Silver Sparrow, A malware that affected macOS

Apple’s new M1 chip is the target of cybercriminals. A new malware called Silver Sparrow whose intentions are still unknown has already infected 30,000 macOS devices. The cybersecurity companies that are studying the case and Apple are surprised by the speed with which the malware has spread and still do not understand what the final intention of this attack is. Apple ensures that there is no evidence of the presence of malicious code.

The threat was originally discovered last year by Red Canary for Mac, as a malware that uses javascript for its installation and shell scripts to ensure its persistence and connect to C2 servers. However, it was dependent on a binary compiled for x86_64, incompatible with the new Apple processors. The new version of the malware, includes instead a compiled binary for both architectures.

The malware has measures to ensure its erasure from the machine, so it is possible to have been a victim of this new attack without knowing it. Since the developer key has been revoked, its installation is no longer possible, but it could still be present on many of the computers that installed it before it was blocked.

Apple has already taken action in this regard, according to MacRumors, it has revoked the certificates of all developer accounts that are used to sign the affected packages, this will prevent it from spreading to more devices and the level of infection is higher.

However, Silver Sparrow does not appear to have performed any harmful activity for the device or the user. It is simply limited to receiving orders from a monitoring server every hour, but the indications of which never came during the investigation of some of the infected devices.

Researchers suggest that Silver Sparrow could be adware, malware that infects the machine to display advertisements, or a virus with cracked applications. The problem is not only that the next step of the malware is not known, but it is still not clear how something has spread so quickly that in the future could become an even greater problem and this is only the calm before the storm.

Other reads:
Kuik Adware – A simple but dangerous Adware
Problems of MacOS and its vulnerabilities

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