Security researchers have spotted a new malware operation targeting Mac devices that has silently infected almost 30,000 systems.
Named Silver Sparrow, the malware was discovered by security researchers from Red Canary and analyzed together with researchers from Malwarebytes and VMWare Carbon Black.
“According to data provided by Malwarebytes, Silver Sparrow had infected 29,139 macOS endpoints across 153 countries as of February 17, including high volumes of detection in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Germany,” Red Canary’s Tony Lambert wrote in a report published last week.
But despite the high number of infections, details about how the malware was distributed and infected users are still scarce, and it’s unclear if Silver Sparrow was hidden inside malicious ads, pirated apps, or fake Flash updaters —the classic distribution vector for most Mac malware strains these days.