The Bit9 + Carbon Black Threat Research Team identified that the vast majority of OS X malware leveraged one of just seven persistence techniques to remain active on a system.Malware authors are seizing the opportunity to strike on the OS X platform, meaning there’s more malware out there but the result of this transition has been “less sophistication” in the malware.For example, the team’s analysis found that mechanisms such as adding cron jobs and “trojaning” startup locations such as rc.common weren’t typically used instead, malware authors are choosing to use Mac OS X-specific mechanisms. Typical UNIX persistence mechanisms were not frequently seen in the OS X malware analyzed.This enabled the team to look at command-and-control infrastructure as well as artifacts left as part of the malware execution.Īs the team tracked the malware, it found some interesting behavior.

“Evidence of a more malicious OS X marketplace is clearly compounding and we confidently expect Mac OS X malware attacks to accelerate in the coming months.”įor its analysis, the Bit9 + Carbon Black Threat Research Team utilized a custom-built sandbox to quickly identify common actions performed by malware, such as file creations and network communications. “Macs have been largely ignored by malware, until recently,” said Mike Sconzo, Bit9 + Carbon Black’s senior threat researcher. The samples were aggregated from the team’s independent research efforts, open sources, experience from incident response engagements involving OS X, peer research, black lists, and a contagio malware dump, among other sources. The Bit9 + Carbon Black Threat Research Team collected more than 1,400 unique OS X malware samples. In 2015 alone, the number of OS X malware samples has been five times greater than in 2010, 2011, 2012, 20 combined, the research found.

14, 2015-Mac OS X malware is at an all-time high, according to a new report from the Bit9® + Carbon Black ® Threat Research Team.Ī 10-week analysis conducted by Bit9 + Carbon Black demonstrated the unprecedented growth in OS X malware. Bit9 + Carbon Black analysis finds 5 times more malware in 2015 than prior 5 years combined

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