The Art of Mac Malware: Volume I: Analysis | Hacker News Reader

The Art of Mac Malware: Volume I: Analysis

taomm.org

105 pointsShank25 comments

The extinction of the VX scene is a really sad development. Current malware is boring, not even remotely innovative, and has reached a new low with the emergence of ransomware. 29A has already programmed viruses over a decade ago that are more sophisticated than all the boring low-quality garbage that is distributed today. Not that Mirai and WannaCry are not effective, but technically they are at the lowest level. The exploits of the NSO group are a happy exception with their iMessage exploit.

Just adding to your comment, there is some VX activity here https://www.vx-underground.org/.

Some fun stuff still takes place in game hacking and jailbreaking (whether iOS devices or consoles).

Meh. You sound like one of those "the code's not elegant enough to ship yet" types. It's malware. If it achieves the goals intended, ship it. Get what you can while you can. It's not state level infiltration built for years of spying without being noticed. It's the level of script kiddies trying to get some street cred, maybe some scratch to spend, or whatever else for the lulz.

The old addage "know your audience" seems apropos here.

Mirai is particularly comical. Just looking through the code.. it says so much that it is so effective.

What's the best Mac malware and virus scanner out there? Any suggestions / experience from the author or readers? Thanks!

Actually a tool by the author of the book:

https://objective-see.org/products/knockknock.html

Recommend all of the tools that Patrick has created:

https://objective-see.org/tools.html

I will second both recommendations made here. Wardle's tools comprise a majority of my suggested macOS security stack on machines at work now.

Nice thanks for sharing

The folks at Genius Bar recommend Malwarebytes pretty frequently https://try.malwarebytes.com/mac-antivirus-protection/

From a corporate perspective, either SentinelOne or CrowdStrike Falcon.

That stuff can bring the best of Apple's Macbook lineup to its knees.

I have seen it in use on Intel and M1 Macs in a developer-heavy userbase. It's fine.

He's awesome. Has he indicated what Volume II may be about?

The whole book is already out: https://nostarch.com/art-mac-malware

It's a great read :)

Volume I is out (and available at that link), but the main page has a place holder for Volume II: https://taomm.org/index.html

Curious if he has indicated more about it in any of his presentations etc.

Any book recommendations for a similar book, except for PCs?

Malware and exploits were always like black magic to me. It would be cool to know how they work under the hood.

I really liked The Shellcoder's Handbook, as a general approach to the problem.

I thought Macs didn't get Malware. Apple says MacOS is "secure by design."

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