Objective-See recaps 2022 macOS malware
Objective-See's annual roundup details SysJoker, DazzleSpy, CoinMiner, and Gimmick—new macOS malware families discovered throughout 2022.
Sourceobjective-see.org — open the original
What to check
- Applies to
- The 3 CVEs named below. Whether you run an affected version is not assessed: check the versions the source lists.
- Exploitation
- CISA lists CVE-2019-8526, CVE-2021-1789, and CVE-2021-30869 as exploited in the wild.
This report is Objective-See's seventh annual comprehensive review of new macOS malware observed during 2022, compiling analysis and IOCs for multiple distinct families with sample downloads for researcher use. Covered specimens include SysJoker, a cross-platform backdoor first found on a Linux web server and later identified with a macOS variant possibly distributed via infected npm packages; DazzleSpy, a fully-featured cyber-espionage implant deployed through a watering-hole attack exploiting a WebKit vulnerability and a privilege-escalation flaw against Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters; CoinMiner, a cryptocurrency miner bundled in trojanized Adobe Photoshop/Zii disk images that uses a modified XMRig binary and I2P tunneling to obscure its network traffic; and Gimmick, a multi-platform espionage implant attributed by Volexity to the Chinese threat actor Storm Cloud, which abuses cloud services like Google Drive for command-and-control.
Each malware family is detailed with infection vectors, persistence mechanisms (primarily via LaunchAgents/LaunchDaemons), and capabilities ranging from simple backdoor functionality to full remote-control cyber-espionage tooling. The piece functions as a reference/threat-intel compilation rather than reporting a single new incident, aggregating previously-published vendor research (Intezer, ESET, TrendMicro, Volexity, Google TAG) into one consolidated resource with IOCs and technical analysis for defenders and researchers.
Mentioned in this report
Detection guidance
1 detection for this report is in the app — an indicator rule with Sigma, Splunk SPL, Elastic, Microsoft Defender XDR KQL, and YARA. Free account, no card.
Source reporting: https://objective-see.org/blog/blog_0x71.html
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What this brief leaves out
This page is the free tier: the write-up, the severity, the names. In the app the same report carries its extracted indicators, its detections (Splunk SPL already written, plus Elastic and Microsoft KQL where they apply), and live profiles of the CVEs, actors, and malware it names. The paid plans add the security research and news reporting the free tier leaves out.
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