APPLE

Company has already identified in the App Store a very destructive malware of Chinese origin

Apple puts much of its communication in the security of the App Store, which is its application store, thus justifying a more closed ecosystem than that of Android or Windows.

But even the apple brand is not infallible and can ignore threats. According to information from Alex Kleber, a cybersecurity researcher, he has identified several malicious Chinese applications in the App Store for macOS.

The investigation led him to discover seven different accounts of Apple programmers, which actually belong to a single Chinese publisher. This publisher's applications contain hidden malware that can receive commands from a server. Thus, the malicious code can be active only when the application in question is approved by the App Store and, thus, evades Apple's security systems.

Using this technique, the programmer can even completely change the application's interface. The application validated by Apple, therefore, bears no resemblance to the application that is downloaded and installed by users. To make tracking more difficult, all communication is done with domains using services like Cloudflare and GoDaddy, which allows you to hide your hosting.

One of the applications is a simple PDF reader that has been downloaded numerous times from the App Store for macOS in the United States, making it one of the most installed applications. The application requires a paid subscription, while offering the same features as any regular free PDF reader, or even not working.

To make the application believe that it is legitimate and to encourage users to download it, it is filled with false positive comments, which hide the real opinions that denounce it. From the moment this situation was discovered, Apple responded by removing many false app reviews, and some of the apps were completely removed from the App Store.

Joel Pinto, from Portugal