A Mac malware that’s been spying on biomedical research centers may have been circulating undetected for years, according to new research.
Antivirus vendor Malwarebytes uncovered the malicious code, after an IT administrator spotted unusual network traffic coming from an infected Mac.
The malware, which Apple calls Fruitfly, is designed to take screen captures, access the Mac’s webcam, and simulate mouse clicks and key presses, allowing for remote control by a hacker, Malwarebytes said in a blog post on Wednesday.
The security firm said that neither it nor Apple have identified how the malware has been spreading. But whoever designed it relied on “ancient” coding functions, dating back before the Mac OS X operating system launch in 2001, said Malwarebytes researcher Thomas Reed in the blog post.
Surprisingly, Fruitfly is also built with Linux shell commands. Reed said he tried running the malware on a Linux machine and found that everything “ran just fine” except for Mac-specific code.
