OS X

Pierluigi Paganini September 30, 2017
Millions of Macs open to EFI Firmware Hacks even if they are up-to-date

A group of researchers with Duo Security demonstrated that millions of Up-to-Date Apple Macs are vulnerable to EFI Firmware attacks. In 2015, the security researcher Trammell Hudson demonstrated at the Chaos Computer Congress in Hamburg, how it is possible to infect Apple Mac PCs exploiting the Thunderbolt port. Since the disclosure of the attack against the Apple […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 08, 2016
Cross-platform Mokes backdoor OS X exists and is spreading in the wild

Malware researchers from Kaspersky Lab confirmed the existence of an OS X variant of the Mokes backdoor discovered in January by Kaspersky. Malware researchers from Kaspersky Lab confirmed the existence of an OS X variant of a recently discovered family of cross-platform backdoors. The backdoors family was named Mokes and a strain of malware was […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 18, 2016
A sophisticated variant of OceanLotus trojan targets OS X systems

In May 2015, the Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 published a report on a Trojan called OceanLotus that was being used since 2012 for APT attacks in the Chinese market. The APT attacks based  on the OceanLotus focused on government organizations, research institutes, maritime agencies, and companies specializing in other activities. At the time were […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 01, 2015
Mac zero-day makes rootkit infection very easy

A security researcher discovered a zero-day vulnerability in many Mac firmware that could allow an easy installation of an EFI rootkits. The cyber security expert Pedro Vilaça has discovered a low-level zero-day vulnerability in Apple Mac systems that could be exploited by privileged users to more install an EFI rootkits. Vilaça explained that the attack is […]

Pierluigi Paganini May 11, 2015
Mac PCs are unprotected against malware

Patrick Wardle is a former NSA staffer that turned to a security researcher, the expert explained that his main concern is that MAC OS X security tools in the market are trivial and easy to bypass. One of the most known applications in Macs its Gatekeeper, but Patrick says that Gatekeeper can be easily misguided […]

Pierluigi Paganini April 12, 2015
Darwin kernel, just an IP packet to cause the crash of Apple devices

A serious flaw affecting the Darwin kernel in the Apple OS X 10.10 and iOS 8 could be exploited to cause DoS attack just sending a specific IP packet. At the end of 2014, security experts at Kaspersky Lab discovered a serious vulnerability in the Darwin kernel. The name “Darvin kernel” is unknown to the […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 28, 2015
A critical MiTM flaw in AFNetworking iOS, OS X framework was fixed

Security experts at Minded Security firm have recently discovered a flaw in the popular networking library for iOS and OS X AFNetworking. The researchers Simone Bovi and Mauro Gentile at the security firm Minded Security discovered a flaw in the popular networking library for iOS and OS X AFNetworking. The researchers found the flaw while were […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 23, 2015
Google ProjectZero disclose details for three OS X 0days on Apple

Google ProjectZero disclosed the details of 3 new OS X zero-day vulnerabilities, but experts believe that they could be exploited by hackers to run attacks. If you thought the ProjectZero team worked only to find flaws in Microsoft systems you are mistaken, this time the excellence crew has discovered three more zero-day vulnerabilities affecting the Apple’s […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 07, 2015
CERT CC warns about critical flaws in UEFI implementations

The Carnegie Mellon University CERT/CC warned about the presence of serious vulnerabilities in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). The CERT/CC has issued three different advisories for security flaws identified in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) (pronounced as an initialism U-E-F-I or like “unify” without the n) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 05, 2015
Thunderstrike hack – Infecting Apple Mac with EFI Bootkit

A security researcher has presented a technique dubbed Thunderstrike hack to infect Apple’s Mac PCs with with EFI Bootkit through the Thunderbolt port. Infect Apple Mac PCs exploiting the Thunderbolt port is possible, the security researcher Trammell Hudson has demonstrated how it is possible during  the last edition of the annual Chaos Computer Congress in Hamburg, Germany. The […]