Mac malware poses as popular freeware PDF viewer

Foxit Reader, a free, lightweight PDF viewer and printer popular in our FileForum, has an evil twin.

Today, the Foxit Corporation warned that a malware claiming to be Foxit Reader for Macintosh has been perpetrating attacks on users thinking they were downloading an official version of the free PDF reader. The thing is, there is no Foxit Reader for OS X. The software is available for Windows, Windows Mobile, Embedded Linux, Desktop Linux, and U3.

"While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, we are not happy about the recent malware attacks masquerading as our Foxit Reader," said George Gao, Vice President of Marketing and Sales of Foxit Corporation. "Foxit has always strived to insure that our solutions are secure for our users, and remains committed to address any Foxit product security issue in a professional and timely manner."

Trend Micro researcher Ivan Macalintal found the malware on Sunday and classified it as a variant of the JAHLAV DNS trojan, a Mac malware discovered earlier this summer that prompts users to download a bit of software or a codec (earlier this month, it pretended to be MacCinema) which, once installed, would reroute users to phishing sites and suchlike.

Foxit has not yet returned Betanews' requests for comment.