The malware exploits the user or a system vulnerability and places an executable file on the system (usually within the user account).
#Legacy developer paceap mac
In many of the recent malware attacks on OS X, this Launch Agent structure is being used to initially load the malware and infect Mac systems.
The rest of the agent file contains other conditional elements for running the specified program, such as the "StartInterval" key here which tells the system launcher to run this program every 3523 seconds. These are the process Label, and the Program Arguments (sometimes called simply "Program"), which are the name of the script as it appears to the launcher, and the executable file that is being managed by the script. The keys and values in the file will differ depending on the agent's uses, but the main components are those outlined in the red squares. Launch agent files are XML files containing a list of properties, whose basic anatomy is as follows: The most important component of the launch agent file is the "ProgramArguments" or "Program" key, which shows where the executable file is located that the launch agent is targeting.Įach agent file contains a list of keys followed by their values. The others are in the global Library and System/Library folders, and are loaded when the system boots. The first is in your user account's Library, and the scripts in it are loaded when you log in. There are three LaunchAgent folders in an OS X installation.
#Legacy developer paceap how to
Recently I discussed how to do this for automatically changing Safari's downloads folder whenever an external drive is attached to the system. Most of the time developers use these scripts as components to their programs, but they can also be used for your own customizations. For instance, Apple uses one of these scripts to schedule the "backupd" process for Time Machine, and have it create backups every hour. The LaunchAgents folders (and their paired LaunchDaemons folder for managing service processes) are locations that contain scripts to automatically manage system processes. The LaunchAgents folders may contain numerous launcher files for various system and application processes such as scheduled updater routines, but have also been used by malware developers to launch their criminal activity.ĭespite this wave of malware and the variants of each that have followed, most of these attacks have one thing in common: they use Launch Agent scripts for at least one stage of their attacks.
Some of these attacks are targeted for specific groups in China or Tibet, but others like Flashback are more widespread and have targeted as many Mac systems as possible, by exploiting vulnerabilities in the system when browsing Web pages and posing as fake Flash installer applications. These include yesterday's news of the SabPab malware and its MacKontrol variant, and also the Olyx malware that is a variant of the Tibet malware we previously discussed. The same vulnerabilities that this and others have used are now cropping up in other malware as well. Recently the Mac platform has been hit with a few malware attacks, the most notable being the Flashback malware.
0 kommentar(er)
