For anyone still running an unpatched macOS, Wardle’s advice was simple: “Don’t open anything from anybody.” But once that’s done, the malware won’t be stopped installing by the Mac’s defensive tools, though macOS should stop any changes to critical system files and ask the user if the app can access photos, the mic or other systems. There’s one caveat: The hackers have to convince a user to download or run an app that’s not in the App Store or allowed by Apple. That means malware can skip all the checks done by Apple’s security mechanisms like Gatekeeper and File Quarantine, which are designed to stop any unapproved, dangerous apps from running. Malicious hackers can and have created malware that, though unsigned, is misclassified by Apple’s operating system, thanks to a logic error in macOS’ code. The hacks effectively take Mac security back a decade, according to Patrick Wardle, a former NSA analyst and a macOS security expert, who described it as one of the worst security issues to have ever hit the Apple operating system.
Malware that takes advantage of the bug has been hitting Macs since at least January, making patching all the more urgent.
Apple Mac users are being urged to update their macOS software now, as they’re at “grave risk” of hackers exploiting what’s been described as one of the worst vulnerabilities to affect the tech giant’s computers in years.
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