Malware deployed via a PowerShell command.
Suspected Russian threat actors have exploited the ClickFix attack technique to distribute the Atomic macOS Stealer.
According to The Hacker News, malicious websites spoofing U.S. telecommunications firm Spectrum have been displaying instructions luring visitors into accomplishing a CAPTCHA verification check for a connection security review, which would subsequently trigger an error prompting the appearance of an "Alternative Verification" button.
According to a report from CloudSEK, clicking such a button leads not only to command being copied on the users' clipboard, but also instructs the execution of a PowerShell command that eventually results in the deployment of the malware.
Researcher Koushik Pal said in a report: "The script uses native macOS commands to harvest credentials, bypass security mechanisms, and execute malicious binaries."
It's believed that the activity is the work of Russian-speaking cyber-criminals owing to the presence of Russian language comments in the malware's source code.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
