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A critical security flaw has been discovered in macOS that could be exploited by hackers to install malware On vulnerable MacBooks, Macs, and other Apple computers.
as reported Bleeping computer (Opens in a new tab)Vulnerability (surveillance as CVE-2022-42821 (Opens in a new tab)) and named “Achilles” was first discovered by Microsoft’s chief security researcher, Jonathan Barr, in July of this year. However, we’re only hearing about it now because Apple patched the vulnerability earlier this month.
If you haven’t yet updated your MacBook, iMac, Mac mini, or other Apple computers, you should do so immediately, as hackers often want to target vulnerable machines—especially after discovering major vulnerabilities. Even if you don’t run macOS 13 However, Apple has released security patches to fix the problem for older versions of its operating system, including macOS Monterey 12.6.2 (Opens in a new tab) and macOS Big Sur 11.7.2 (Opens in a new tab).
Bypassing the Gatekeeper
Just as Microsoft includes its own Antivirus program with face Microsoft Defender With Windows 10 and Windows 11, Apple ships Gatekeeper with all versions of macOS. door keeper Helps protect your Mac from malware by scanning every new app you download for threats before it’s installed on your computer.
When you download a new app for your Mac using a web browser, Apple will “assign a special extended attribute to the downloaded file” according to blog post (Opens in a new tab) From Microsoft Security Threat Intelligence. This attribute (com.apple.quarantine) is used by Gatekeeper to tell it that a new app must be checked and approved by Apple (signed by the developer) before it can be installed. If the new application fails this check, macOS informs the user that it cannot be run because it is untrusted.
However, by exploiting an Achilles flaw in macOS, a specially crafted payload can abuse the logic issue and bypass Gatekeeper’s security protections. As such, malicious applications can be installed on a Mac.
In its blog post, Microsoft also notes that Apple’s new lock mode It may be able to protect targeted users from sophisticated attacks, but the feature cannot protect against Achilles.
How to protect your Mac from malware and other threats
As mentioned above, the first thing you should do to protect your Mac from malware exploiting the Achilles flaw is to update to the latest version, as Apple has since released a fix for this vulnerability.
From here, you can consider installing one The best Mac antivirus software Solutions for additional protection. Macs have historically been more secure than PCs, but as more people switch from Windows to macOS, cybercriminals have begun tailoring malware and other viruses to target Mac users.
Although Achilles has now been patched, we’ll likely continue to hear about this macOS flaw as hackers and other cybercriminals try to exploit Mac users who haven’t updated their systems to protect against it.
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