ESET OceanLotus macOS April 2019

OSX_OCEANLOTUS.D has a variant that is packed with UPX.

APT32 has performed code obfuscation, including encoding payloads using Base64 and using a framework called "Dont-Kill-My-Cat (DKMC). APT32 also encrypts the library used for network exfiltration with AES-256 in CBC mode in their macOS backdoor.

APT32's macOS backdoor can receive a “delete” command.

APT32 has used scheduled task raw XML with a backdated timestamp of June 2, 2016. The group has also set the creation time of the files dropped by the second stage of the exploit to match the creation time of kernel32.dll. Additionally, APT32 has used a random value to modify the timestamp of the file storing the clientID.

APT32 has collected the OS version and computer name from victims. One of the group's backdoors can also query the Windows Registry to gather system information, and another macOS backdoor performs a fingerprint of the machine on its first connection to the C&C server. APT32 executed shellcode to identify the name of the infected host.

APT32's macOS backdoor changes the permission of the file it wants to execute to 755.

OSX_OCEANLOTUS.D checks a number of system parameters to see if it is being run on real hardware or in a virtual machine environment, such as `sysctl hw.model` and the kernel boot time.

APT32's macOS backdoor hides the clientID file via a chflags function.