The above report also includes information on how to detect if this malware is currently running on a system, including a list of named processes to search. While the root cause of how the malware infects devices is still unknown, it's suspected that malicious search engine results are the culprit. Though we haven’t observed Silver Sparrow delivering additional malicious payloads yet, its forward-looking M1 chip compatibility, global reach, relatively high infection rate, and operational maturity suggest Silver Sparrow is a reasonably serious threat, uniquely positioned to deliver a potentially impactful payload at a moment’s notice. Red Canary worked together with Malwarebytes as well as VMware Carbon Black to report on the malware:

While there haven’t been any payload deliveries so far, the potential threat is what worries researchers.

The first version of this malware targeted only Intel x86_64 processors and was discovered in August 2020, but the most recent version, which can target the x86_64 and the M1 chip, was discovered this February. Silver Sparrow has some rare quirks, including the ability to remove itself from a system, two separate versions of itself with different installer packages, and clockwork checks to a server for commands that, so far, have seemed to deliver nothing. The first thing you should know about this new strain is that it’s designed to run natively on the Apple M1 ARM64 processor. While nearly 30,000 macOS devices in 153 countries are known to have been infected by the malware known as Silver Sparrow, researchers suggest that there are likely still many undiscovered cases yet to be confirmed.

Silver Sparrow malware targets macOS devices In this month's smart home cybersecurity roundup, we uncover a mysterious yet dormant threat native to macOS devices, Accellion's decision to deprecate their file transfer application, and the diverse slew of malware targeting gamers using Discord. Spring is just around the corner, and in the midst of all your Spring cleaning, don’t forget to do a sweep through your computer with a malware scan.

How to detect silver sparrow malware