Rogue application considered to be a trojan virus, CrescentCore, was discovered lately. It is a dangerous computer infection targeted to infect Mac computers only.
Basically, it works as a distributor of other malware – once installed on a system, it is likely to deploy various browser extensions or applications that are generally unwanted. It was reported that CrescentCore attempted to infiltrate Advanced Mac Cleaner, which is nothing more than a rogue and misleading application, into an infected computer, so you can imagine what your system will look like after a while if you let CrescentCore simply sit in there and do nothing about it.
The virus is capable of finding out whether it is a virtual machine or not it is installed on and detect anti-malware programs that are active on the infected Mac system. The days when viruses were not a problem for Apple computers are long gone and you should definitely pay attention to the security – 7 new Mac viruses discovered last month alone.
Top Results on Google Distributing CrescentCore
The way this infection operates is not the most shocking thing at all. It’s much more alarming that you can get infected with CrescentCore malware while visiting websites that are ranked really well on Google search engine. That’s really odd because usually malware distributing websites are either not indexed on Google or indexed really poorly.
As you all well know, Google is really concerned about the safety and one of their top priorities is to deliver content that is both valuable and safe. The example of CrescentCore highlights the fact (or probability) that there might be other malicious applications being distributed the same way right now.
In this particular case, CrescentCore was hiding under the image of Adobe Flash Player. Unfortunately, instead of Flash Player, you would get a specific .dmg file that turns out to be CrescentCore. Various websites, such as comics, free books, movies, or other freebies are the most likely to contain content like this.
What to Look Out For?
If you really want to ensure your safety online, you shouldn’t relate to just one method of ensuring your safety. As you can see, we can’t guarantee that you will avoid malware and shady websites if you only click on tops results delivered by Google.
A rather drastic method would be to switch from Google, to, let’s say, Duck Duck Go, which is considered to be the most private and secure search engine. Obviously, it can’t offer user experience and value that you get from Google, so this would be a really extreme step.
It would be a good idea to protect your computer with anti-malware software. Let it run in the background all the time, it won’t require a lot of resources and the performance of your computer shouldn’t drop. However, it will highly increase your chances of avoiding various infections and you will be able to browse the Internet freely.
Check If Your Mac Is Not Infected
The least you can do is to check the state of your system right now. There are a few most common symptoms of malware that you can easily spot with your naked eye:
- Mac running slower than usual;
- Excessive or disturbing advertisements pop-up while browsing the Internet;
- A lot of offers to install additional software;
- Random freezes and crashes;
- Other software installed on the computer without your consent.
If you recognize at least on one those symptoms, just run through the applications list that are installed on your computer and look for something unusual or suspicious. If your eye catches something, be sure to Google (or research using other methods) it. Also, run a scan with anti-malware tool – it will do the same, only faster and more precisely.
