A computer programmer from Ohio was indicted for spying Mac users for 13 years

[Drak3]

6 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

Code can even infect linux, that on its own is impressive.

Not really.

 

5 hours ago, Phentos said:

since Mac OS and Linux are fairly closely related (both based on Unix).

OSX is Unix through and through, but Linux's basis in Unix is extremely shallow: Linux is supposed to only deliver similar results as BSD but completely avoid the proprietary and patented/patent pending methodology behind it.

[TVwazhere]

7 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

28-year-old Phillip R. Durachinsky

So, is that his current age? Because that means he started all this when he was 15.... in 2003...

 

When I was that age i was still eating glue and mu- erimean what? 

 

Seriously, guys an asshole but man is that smart

[captain_to_fire]

13 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

So, is that his current age? Because that means he started all this when he was 15.... in 2003...

 

When I was that age i was still eating glue and mu- erimean what? 

 

Seriously, guys an asshole but man is that smart

I think so. But man he's only 2 years older than me and he was able to craft a spying malware at the age of 15. Meanwhile, back when I was 15 I was fighting with my parents when the telephone line because dial up internet sucks and I still eat on candy and chocolate and watch a few anime. 

 

Maybe instead I should've just studied Metasploit in Kali Linux instead at that age

[Guest]

2 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

no wonder things like this happened to PCs 20 years ago 

Its sad that the effort put behind emails then is as absent as with current spam (Sure they may use different and more ingenious exploits, but the coat of paint is still crap)

[DrMacintosh]

So much effort to report on such a small topic.....

[mynameisjuan]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

So much effort to report on such a small topic.....

Not a small topic at all. You are just mad because it contain security flaws in OSX arnt you? 

[ScratchCat]

9 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

So much effort to report on such a small topic.....

When was the last time someone managed to spy on unsuspecting people using their Mac for 13 years, collecting vast amounts of data which will cause him to face numerous charges , remained undetected by all these users and was created by a single person , not a government agency or hacking group?

 

It is a sizeable topic.

 

[NumLock21]

8 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

 

no wonder things like this happened to PCs 20 years ago 

 

 

That person sent that to themselves, using another one their e-mail accounts. Much like this

 

[DrMacintosh]

1 hour ago, mynameisjuan said:

You are just mad because it contain security flaws in OSX arnt you? 

Security flaws in any OS are a given. I’m just surprised at the effort put into the post on a topic like this. 

[mynameisjuan]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Security flaws in any OS are a given. I’m just surprised at the effort put into the post on a topic like this. 

I am glad when people spend time on news articles. But again, you only bring this up because its apple related. 

[DrMacintosh]

5 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

you only bring this up because its apple related. 

I’m sure 

[Master Disaster]

5 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

I am glad when people spend time on news articles. But again, you only bring this up because its apple related. 

He'd be complaining the post doesn't go far enough if it was about Windows

[DarkBlade2117]

Hey I lived there

[mynameisjuan]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I’m sure 

Why else would you complain about a nicely written news article. 

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, mynameisjuan said:

Why else would you complain about a nicely written news article. 

I didn’t complain, I only said it was a lot of effort for such a small topic. 

 

Im not arguing against the content of the post. 

[DrMacintosh]

4 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

He'd be complaining the post doesn't go far enough if it was about Windows

?

[linus69]

How would the malware actually get on user's Mac OS? According to the article about the permission to install, should the user not have been alerted of this? Surely there must be some smart people out there? (aka people who use linustechtips.com)

[captain_to_fire]

8 hours ago, tjcater said:

Its sad that the effort put behind emails then is as absent as with current spam (Sure they may use different and more ingenious exploits, but the coat of paint is still crap)

My dad's PC is actually one of the millions who got infected by the ILOVEYOU virus back in the day which is very simple as it's mostly a single strip of code kinda like the one below and all it can do is replicate annoyingly unlike malware today which are very destructive.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

 

2 hours ago, linus69 said:

How would the malware actually get on user's Mac OS? According to the article about the permission to install, should the user not have been alerted of this? Surely there must be some smart people out there? (aka people who use linustechtips.com)

No one knows as the DOJ hasn't given details. I'm guessing it's the typical social engineering via visiting an infected site or injecting the malware within webpages and later using drive by download attack. 

3 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

So much effort to report on such a small topic.....

By so much effort you mean I typed a long commentary on the subject matter? And I don't think a security issue that lasted for 13 years especially cyberespionage isn't something to be ignored notwithstanding the fact that the source code is compatible to both macOS and Linux and cybercriminals can take advantage of the source code and make it more nefarious next time. It's just like the Shadow Brokers dump that lead to WannaCry and NotPetya/ExPetr. 

 

It's a sign that A.) Mac users need to run an anti-virus in their computers and B.) Apple needs to step up their security by adding a built in AV just like Windows Defender.

[vanished]

Any OS is vulnerable to malware if the user actively downloads and installs it.  What people tend to forget is malware can also sneak in without you even realizing it using an exploit.  I think this is the kind people mean when they say "Macs don't get viruses", since (true or not) there is a perception that Unix-based systems don't have, or have far fewer vulnerabilities than Windows.  Regardless, I'm pretty sure every system has been vulnerable at some point or another in the last decade, so the most amazing thing about this isn't that it could happen but that it went undetected for so long.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

My dad's PC is actually one of the millions who got infected by the ILOVEYOU virus back in the day which is very simple as it's mostly a single strip of code kinda like the one below and all it can do is replicate annoyingly unlike malware today which are very destructive.

Good thing it was harmless, but dang those numbers (For spam mail that is). It annoys me that most spam emails with these types of attachments are so poorly written yet work well enough. (The message, not the exploit) Why can't spam authors write better spam ?

[suicidalfranco]

7 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

My dad's PC is actually one of the millions who got infected by the ILOVEYOU virus back in the day which is very simple as it's mostly a single strip of code kinda like the one below and all it can do is replicate annoyingly unlike malware today which are very destructive.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

 

No one knows as the DOJ hasn't given details. I'm guessing it's the typical social engineering via visiting an infected site or injecting the malware within webpages and later using drive by download attack. 

By so much effort you mean I typed a long commentary on the subject matter? And I don't think a security issue that lasted for 13 years especially cyberespionage isn't something to be ignored notwithstanding the fact that the source code is compatible to both macOS and Linux and cybercriminals can take advantage of the source code and make it more nefarious next time. It's just like the Shadow Brokers dump that lead to WannaCry and NotPetya/ExPetr. 

 

It's a sign that A.) Mac users need to run an anti-virus in their computers and B.) Apple needs to step up their security by adding a built in AV just like Windows Defender.

in before "apple already does better than MS with gatekeeper and if you don't get third party software from just the app store, you're holding it wrong" defence

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, tjcater said:

Good thing it was harmless, but dang those numbers (For spam mail that is). It annoys me that most spam emails with these types of attachments are so poorly written yet work well enough. (The message, not the exploit) Why can't spam authors write better spam ?

Spam emails nowadays are much more clever unlike ILOVEYOU which will just annoy you. Let's say you own a company and you're currently hiring new employees. Me as an attacker can craft a job application that looks legit attached with either a word document containing a macro or a PDF file that contains a .exe inside which serves as the fake CV. Then I make a burner email from protonmail and send it to your human resources. Once the HR opens my fake job application including the attachment, the malware I made could either deliver a ransomware payload which will spread through the entire corporate network or an espionage malware to sniff login credentials and personal information just like in the OP or exploit CVEs such as SMB or Kerberos and later sell what I collected to the highest bidder or send your company to bankruptcy.

[captain_to_fire]

14 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

in before "apple already does better than MS with gatekeeper and if you don't get third party software from just the app store, you're holding it wrong" defence

If only the Mac App Store is as bountiful as the iOS App Store. If the guy was using a vulnerability to deliver his spying malware, then it's an oversight from Apple for having an unpatched vulnerability persist for 13 years.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Let's say you own a company and you're currently hiring new employees. Me as an attacker can craft a job application that looks legit attached with either a word document containing a macro or a PDF file that contains a .exe inside which serves as the fake CV. Then I make a burner email from protonmail and send it to your human resources.

I guess I'm not the target of decently made emails Most of mine usually are fake student aid/loans, medicine/insurance, or some crappy I love you or want to get laid. A third of them have weird have weird text formatting issues, others have crappy assets that are worse than something I could put together in a matter of minutes (Like seriously, it seems like most of these non targeted emails were done by children), then comes those that scream "I didn't even try to convince you to open this attachment". Sucks for me being an undesirable target ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Drak3]

54 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Me as an attacker can craft a job application that looks legit attached with either a word document containing a macro or a PDF file that contains a .exe inside which serves as the fake CV. Then I make a burner email from protonmail and send it to your human resources. Once the HR opens my fake job application including the attachment, the malware I made could either deliver a ransomware payload which will spread through the entire corporate network or an espionage malware to sniff login credentials and personal information just like in the OP or exploit CVEs such as SMB or Kerberos and later sell what I collected to the highest bidder or send your company to bankruptcy.

Asides for the last part, basically what happened in my company last year. Thankfully, the system we use for resumes is isolated from anything important.