A trojan that has been targeting Linux users for several years is now setting its sights on the Mac OS X, security researchers warned.
The Tsunami backdoor trojan, detected as OSX/Tsunami.A., was derived from an older Linux malware family that has been around since at least 2002, according to Eset researcher Robert Lipovsky.
It enabled infected machines to participate in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks intended to flood websites with traffic.
Once it has made its way onto a system, the malware attempted to connect to an IRC channel, where it could receive further commands.
Besides enabling DDoS attacks, it can be used to download additional malware and take control of an affected machine.
Sophos had not reported instances of infections.
"The sky is not falling," senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said.
