#Uninstall flash player mac os x mac os x
#Uninstall flash player mac os x pdf
#Uninstall flash player mac os x install

With a click or two, the installation has begun. Commonly, however, they have been seen offering a variety of products including freeware, shareware and open source tools.

#Uninstall flash player mac os x install

The installers used in the attacks, however, are prone to change - meaning that at any time what they offer to install may be different. In all, Intego’s research team say that they have found 492 occurrences of malware using the identifier and developer ID, dating back to at least April 2015. Intego VirusBarrier with current virus definitions protects Mac users against this malware, detected as OSX/InstallMiez (and it is probable that some other varients can be picked up as OSX/InstallCore).

In an attempt to prevent malicious code from infecting computers running OS X, by default the operating system only allows you to run programs that have been downloaded from the official App Store or that have come from “identified developers.”īy using a valid Apple developer certificate, the scareware dupes OS X into believing that it can be trusted and the code is allowed to execute.Īs we have previously reported, there are ways to exploit vulnerabilities in OS X Gatekeeper to allow malicious code to slide past Apple’s defences - but the easiest way is seemingly simple to sign your code with a valid developer certificate. The fact that the scareware installer was signed with an Apple developer certificate is important, because it allows the malware to bypass a key defence that is built into modern versions of OS X. Johannes Ullrich of the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center first reported on the threat, noting that the scareware’s installer was digitally signed with a valid Apple developer certificate, issued to one Maksim Noskov. Instead, social engineering is being used to trick the unsuspecting user into unwittingly downloading and running a bogus version of Adobe Flash - designed to infect their computer with scareware.

The beauty of this approach, from the criminals’ point of view, is that the attack doesn’t rely upon any software vulnerability or exploit.

#Uninstall flash player mac os x mac os x

The first sign you will see that criminals are interested in infecting your Mac OS X computer is if you see a pop-up like this appear while you are browsing the web:įollowing the phoney alert’s advice to download an Adobe Flash update from a site you have never heard of is, of course, unwise.

That’s precisely what criminals are doing now, in their attempts to infect Apple Mac users with scareware. So, what better way to trick someone into having their computer infected than by disguising it as an actual Adobe Flash update?

#Uninstall flash player mac os x pdf

Even if you don’t run Flash on your computer, you’ve surely seen the many headlines in the tech media over the years of the importance of keeping Adobe Flash (and its Acrobat PDF Reader stablemate) updated to protect against malicious attack. Malware + Recommended + Security News Fake Flash Player Update Infects Macs with Scareware Īnyone who has been using computers for any length of time should (hopefully) be aware of the endless ritual of updating Adobe Flash against security vulnerabilities.