Apple has already patched the WireLurker bug

Yesterday we brought you news of WireLurker, a piece of malware circulating round Chinese Macs that could be transferred to iOS devices via a USB cable. Today Apple has revealed that a patch has already been released to solve the problem.

Speaking to Business Insider, an Apple spokesperson said:

“We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China, and we’ve blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching. As always, we recommend that users download and install software from trusted sources,”

It’s likely that the problem was so widespread because of the fact that it circulated through a third-party app store called Maiyadi rather than one run by Apple.

At the moment it’s not known who is behind the spread of the bug, but fortunately it appears that whoever they are had not got round to exploiting the bug and did not access any user data. While Apple has been quick to solve the problem and prevent anything disastrous from happening it does show that Apple’s software architecture is far from invulnerable.

Everybody, regardless of whether they use a Mac or not, should be wary about what they download. Next time it might not be spotted and fixed so promptly.