“Malwarebytes has discovered a previously unknown piece of Mac malware that could easily fool less- technical users,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac.
“Thomas Reed, lead researcher at Malwarebytes, told us that he found the malware on a scam page hosted on the official Advanced Mac Cleaner website,” Lovejoy reports. “It does rely on a naive user approving a request to install Advanced Mac Cleaner on their machine, but doing so also installs a second app known as Mac File Opener.”
“If a user tries to open a file for which they don’t have a corresponding app, it will be opened by Mac File Opener which then presents a reasonably convincing fake version of the normal OS X dialog box advising that no suitable app is installed,” Lovejoy reports. “The fake dialog box links to the macfileopener[dot]com website, which downloads other junk PCVARK apps, such as Mac Adware Remover or Mac Space Reviver.”
Editor’s note: This is why Mac users should always use the Mac App Store.
Read more in the full article here.