Researchers at Malwarebytes warn {that a} malvertising marketing campaign is concentrating on Mac customers with phony Microsoft Groups adverts.
The adverts are supposed to trick customers into putting in Atomic Stealer, a commodity pressure of malware designed to steal info from macOS techniques.
“Primarily based on our monitoring, Microsoft Groups is as soon as once more a preferred key phrase menace actors are bidding on, and it’s the first time we now have seen it utilized by Atomic Stealer,” the researchers write. “Communication instruments like Zoom, Webex, or Slack have been traditionally coveted by criminals who bundle them as pretend installers laced with malware. This newest malvertising marketing campaign was working for no less than a number of days and used superior filtering methods that made it more durable to detect. As soon as we had been in a position to reproduce a full malware supply chain, we instantly reported the advert to Google.”
The adverts are bought on Google and seem to result in Microsoft’s web site. After clicking the hyperlink, nevertheless, the consumer is redirected to a malicious web site referred to as “teamsbusiness[.]com.”
“As soon as the downloaded file MicrosoftTeams_v.(xx).dmg is mounted, customers are instructed to open it through a proper click on with a purpose to bypass Apple’s built-in safety mechanism for unsigned installers,” Malwarebytes explains.
“We had been in a position to reliably seek for and see the identical malicious advert for Microsoft Groups which was seemingly paid for by a compromised Google advert account. For a few days, we couldn’t see any malicious conduct because the advert redirected straight to Microsoft’s web site. After quite a few makes an attempt and tweaks, we lastly noticed a full assault chain. Regardless of displaying the microsoft.com URL within the advert’s show URL, it has nothing to do with Microsoft in any respect. The advertiser is positioned in Hong Kong and runs near a thousand unrelated adverts.”
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