The Silver Sparrow (computer virus) is a malware that infects x86 and Apple M1 processors. In January and February 2021, cyber security engineers team “Red Canary” discovered two versions of the malware.
For those who don’t know what are computer viruses actually-?
Basically, a computer virus is a sort of computer program that repeats itself by altering other computer programs and inserting its own code. If it is successful, the afflicted areas are said to be "infected". Guess with what? Yes, a computer virus. Wow you are a quick learner.
Summary
There were two variants of this malware discovered, one on Jan, 21 and 2nd one on Feb, 21.
- The first version was discovered for the first time in January 2021 (dubbed "non-M1") which is compiled for Intel x86-64 processors.
- The second version includes code that works natively on Apple's proprietary M1 CPU, was most likely issued in December 2020 and found in February 2021. The virus connects to an Amazon Web Services server.
The dangerous thing about “Silver sparrow malware” is that it has a self-destruct mechanism(A self-destruct mechanism is a device that causes an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable once a preset series of events occurs).
As of February 23, 2021, there is little knowledge regarding how this virus spreads and which systems may be hacked. Silver Sparrow may be hidden among harmful advertising, unlicensed software, or phone Adobe Flash Player updaters.
According to cyber security firm “Red Canary”, systems could have been attacked by malicious search engine results that encouraged them to download the code. But the eventual goal of the malware's distribution is still unknown.
Silver Sparrow is the second computer virus to be discovered with M1-native code.
Its affects/Impacts-
An Internet security organization named “Malwarebytes” detected over 30,000 Macs infected with silver sparrow malware worldwide as of February 23, 2021.
