There's an old adage that says that "Macs don't get malware." You're less likely to catch a virus on a Mac than on a Windows PCs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Mac computers are completely immune to malicious software. They are not. NightOwl, which used to be a tremendously useful macOS utility, has now seemingly turned into malware, and you should get rid of it if it's still on your Mac.

Before Apple actually introduced the option to switch between light and dark mode depending on the time of day, NightOwl was a utility that served that purpose. Back when macOS Mojave in 2018 introduced a dark mode, installing NightOwl would allow you to automatically switch between both modes at specific times of the day. The tool is still around, but it's not really useful anymore since its core functionality is now built into macOS. But "still around" is also a real stretch here.

At some point down the road, the developers of the app sold it to another company called TPE.FYI LLC, and that company injected some malicious code into the app that basically makes your device part of a botnet for use in "market research." This is done without the user's consent and with no option to opt out of it, as not even quitting the app will disable this feature. The only acknowledgment of it is a small section in the app's terms of service, stating the following:

WHEREAS, NightOwl app enables Users to share internet traffic by modifying their device’s network settings to be used as a gateway for internet traffic. Additionally, the User’s device acts as a gateway for NightOwl app’s Clients, including companies that specialize in web and market research, SEO, brand protection, content delivery, cybersecurity, etc.

If you're using the NightOwl app, you should remove it completely from your computer. If you have a newer version of macOS, the app's functionality is already built into the operating system, and even if you have an older version, is it really worth it to keep automatically changing from light mode to dark mode at the cost of having your computer be part of a botnet? We didn't think so.

We've reached out to NightOwl about the report, and the company provided us with the following statement:

We have partnered with a respected residential proxy service to monetize NightOwl. We added their SDK to the backend of the app that allows our partner's users to send some requests through NightOwl user’s IP address.. It's important to note that we solely collect users' IP addresses. No other user data is collected. We have disclosed this in our terms and conditions.

Given some users high level of concern we are working to give users an option to opt out of this. If we are able to re-release the app we will either completely remove this SDK or give an easy option for disabling. We apologize for the inconvenience and concern created.

Having to opt-out of the tracking isn't great, so unless you absolutely need functionality in NightOwl that isn't available natively in macOS, it might still be best to remove it.

Source: Taylor Robinson

Via: SixColors