Security Experts:

Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Malware & Threats

New macOS Malware ‘DazzleSpy’ Used in Hong Kong Attacks

A recent campaign targeting individuals in Hong Kong has leveraged at least two pieces of malware designed to target macOS systems.

A recent campaign targeting individuals in Hong Kong has leveraged at least two pieces of malware designed to target macOS systems.

In November 2021, Google shared details about an attack where macOS malware was delivered to users in Hong Kong via compromised pro-democracy websites that served as watering holes.

According to Google, the attack, discovered in late August, was likely conducted by a well-resourced state-sponsored threat group.

The attackers leveraged both iOS and macOS exploits. The macOS exploit involved a WebKit remote code execution vulnerability patched by Apple in January 2021 (CVE-2021-1789) and a privilege escalation flaw that Apple patched in September, roughly one month after the attack was spotted by Google’s security researchers.

Google said at the time that one of the payloads delivered by the attackers was a piece of malware dubbed MACMA and CDDS, which could capture keystrokes, take screenshots, fingerprint compromised devices, upload and download files, execute terminal commands, and record audio.

ESET has also been monitoring the campaign and discovered that a compromised website of a pro-democracy radio station in Hong Kong had served a different piece of malware, which the cybersecurity firm has named DazzleSpy.

The malware can collect information about the compromised system, it can enumerate files in certain folders, search for specific files, execute shell commands, enumerate processes, dump the keychain using an old vulnerability, exfiltrate files, write files to the disk, and start a remote screen session. In addition, its developers are apparently working on adding more functionality.

Another noteworthy aspect is related to C&C communications. This macOS malware enforces end-to-end encryption and it will not communicate with its C&C server if someone attempts to eavesdrop by inserting a TLS-inspection proxy between the C&C server and the compromised system.

Some strings found in DazzleSpy’s code suggest the internal name assigned by its developers could be “osxrk.”

“It seems DazzleSpy’s authors were not so concerned about operational security as they have left the username wangping in paths embedded in the binary,” ESET said.

While the operation has not been attributed to any known threat actor, China has been known to launch these types of attacks against users in Hong Kong.

ESET noted that the malware contains internal messages written in Chinese, and it converts the date obtained from the compromised device to China Standard Time.

ESET has also pointed out that there are some similarities to a 2020 campaign that involved a piece of iOS malware named LightSpy, but the cybersecurity firm could not confirm that the two campaigns have been launched by the same group.

Related: Eight New macOS Malware Families Emerged in 2021

Related: Apple Confirms New Zero-Day Attacks on Older iPhones

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this webinar to learn best practices that organizations can use to improve both their resilience to new threats and their response times to incidents.

Register

Join this live webinar as we explore the potential security threats that can arise when third parties are granted access to a sensitive data or systems.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Malware & Threats

Threat actors are increasingly abusing Microsoft OneNote documents to deliver malware in both targeted and spray-and-pray campaigns.

Malware & Threats

Microsoft plans to improve the protection of Office users by blocking XLL add-ins from the internet.

Cybercrime

More than 3,800 servers around the world have been compromised in recent ESXiArgs ransomware attacks, which also include an improved process.

Malware & Threats

A vulnerability affecting IBM’s Aspera Faspex file transfer solution, tracked as CVE-2022-47986, has been exploited in attacks.

Malware & Threats

Unpatched and unprotected VMware ESXi servers worldwide have been targeted in a ransomware attack exploiting a vulnerability patched in 2021.