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Many of you remember when malware, known as BlackHole or MusMinim, was discovered by security company Sophos for Mac OS X. If you don’t remember, BlackHole is a backdoor server program Remote Access Tool (RAT) that runs on an infected system and allows a remote user(s) to interact with the system.

The user can then issue shutdown commands, display screen messages, open URLs or request usernames and passwords. In simpler terms, this is similar to a remote desktop utility that is not distributed for productive purposes.

Unlike more recent attempts at getting malware on Mac OS X that attempt to keep hidden and steal a user’s information automatically, BlackHole isn’t very discreet and requires a remote user to actively interact with the system.

That is why many security experts classify it more as a prank or “annoyware” as opposed to malware. Despite that, though, it can still be used for the purpose of stealing information and was not developed as a legitimate piece of software, which technically classifies it as malware.

It does appear as if the developer of BlackHole is refining the malware as Sopho has just released new definitions on a third variant of the malware. When new malware is discovered, definitions of it are usually labeled alphabetically in order to differentiate its variants.

Even though this malware is in no way as volatile as the MacDefender malware and its variants, it does show that even seemingly old malware can be tweaked at any time. Despite the development, there really is nothing new and it presents a very low risk to Mac users.

If you do happen to come across this malware on your Mac, it is advisable that you remove it as soon as possible, if only to be better safe than sorry.

Source: CNET – Sophos tackles new BlackHole RAT malware variant for OS X

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Apple recently released some firmware updates on Wednesday for the latest Mac Mini and MacBook Pro model computers. This firmware update was released to address issues with Lion Internet Recovery as well as Thunderbolt connectivity on both the Mac Mini and MacBook Pro.

Just like the most recent MacBook Air update, which took place on Monday, EFI Firmware Update 1.3, which is for mid-2011 Mac Mini models, offers increased stability enhancements for Lion Internet Recovery as well as an issue fix involving Apple Thunderbolt Display compatibility and performance in Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode.

The MacBook Pro’s patch, known as EFI Firmware Update 2.2, provides similar fixes. However, unlike the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro doesn’t ship with Internet Recovery. The good news is that this update appears to enable the use of Internet Recovery on the device. Internet Recovery allows you to get support and re-install Lion via the internet without a physical Lion Recovery partition in the event of a hard drive crash.

If you want to update your MacBook Pro or Mac Mini computer, all you have to do is download the firmware update from Apple’s support website. After you do that, you will want to have your MacBook Pro or Mac Mini connected to a power source. Your computer will then reboot to a gray screen in order to install the update. You will then be able to track the progress using a status bar at the bottom of the screen.

Source: Computer World – Apple provides firmware updates for MacBook Pros, Mac minis

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Apple issued a security update on Friday for the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating systems. This update, according to Apple, was designed to address a security issue that was related to fraudulent online certificates.

Known as Security Update 2011-005, this update is now available to download through a software update or as a 15.59MB download for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Only an 869KB download is required for users downloading the update for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. As far as Apple is concerned, the update is strongly recommended for any and all Mac users.

The Security Update 2011-005 addresses an issue that could potentially allow a computer hacker with a privileged network position to intercept the credentials of other users or even steal sensitive data and information like user IDs, passwords or other, more personal information.

Apple sent out the update in response to fraudulent certificates that were issued by multiple certificate authorities operated by DigiNotar. More on that story can be found here. Apple’s update does, however, remove DigiNotar from the list of trusted root certificates and also from the list of Extended Validation (EV) certificate authorities.

In addition to all of that, the security update also configures the default system trust settings so that DigiNotar’s certificates, including all of those that were issued by other authorities, are not viewed as trusted.

Another update was also sent out by Apple on Thursday for Lexmark printers. This update, known as Lexmark 2.6 Printer Driver, includes the latest Lexmark printing and scanning software required for both Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The 133.99MB update for that can also be downloaded directly from Apple as well.

Source: Apple Insider – Apple releases Mac OS X Security Update 2011-005 to stop certificate fraud

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