5 May 2012

Microsoft Discovered a New Malware Targeting Apple OS X Exploiting Office Vulnerability

Microsoft Discovered a New Malware Targeting Apple OS X Exploiting Office Vulnerability

This year is going bad to worse for MAC users. Earlier we have seen more than 600,000 Mac user infected by Flashback Trojan after this one another Mac Trojan "Backdoor.OSX.SabPub" penetrated mac security. Recently Microsoft has detected a new piece of malware targeting Apple OS X computers that exploits a vulnerability in the Office productivity suite patched nearly three years ago. The malware is not widespread, according to Jeong Wook Oh of Microsoft's Malware Protection Center. But it does show that hackers pay attention if it's found people do not apply patches as those fixes are released, putting their computers at a higher risk of becoming infected.
The exploit discovered by Microsoft doesn't work with OS X Lion, but does work with Snow Leopard and prior versions. Oh wrote that it is likely attackers have knowledge about the computers they are attacking, such as the victim's operating system version and patch levels. The malware delivered by the exploit is written specifically for OS X and is basically a "backdoor," or a tool that allows for remote control of a computer. Microsoft advised those who use Microsoft Office 2004 or 2008 for Mac or the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac to ensure those products have applied the patch.


-Source (Computer World)