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Researchers reported a new macOS infostealer dubbed ClickLock Stealer that tricks users into pasting a malicious bash command into Terminal through ClickFix-style pages masquerading as Cloudflare verification prompts. Group-IB said the malware has been active since at least late May and has targeted at least 100 users in 33 countries, with more than half of victims in Europe. Once launched, the malware downloads multiple payloads for browser credential theft, cryptocurrency wallet theft, Keychain theft, password manager and FileZilla credential collection, shell history harvesting, and backdoor installation, then exfiltrates the stolen data to a Telegram bot. Researchers also linked the campaign to LaunchAgent persistence and a backdoor called goyim derived largely from GSocket tooling.
ClickLock does not rely on a software exploit or privilege escalation; instead, it abuses user execution and suppresses defenses by repeatedly killing visible applications and NotificationCenter, sometimes every 210 milliseconds, until victims enter their macOS password and approve Keychain access. Apple separately published guidance warning that scammers increasingly use websites, chat agents, messaging platforms, and email to socially engineer Mac users into pasting unsafe Terminal commands, and said macOS may warn or block commands and scripts associated with known malware. Apple said such alerts mean the Mac has not yet been harmed and advised users not to run untrusted commands or scripts unless they fully trust the source.
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Group-IB assessed that ClickLock Stealer has been active since at least late May 2026, targeting at least 100 users across 33 countries, with more than half of victims in Europe. The malware steals credentials, wallet data, and other sensitive information and exfiltrates data via a Telegram bot.
Group-IB discovered the ClickLock Stealer macOS malware family in early June 2026. The malware uses ClickFix-style social engineering to trick users into pasting a bash command into Terminal and then deploys credential theft, crypto theft, Keychain theft, and backdoor components.
SecurityWeek and The Hacker News reported technical details of the newly identified ClickLock Stealer, including its ClickFix-style lures, LaunchAgent persistence, Telegram bot exfiltration, and coercive process-killing loop that suppresses warnings and pressures victims to enter passwords. The reporting also noted the malware is still under development and uses a backdoor called goyim derived largely from GSocket tooling.
Apple published support guidance explaining macOS Terminal alerts that warn when pasted commands may be unsafe or when commands or scripts contain known malware. The notice says scammers socially engineer users into pasting malicious commands and advises users not to run untrusted Terminal content.
Group-IB said a ClickLock Stealer sample was uploaded to VirusTotal on 2026-06-09 and had zero antivirus detections at the time. This provides a specific early public artifact date for the malware's emergence.
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Attackers are increasingly compromising macOS systems through **ClickFix** and related social-engineering lures that trick users into pasting malicious commands into Terminal, often behind fake Cloudflare checks, bogus troubleshooting steps, fraudulent support messages, or compromised websites. A large campaign tied to hundreds of hacked WordPress sites served platform-specific payloads and used the **Polygon** blockchain to hide command-and-control locations, while the macOS payload ran largely in memory, harvested Keychain data, browser information, SSH keys, screenshots, and other files, then staged stolen data in `/tmp/osalogging.zip` before exfiltrating it. Researchers said the technique does not rely on a macOS software flaw, but on convincing victims to execute attacker-supplied commands themselves. Threat reporting indicates the tactic has become a dominant initial-access method against Mac users, especially cryptocurrency holders and developers, and that recent Apple paste warnings in Terminal have already been bypassed through Script Editor abuse. Separate intrusion research linked cryptocurrency-focused activity to malware families including **DEEPBREATH**, **SUGARLOADER**, and **CHROMEPUSH**, showing how post-compromise tooling on macOS can escalate from social engineering to broad credential and data theft by targeting `TCC.db`, Keychain contents, Chromium-based browsers, Telegram data, and Apple Notes. Security teams are being urged to prioritize behavioral detection, cross-platform response, and user controls that prevent unverified command execution on Macs.
Jul 16, 2026
Multiple reports highlighted **ClickFix**-style social engineering that convinces users to paste attacker-supplied commands into a terminal, leading to infostealer installation. Malwarebytes documented a macOS lure impersonating *CleanMyMac* via `cleanmymacos[.]org`, where victims are instructed to run a Terminal command that prints a reassuring message, decodes a hidden (base64) destination, and then downloads and executes a remote shell script via `zsh`. The resulting payload installs **SHub Stealer**, which targets saved passwords, browser data, Apple Keychain contents, Telegram sessions, and cryptocurrency wallets; it can also tamper with wallet applications (e.g., *Exodus*, *Atomic Wallet*, *Ledger Live*) to enable later theft of recovery phrases. Microsoft threat intelligence (as reported by The Hacker News) described a parallel **Windows** ClickFix campaign that shifts from the traditional Run-dialog paste to **Windows Terminal** (`wt.exe`) using the `Win + X → I` shortcut, exploiting the tool’s administrative legitimacy to reduce suspicion and evade detections tuned to Run-dialog abuse. In that chain, users paste a hex-encoded/XOR-compressed command that spawns additional Terminal/PowerShell stages to decode scripts, download a ZIP payload plus a legitimate-but-renamed **7-Zip** binary, extract additional components, establish persistence via **scheduled tasks**, configure **Microsoft Defender exclusions**, and ultimately deploy **Lumma Stealer** (including use of `QueueUserAPC()` for injection).
Jun 29, 2026
Researchers identified a **ClickFix-style** campaign targeting macOS users that swaps Terminal-based execution for **Script Editor** to bypass newer Apple protections. Victims are lured to fake Apple-themed pages such as “Reclaim disk space on your Mac,” which invoke the `applescript://` URL scheme and open Script Editor with a pre-filled AppleScript. If the user runs it, the script conceals a malicious shell command that decodes a URL, uses `curl` with TLS certificate validation disabled, and pipes the response directly into `zsh` for in-memory execution. The activity, discovered by **Jamf Threat Labs**, ultimately downloads and launches a Mach-O variant of **Atomic Stealer**, an infostealer built to harvest browser credentials, saved passwords, cryptocurrency wallets, and other sensitive data from macOS systems. Researchers said the campaign appears to be an adaptation to Apple’s paste-command scanning protections added in macOS 26.4 for Terminal abuse; while newer macOS versions also warn about unidentified scripts, the attack can still succeed if users follow the prompts. Reported infrastructure tied to the campaign includes `dryvecar.com`, `storage-fixes.squarespace.com`, and `cleanupmac.mssg.me`.
Jun 29, 2026