S1153 Cuckoo Stealer
Cuckoo Stealer is a macOS malware with characteristics of spyware and an infostealer that has been in use since at least 2024. Cuckoo Stealer is a universal Mach-O binary that can run on Intel or ARM-based Macs and has been spread through trojanized versions of various potentially unwanted programs or PUP’s such as converters, cleaners, and uninstallers.12
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| ID | S1153 |
| Associated Names | |
| Type | MALWARE |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Created | 20 August 2024 |
| Last Modified | 28 October 2024 |
| Navigation Layer | View In ATT&CK® Navigator |
Techniques Used
| Domain | ID | Name | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| enterprise | T1071 | Application Layer Protocol | - |
| enterprise | T1071.001 | Web Protocols | Cuckoo Stealer can use the curl API for C2 communications.1 |
| enterprise | T1217 | Browser Information Discovery | Cuckoo Stealer can collect bookmarks, cookies, and history from Safari.1 |
| enterprise | T1059 | Command and Scripting Interpreter | - |
| enterprise | T1059.002 | AppleScript | Cuckoo Stealer can use osascript to generate a password-stealing prompt, duplicate files and folders, and set environmental variables.12 |
| enterprise | T1059.004 | Unix Shell | Cuckoo Stealer can spawn a bash shell to enable execution on compromised hosts.1 |
| enterprise | T1543 | Create or Modify System Process | - |
| enterprise | T1543.001 | Launch Agent | Cuckoo Stealer can achieve persistence by creating launch agents to repeatedly execute malicious payloads.12 |
| enterprise | T1555 | Credentials from Password Stores | - |
| enterprise | T1555.001 | Keychain | Cuckoo Stealer can capture files from a targeted user’s keychain directory.1 |
| enterprise | T1074 | Data Staged | - |
| enterprise | T1074.001 | Local Data Staging | Cuckoo Stealer has staged collected application data from Safari, Notes, and Keychain to /var/folder.1 |
| enterprise | T1140 | Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information | Cuckoo Stealer strings are deobfuscated prior to execution.12 |
| enterprise | T1041 | Exfiltration Over C2 Channel | Cuckoo Stealer can send information about the targeted system to C2 including captured passwords, OS build, hostname, and username.1 |
| enterprise | T1083 | File and Directory Discovery | Cuckoo Stealer can search for files associated with specific applications.12 |
| enterprise | T1564 | Hide Artifacts | - |
| enterprise | T1564.001 | Hidden Files and Directories | Cuckoo Stealer has copied its binary and the victim’s scraped password into a hidden folder in the /Users directory.12 |
| enterprise | T1056 | Input Capture | - |
| enterprise | T1056.002 | GUI Input Capture | |
| Cuckoo Stealer has captured passwords by prompting victims with a “macOS needs to access System Settings” GUI window.1 | |||
| enterprise | T1036 | Masquerading | - |
| enterprise | T1036.005 | Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location | |
| Cuckoo Stealer has copied and renamed itself to DumpMediaSpotifyMusicConverter.12 | |||
| enterprise | T1095 | Non-Application Layer Protocol | Cuckoo Stealer can use sockets for communications to its C2 server.1 |
| enterprise | T1027 | Obfuscated Files or Information | - |
| enterprise | T1027.008 | Stripped Payloads | Cuckoo Stealer is a stripped binary payload.1 |
| 2 | |||
| enterprise | T1027.013 | Encrypted/Encoded File | Cuckoo Stealer strings are XOR-encrypted.12 |
| enterprise | T1647 | Plist File Modification | |
| Cuckoo Stealer can create and populate property list (plist) files to enable execution.12 | |||
| enterprise | T1057 | Process Discovery | Cuckoo Stealer can use ps aux to enumerate running processes.1 |
| enterprise | T1113 | Screen Capture | Cuckoo Stealer can run screencapture to collect screenshots from compromised hosts. 1 |
| enterprise | T1518 | Software Discovery | |
| Cuckoo Stealer has the ability to search systems for installed applications.1 | |||
| enterprise | T1553 | Subvert Trust Controls | - |
| enterprise | T1553.001 | Gatekeeper Bypass | Cuckoo Stealer can use xattr -d com.apple.quarantine to remove the quarantine flag attribute.12 |
| enterprise | T1082 | System Information Discovery | Cuckoo Stealer can gather information about the OS version and hardware on compromised hosts.12 |
| enterprise | T1614 | System Location Discovery | Cuckoo Stealer can determine the geographical location of a victim host by checking the language.1 |
| enterprise | T1614.001 | System Language Discovery | Cuckoo Stealer can check the systems LANG environmental variable to prevent infecting devices from Armenia (hy_AM), Belarus (be_BY), Kazakhstan (kk_KZ), Russia (ru_RU), and Ukraine (uk_UA).1 |
| enterprise | T1033 | System Owner/User Discovery | Cuckoo Stealer can discover and send the username from a compromised host to C2.1 |
| enterprise | T1569 | System Services | - |
| enterprise | T1569.001 | Launchctl | Cuckoo Stealer can use launchctl to load a LaunchAgent for persistence.1 |
References
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Kohler, A. and Lopez, C. (2024, April 30). Malware: Cuckoo Behaves Like Cross Between Infostealer and Spyware. Retrieved August 20, 2024. ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Stokes, P. (2024, May 9). macOS Cuckoo Stealer | Ensuring Detection and Defense as New Samples Rapidly Emerge. Retrieved August 20, 2024. ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩