Dridex malware targets Mac users

January 16, 2023 - TuxCare PR Team

Dridex, a Windows-focused banking trojan that has since expanded its capabilities to include information theft and botnet capabilities, is now targeting Macs via email attachments that appear to be regular documents.

According to Check Point Research’s 2022 Cyber Security Report, the malware, which was the fourth most prevalent malware variant in 2021, is primarily distributed through phishing and malspam campaigns. It is an information stealer malware that is linked to the cybercriminal group Evil Corp and is used to steal sensitive data from infected machines. Trend Micro, a cybersecurity software company, examined the malware and discovered that it can run on both macOS and iOS systems.

The MacOS version of the Dridex malware includes a malicious document that runs automatically when the user opens it. When it starts, it overwrites all Microsoft Word files on the infected macOS computer and connects to a remote server to download more files. One of those files is a Windows executable that Dridex can run. These executables are incompatible with macOS. However, if a user’s Word files are overwritten with malicious versions, Mac users may unknowingly infect others when sharing the files online.

The Mach-O executable is programmed to search for and replace all “.doc” files in the current user directory (/User/user name) with malicious macro code copied from the embedded document in the form of a hexadecimal dump.

Because Mac users are not always aware that their files are corrupted, Dridex specifically targets Word documents. Because people frequently share Word documents, Mac users may unknowingly share their overridden, malicious files with others, infecting those devices and causing a malware domino effect.

Since the malware is contained within an executable Windows file, it cannot infect targeted Macs. However, if a user downloads the corrupted file, it may cause malicious files to be overwritten on a Mac. When shared online, it has the potential to inadvertently infect family, friends, and coworkers with malware.

The sources for this piece include an article in TheHackerNews.

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