∞ New variant of Mac OS X Trojan discovered

Written by

In late October, SecureMac discovered a new trojan that affected users of Mac OS X. On Thursday, the company posted a warning that a new variant of the trojan has been discovered.

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]The new variant was discovered by security firm ESET. The original trojan attempted to trick users into installing the software, but the servers hosting the new variant appear to be hosting updated code for the malware, according to SecureMac.

The servers distributing the updated malware also appear to contain keystroke logs from infected machines, including usernames and passwords, the company said.

Microsoft has also documented the trojan for both Mac and Windows, rating the threat level for both operating systems as severe. SecureMac rates the security risk of the malware as being critical.

Only Intego has rated the threat level as minimal, contradicting Microsoft, SecureMac and ESET’s interpretation of the malware’s threat to users.

SecureMac released a free tool to detect and remove the malware. It is available for download from the company’s website. Instructions to manually remove the malware are also available from SecureMac.


  • JLN

    For the love of journalism, can you guys at least research the viability of these things before posting them? The “threat level” is the same as the last one in that the user has to supply an administrative password to install anything and has to have Java enabled in their browsers before they even get that far. Also, keystroke loggers don’t work on password fields on OS X as they’re protected at the kernel level so I’d be interested to know how many (if any) of the logs found on the servers came from Macs versus Windows machines. I’m guessing 0.

  • Lucas

    given that this malware affects users regardless of OS, calling it a “Mac OS X Trojan” is a misnomer. THe headline is total hit fodder and frankly Jim I thought you were above that. But lately you have been acting as tabloid as the rest. Hit fodder headlines, half stories etc. Shameful