https://www.macworld.com/article/3608621/30k-macs-are-infected-with-silver-sparrow-virus-and-no-one-knows-why.html

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30K Macs are infected with 'Silver Sparrow' virus and no one knows
why

Someone planted malware that has no point.

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Michael Simon By Michael Simon

Staff Writer, Macworld |

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Macs and viruses aren't all that common, but the one that was
recently discovered by researchers is even less so. Security
researcher Red Canary has published information about a new "activity
cluster" that has infected 29,139 Macs across more than 150 countries
but is missing one key ingredient: a reason to be.

In the report, Red Canary and Malwarebytes outline a new strain of
macOS malware called Silver Sparrow that affects both Intel and Apple
silicon processors. The companies have determined that the sheer
scale of the malware is enough to pose "reasonably serious threat"
even though it "did not exhibit the behaviors that we've come to
expect from the usual adware that so often targets macOS systems."

In short, it doesn't do anything. That's not all that reassuring,
given that tens of thousands of Macs could have potentially been
infected, but based on the findings and investigations of multiple
strains, the virus was "positioned to deliver a potentially impactful
payload at a moment's notice."

Apple has since revoked the developer certificates that allowed the
virus to propagate. The Red Canary team is unclear as to how the
virus spread to so many Macs, but the virus exhibited properties that
is common with malicious macOS adware.

While the virus doesn't appear to have any malicious intent, Red
Canary is warning users that the virus could have potentially been
extremely harmful to the system due to its "chip compatibility,
global reach, relatively high infection rate, and operational
maturity."

Silver Sparrow isn't the first malware to infect Apple's new M1 chip.
Last week, security specialist Patrick Wardle reported on adware that
was compiled specifically to target the new ARM chip in the MacBook
Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. The developer certificate associated
with that malware has also been revoked by Apple.

Red Canary has a deep dive into the inner workings of Silver Sparrow
on its blog post titled, "Clipping Silver Sparrow's wings: Outing
macOS malware before it takes flight."

Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our
articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link
policy for more details.
Related:

  * Malware
  * Mac

Michael Simon covers all things mobile for PCWorld and Macworld. You
can usually find him with his nose buried in a screen. The best way
to yell at him is on Twitter.

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