Crisis OS X Trojan is an effective spy tool

The Crisis/Morcut OS X malware recently discovered via samples submitted to VirusTotal is more than just a backdoor Trojan, Sophos researchers say after analyzing it.

Its ultimate goal is to spy on the user, and it does so by monitoring mouse coordinates, instant messenger apps, the built-in webcam and microphone, clipboard contents, pressed keys, calendar data and alerts, address book contents, URLs visited by the user, and more – in short, it is a very thorough spying tool.

The Trojan also persists after reboots, and keeps in touch with a remote servers for instructions and likely for the exfiltration of the collected information.

The Trojan was known to affect the 10.6 and 10.7 versions of OS X, but it’s still unknown whether the newly released OS X Mountain Lion is susceptible, too.

Luckily for all Mac users, it is yet to be spotted in the wild, and the signatures for detecting it are already incorporated in most Mac AV solutions.