CyberWire Daily

When macOS gets frostbite. [Research Saturday]

Dec 6, 2025 · 24 min · Season 9 · Episode 404Bonus
0:00-24:40

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Jaron Bradley, Director of Jamf Threat Labs, is sharing their work on "ChillyHell: A Deep Dive into a Modular macOS Backdoor." Jamf Threat Labs uncovers a newly notarized macOS backdoor called ChillyHell, tied to past UNC4487 activity and disguised as a legitimate applet.

The malware showcases robust host profiling, multiple persistence mechanisms, timestomping, and flexible C2 communications over both DNS and HTTP. Its modular design includes reverse shells, payload delivery, self-updates, and a brute-force component targeting user credentials.

The research can be found here: