Just days after a Swedish hacker
discovered a serious vulnerability in Apple's newly released OS X Yosemite, security researchers at Palo Alto Networks have found a new malware that infects iOS devices through OS X.
Dubbed
WireLurker, the malware is primarily spreading through infected OS X apps (467 in number so far) present in the Maiyadi App Store, a third-party Mac app store in China, that have already been downloaded 356,104 times, possibly infecting hundreds of thousands of users.
Once WireLurker infects an OS X computer, it monitors any iOS device connected via USB with the computer and installs downloaded third-party applications or automatically generated malicious applications onto the device, regardless of whether it is jailbroken or not.
"WireLurker exhibits complex code structure, multiple component versions, file hiding, code obfuscation and customized encryption to thwart anti-reversing", the company said in a
report.