Security News > 2021 > February > Mac Malware Targets Apple’s In-House M1 Processor

Three months after Apple launched its new M1 system-on-a-chip, cybercriminals have developed what may be the first malicious macOS application targeting the mobile giant's first in-house silicon.

The main differentiator here is that the application includes code tailored to run on ARM-based M1 processors - rather than only the Intel x86 processors previously utilized by Apple.

"Apple's new M1 systems offer a myriad of benefits, and natively compiled ARM64 code runs blazingly fast," said Apple-specializing researcher Patrick Wardle, who discovered the application, on Wednesday.

Launched in November, the Apple M1 is the first ARM-based silicon designed by Apple, which is now the central processing unit for its Mac devices.

To help application developers whose apps are targeted for the older Intel set of instructions, Apple has released Rosetta, a process that translates Intel's x86 64 instructions into native ARM64 instructions - so older applications can run seamlessly on M1 systems.

Below, Wardle talks to Threatpost about the newest tactics used by cybercriminals in abusing Apple technologies, developing malware and creating "Powerful" iOS bugs.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/macos-malware-apple-m1-processor/164075/