New Mac Malware Combines Open-Source Backdoor and Crypto-Miner

A recently discovered piece of malware targeting Mac systems is a combination of two open-source programs, Malwarebytes security researchers warn. Detected as DarthMiner, the threat is distributed through an application called Adobe Zii, which supposedly helps in the piracy of various Adobe programs, but which in this case does nothing of the sort. In fact, the fake Adobe Zii software doesn’t even use the stolen Adobe Creative Cloud logo, but a generic Automator applet icon instead. The fake application was designed to run a shell script that downloads and executes a Python script, and then downloads and runs an app named sample. app, which appears to be a version of Adobe Zii, most likely to hide the malicious activity. The obfuscated Python script looks for the presence of Little Snitch, a commonly-used outgoing firewall, and stops the infection process if the tool is found (although the firewall should have already blocked the script’s download attempts, Malwarebytes says).