More Mac malware spotted

Reports are coming in that yet another Apple Mac Trojan has been spotted in the wild, with the potential to direct a victim's web traffic to the website of the attacker's choosing.

Security vendor Trend Micro reported yesterday that the Trojan, OSX_JAHLAV.D, is the latest variant of the OSX_JAHLAV.C malware discovered in June.

Disguised as a MacCinema Installer, the Trojan prompts users trying to view certain online videos from various .com domains to download the malicious software.

"The Trojan contains component files detected as UNIX_JAHLAV.D and obfuscated scripts detected as PERL_JAHLAV.F," wrote Trend Micro's Det Caraig.

"The Perl script then downloads a file from a malicious site and stores it as /tmp/{random 3 numbers}, detected as UNIX_DNSCHAN.AA, which allows a malicious user to monitor the affected user's activities. This may also cause the user to be redirected to phishing sites or sites where other malware may be downloaded from."

Trend Micro and others took the opportunity to warn Mac users again of the harsh reality that such attacks are no longer the preserve of PCs.

"As the popularity of the Apple Mac OS increases, it becomes a lot more mainstream and therefore offers a greater return on investment for cybercriminals," said Trend Micro senior anti virus researcher David Sancho.

"Regardless of operating systems - Windows or Mac - consumers need to ensure they have effective protection in place against internet crime and identity theft."