Understanding Backdoors and How They are Used

A backdoor is any technique that allows authorized or intruders to bypass typical security measures and gain high-level user access (also known as root access) to a computer system, network, or software application. Through a backdoor, criminals may steal personal and financial information, install other software, and control machines.

Backdoors can also be purposely placed by system or application developers as a means of gaining post-release access to their technology.

By using vulnerabilities in Webkit, the browser engine powering Safari, and XNU, the macOS and iOS kernel, a completely new macOS backdoor was sent to Hong Kong pro-democracy activists towards the end of 2021 via bogus and hacked websites.

On Tuesday, ESET researchers shared their knowledge about the attacks and the results of the analysis of that final malicious payload: a macOS backdoor with many capabilities, including collecting and exfiltrating system information, executing files, starting a remote screen session, dumping the contents of the victims’ iCloud Keychain, and more.

Source: HelpNetSecurity

A good anti-malware program should be able to prevent hackers from installing the Trojans and rootkits required to open those pesky backdoors. You should also change your passwords on a regular basis and choose plugins and programs with prudence.


If you are needing help with computer-related issues, please give us a call at 1-800-620-5285.  Karls Technology is a nationwide computer service company with offices in many major cities.  This blog post is brought to you by our staff at the Las Vegas Computer Repair Service. If you need computer repair in Las Vegas, NV please call the local office at (702) 800-7850.

Leave a Reply