New Mac OS X Backdoor Trojan Surfaces

Researchers at anti-virus firm Sophos say they've identified a new Trojan designed to infect Mac OS X users.Perhaps it was only a matter of time, considering the success of the Apple brand and the growing marketshare of OS X, that malware created to explicitly target OS X would surface.

The Trojan has been named the Blackhole RAT (for Remote Access Trojan), and according to Sophos researchers, the backdoor is not yet completely written. However, their analysis shows that it's a revise of a common Windows RAT, known as darkComet.

According to Sophos:

"The Mac OS X version is very basic and there appears to be a mix of German and English in the user interface. Its functions include: * Placing text files on the desktop * Sending a restart, shutdown or sleep command * Running arbitrary shell commands * Placing a full screen window with a message that only allows you to click reboot * Sending URLs to the client to open a website * Popping up a fake "Administrator Password" window to phish the target"

The author has also included a welcome note within the Trojan:

"I am a Trojan Horse, so i have infected your Mac Computer. I know, most people think Macs can't be infected, but look, you ARE Infected! I have full controll over your Computer and i can do everything I want, and you can do nothing to prevent it. So, Im a very new Virus, under Development, so there will be much more functions when im finished."

While such Trojans don't spread like worms or viruses, they can easily infect users through vulnerabilities within their browser and tainted applications and files.

For my information security and technology observations throughout the day, find me on Twitter.