Free Tool Enables Recovery of Files Encrypted by ThiefQuest Mac Malware:
Researchers at endpoint security company SentinelOne have created a tool that enables users to recover files encrypted by the Mac malware named ThiefQuest, which poses as ransomware.
ThiefQuest, initially named EvilQuest, is designed to encrypt files on compromised systems, but also allows its operators to log keystrokes, steal files, and take full control of the infected device.
[...] ThiefQuest is delivered as trojanized installers for macOS applications such as the Ableton and Mixed in Key DJ apps and the Little Snitch firewall. Once the malware has been installed, it starts encrypting files found on the device, after which it informs victims, via text files and a modal window, that their files have been encrypted and a $50 ransom needs to be paid in bitcoin to recover them.
[...] Furthermore, Apple security expert Patrick Wardle noticed that the decryption routine is not called anywhere in the malware code, which indicates that it never gets executed. Malwarebytes researchers pointed out that the malware doesn't always encrypt files, even if it claims it has done so, which further indicates that the ransomware capabilities are just a distraction.
For Mac users whose files have been encrypted by the malware, SentinelOne has released a free decryption tool. The company's researchers analyzed ThiefQuest and noticed that its developer left the decryption function in the malware code. Once they were able to recover the key needed to decrypt the files, they used the malware's own decryption function to restore encrypted files.
[...] Wardle's analysis of the threat revealed that it also looks for executable files and adds malicious code to those files. This would allow it to spread like a virus, which is highly uncommon for Mac malware.
Previously:
(2020-07-05) New Mac Ransomware is Even More Sinister than it Appears
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New Mac Ransomware Is Even More Sinister Than It Appears:
THE THREAT OF ransomware may seem ubiquitous, but there haven't been too many strains tailored specifically to infect Apple's Mac computers since the first full-fledged Mac ransomware surfaced only four years ago. So when Dinesh Devadoss, a malware researcher at the firm K7 Lab, published findings on Tuesday about a new example of Mac ransomware, that fact alone was significant. It turns out, though, that the malware, which researchers are now calling ThiefQuest, gets more interesting from there. (Researchers originally dubbed it EvilQuest, until they discovered the Steam game series of the same name.)
In addition to ransomware, ThiefQuest has a whole other set of spyware capabilities that allow it to exfiltrate files from an infected computer, search the system for passwords and cryptocurrency wallet data, and run a robust keylogger to grab passwords, credit card numbers, or other financial information as a user types it in. The spyware component also lurks persistently as a backdoor on infected devices, meaning it sticks around even after a computer reboots, and could be used as a launchpad for additional, or "second stage," attacks. Given that ransomware is so rare on Macs to begin with, this one-two punch is especially noteworthy.
"Looking at the code, if you split the ransomware logic from all the other backdoor logic the two pieces completely make sense as individual malware. But compiling them together you're kind of like what?" says Patrick Wardle, principal security researcher at the Mac management firm Jamf. "My current gut feeling about all of this is that someone basically was designing a piece of Mac malware that would give them the ability to completely remotely control an infected system. And then they also added some ransomware capability as a way to make extra money."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2020, @06:35AM (2 children)
But, if you are not stupid enough to run Micro$oft, or Aprle, operating systems, how is this even news? Yes, those people will succumb to scams, phishing, malware, and proprietary operating systems, but that is of no concern to the rest of us. So why do we find such reporting on the front page of SoylentNews, when a nice aristarchus submission would be preferable, if not welcome?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Mykl on Thursday July 09 2020, @07:24AM (1 child)
Because some of us use Macs and/or PCs? Some by choice, some for the money?
Because Malware behaviors on one platform may well pop up on other platforms in the future?
Because some of us are Security Researchers?
Because some of us find this stuff interesting?
It's a bit like asking why we post articles about places outside of the US when US-residents don't live there.
Really, taking the effort to click on the article and responding to it (first post no less!) shows that you perhaps have a bit more interest than you let on. If you really didn't care, you'd ignore the article. Now, why doth thou protesteth overmuch?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:32AM
Sit back and watch! We are about to go for a ride.
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:23AM (2 children)
...where are people downloading the mentioned apps from? From the AppStore, from the mentioned apps' websites or from downloaditallforfree.ru? I skimmed the links and didn't see anything relevant.
One would think/hope not from Apple.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday July 09 2020, @11:59AM (1 child)
One simple google search [google.com] brings this [malwarebytes.com] as it's first result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday July 09 2020, @05:57PM
Well, thanks for that. 👍 Sometimes, instead of doing a search like you did, I like to...y'know...interact. Yeah, so passé.
In any case...
...well, there ya go. Remember, kids: don't take candy from strangers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2020, @06:11PM
A tool for decrypting files that never get encrypted? I have one of those, it's factory installed under the name /bin/true
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2020, @11:23PM
Apple's programmers check each line of code twice before releasing it.