to improve macOS security, not just for this subset of users but for all. The fact they didn’t do the former and ended up with the latter? Well, “only themselves to blame”. This argument is often swiftly followed by the claim that had these users only followed “Apple’s advice”, or “common sense” or some other prescription about what users should and should not do on a computer, then they would not have ended up with malware on their (or their company’s) Macs. Self-inflicted Damage? Cracks, Pirates and PornĪ common argument among those who grudgingly admit there might be a “minor” problem of malware on macOS is that it is only users engaging in “risky behaviour” that are susceptible to malware, and (for some often unstated reason) this doesn’t count as a “real” problem. How do Macs really get infected? Let’s count the ways.ġ. But people can only argue from what they know, so let’s share a little knowledge. SentinelOne protects hundreds of thousands of Macs and our telemetry paints a very clear picture, a picture that has changed vastly even in the last two to three years. We’ve talked about the weaknesses in macOS security on a number of previous occasions, and we’ve also talked about some of the common and not-so-common threats that are out there in the wild, too.īut as I’ve noted in the past, the view of security researchers and the views of those opining on social media are often at odds simply because the latter are speaking from their own experience and don’t have the overview that researchers have. Three pervasive myths about Macs that you can find in almost any online discussion about security and macOS are “Macs are safe by design”, “Macs are not numerous enough to be of interest to malware authors” and (consequently) “there’s no real malware threats out there for macOS”.
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