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North Korean threat actors are using a ClickFix variant to target macOS users and steal their most valuable data.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence today published research uncovering a macOS-focused cyber campaign attributed to a North Korean threat actor tracked as Sapphire Sleet. Like many campaigns attributed to North Korea, attacks rely on social engineering and, more specifically, ClickFix-style techniques.
ClickFix is a social engineering tactic that grew prominent over the past year. It most often works by inviting a target to an attacker-hosted website or virtual meeting (like Zoom or Teams), but then the target is informed there are technical issues that must be addressed — installing a file or running a shell command. Except that there are no technical issues, and the user is tricked into connecting to attacker infrastructure or installing a malicious binary.
Sherrod DeGrippo, general manager of Global Threat Intelligence at Microsoft, tells Dark Reading that ClickFix is so effective because users are conditioned to accept remote support interactions like clicking prompts, downloading tools, and following instructions. « Attackers exploit this familiarity to make malicious actions feel routine, lowering victim skepticism at the critical moment of compromise, » she says.
While many threat actors around the world have utilized ClickFix by now, it has become a favorite of North Korean actors like Sapphire Sleet. The nation-state group is believed to overlap with threats tracked as UNC1069APT38, and Stardust Chollima. Sapphire Sleet is focused primarily on financially supporting the North Korean government through cryptocurrency and intellectual property theft.
« In this campaign, Sapphire Sleet takes advantage of user‑initiated execution to establish persistence, harvest credentials, and exfiltrate sensitive data while operating outside traditional macOS security enforcement boundaries, » Microsoft’s blog post read.
How This macOS ClickFix Attack Works
For the described activity, researchers said Sapphire Sleet would create fake recruiter profiles on social media and professional networking platforms, directly engage targets under the pretense of job opportunities, and then schedule a technical interview.
The « interviewer » then directs the target to install a Zoom SDK update that is named « Zoom SDK Update.scpt. » This is a compiled AppleScript file that opens in macOS Script Editor by default. The user is then instructed to click the « Run the Script » button.
Unlike Windows-focused ClickFix attacks that generally copy malicious shell commands to the target’s clipboard and guide the target to paste it in themselves, this macOS variant relies on opening a file to execute arbitrary code.
The « SDK update » triggers a multistage payload chain, using curl commands to execute multiple AppleScript payloads. This includes an attack orchestration beacon, credential harvesters, a data stealer (which targets wallets, browser, keychains, history, Apple Notes, and Telegram), multiple backdoors for persistence, and a decoy prompt reassuring the user that the installation process has been completed.
Prior to exfiltration, the payload chain also manages to bypass Apple’s Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) security framework, used for enforcing user consent prior to taking certain actions. The attacker renames a critical file associated with the TCC process, brings it to a staging location, and injects a new entry into the database access table, preventing a user prompt from being triggered. The modified database is copied back into the original folder and moved back to its original location with its original name.
To defend against Sapphire Sleet, Microsoft recommends organizations educate users about social engineering attacks and how ClickFix attacks work; blocking or restricting the execution of .scpt files and unsigned Mach-O binaries downloaded from the Internet; exercising caution when copying and pasting sensitive data; and protecting cryptocurrency wallets and browser credential stores. The blog post also includes indicators of compromise.
Microsoft reported details of the campaign to Apple, and said Apple has « since implemented updates to help detect and block infrastructure and malware associated with this campaign. »
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