Virus For Mac Arrives!

pomjim

Feb 16 2006, 11:30 PM

The first virus for Macs has appeared on the scene. Known as Leap - A, it is a low level threat, but almost certainly the harbinger of future threats.

For years, Mac users have claimed the o/s to be safe and secure, with no virus problems, even 'tho the reason for that was simply because of the small amount of users, not the difficulty of creating a virus for the o/s.

Now, as with Firefox, as the number of users grows, so the creators of virus , malware etc will begin to target the Mac.

Sarah81

Feb 16 2006, 11:48 PM

QUOTE(pomjim @ Feb 16 2006, 05:30 PM)

This one might not be too bad, but the ones that will surely follow should be pretty nasty. I guess now my Mac-using friends will start thinking about antivirus systems, or at least be more careful with what they do online.

WeaponX

Feb 17 2006, 12:24 AM

I thought there were viruses affecting the Macs in the past already? Just not a lot since it's a Windows market.

I'm sure someone will find the time to give more damage to the Mac OS. All the Macs I've worked on have antivirus programs on them already...Norton. Don't know why you shouldn't..even if Macs are much safer to use than Windows-based machines...for now

Just found a free antivirus program for the Mac OS called ClamAV. Should be useful for those who like freeware/open-source programs.

nightfox

Feb 17 2006, 12:34 AM

I knew the day would come! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!!!

Now Mac users can't brag about how viruses can't affect them!

I'll have to update my English teacher about this as he is a Mac fanatic... total of 7 Macs in the classroom, 3 PCs..

of course, District Technology doesn't like Macs so they're kind of unsupported.. but every computer HAS to have antivirus and spyware scanners unless it is locked down with Deep Freeze since a reboot will clear a virus.

Hahaha!! I'm going to let my teacher know Tuesday when I'm back in school.

[N]F

photographerguy

Feb 17 2006, 01:52 AM

I am a mac user and I'm not worried about it. There was a rumor a few months back about the first virus that was bull****. Mac OS requires you to enter your password to install/change anything. If people are downloading pirated software or porn from p2p networks, then they take a risk of installing something that isn't what it claimed to be. There is no virus that just infects your computer just by clicking on something. If you use common sense and only install programs from legit sites, everything will be happy.

hatim

Feb 17 2006, 05:05 AM

I disagree with the argument that windows has more viruses just because windows is used more and so virus writers focus more on windows. It may be partially true. But the thing is if some thing is designed badly (with security not in focus) it will be prone to security problems.
As for Mac , one new virus after a long time is not a big deal. The big deal will be how Mac counters it and makes sure that they dont introduce new vernubilities after pacthing things.

i think MS is the king when it comes to introducing more and more bugs with patches.

nightfox

Feb 17 2006, 07:33 AM

QUOTE(hatim @ Feb 17 2006, 12:05 AM)

I agree. MS can obviously leave security holes THEN patch it?? Why didn't you patch the hole then if you knew about it??

Firefox is already the most popular browser and I don't see any security holes in it... hmm...

Linux, one of the most widely used SERVER operating systems... I don't see servers dropping!

Apache... most widely used server. Yet there are not as nearly as many security holes in Apache as IIS (even people who have been Microsoft programmers say IIS is worthless junk).

PHPNuke CMS software & phpBB... both I don't use and both filled with security holes. It is like every few weeks or so phpBB releases a new version to "fix" the previous... remember the phpBB 2.10 worm? Yeah. Not because phpBB is popular, but because someone found a way to take advantage of a security hole!

It is simply which has more security holes.

[N]F

organicbmx

Feb 17 2006, 12:26 PM

i googled this and couldnt find anymore infomation. im not doubting that there is a virus but what was your source on this news.

for thoses people saying that this will be the beginning of virus' and anti-virus software on mac's you must understand how osX works. osX is based on a unix operating system. that system has a very secure, but not perfect, privilage system and requires a root password before any program can be installed. it would be almost impossible to have malicious code running on a mac unless the user allowed it by mistake.

and there is a very good reason not to start running anti-virus programs like norton on mac's. one of the reason mac's are faster is because their systems are jammed up with bloated software hogging valuble system resourses.

pomjim

Feb 17 2006, 01:26 PM

Sources, as requested:

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/osxleapa.html

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcen...osx.leap.a.html

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_138578.htm

Jeigh

Feb 17 2006, 01:39 PM

I agree that *nix based stuff is more secure then windows, but wow you guys give it too much credit haha. If people decide to start screwing with osx, I can't imagine them being "oh no... it's based on unix...can't ever hurt it!". There are independant studies done that show many security weaknesses in many non-windows OS's

I'm not trying to defend M$ or diss unix... I just think you guys are making it sound little too much like unix systems are this unbreakable uber system that will never need to be changed because if you are running it nothing bad can ever happen heh

Oh and nightfox.... firefox is not the most popular browser... they have a huge market share compared to a couple years ago but still, nothing compared to IE. Also, there are numerous security holes in fierfox that get patched regularly... thats why they release updates that seem to change very little. Security fixes

So as for my views on if there is this macOSX virus. I can't see it mattering tooo much. Even though the one back then was a hoax or whatnot, if the news of one was all it would take for people to start developing them, then we would be seeing way more poppin up. Windows IS less secure, AND they have the market share hands down, meaning the punks writing viruses can do the most damage with the least effort. Why would someone bother writing a mac virus and shutting down a handful of businesses and annoying a bunch of home users, when an easier to write windows virus can make cnn in a day due to projected loss to businesses trying to rebound from downed systems.

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xboxrulz

Feb 25 2006, 03:49 AM

Even when Linux doesn't have any viruses, I still install an antivirus just in case.

xboxrulz

Logan Deathbringer

Feb 24 2006, 10:10 PM

Like with any operating system, the more people use it the more security flaws/holes will be found. Yes the MacOS is more secure then the Windows operating system but there are 2 main reasons for this that I can see:

1) Windows is written to be used by the general public, and has always been written so all you really have to know to use is is basic typing and knowing how to turn the box on.

2) Home users don't want to have to remember alot of passwords or have the kids come and say "mom I want this game installed" after a long day at the office.

Believe it or not I have more computers come across my tech bench due to the fact that the parents don't want to have to install software for their kids and this leads to massive virus/worm/trojen/adware/malware infestations and they are willing to pay $80+ USD to have someone clean it out once every 6 months or so then to have security.

Windows based computers are designed for people that either don't know or don't want to know how to properly work with computers in a secure way and then complain about it to make themselves feel better. I know this isn't a popular point of view but after years of cleaning up systems for fun and for a living I have come to this unpopular opinion.

techocian

Feb 23 2006, 03:26 AM

YES! Now i could go "In yo face!!" at my cousin for saying there has been no known viruses for Macs at all.

Still, it took a fairly long time for some hacker to have bothered to make a virus for the Mac. I don't see how it can be any more difficult than creating a virus for Windows. OSs are OSs, you can never change them. Its popularity that "gives" them the viruses.

I've heard in BBC lately that Apple computers had a bug that hackers could tap into and basically hack the Mac with it. Apple "believes" that there has been no viruses out there yet that target the bug and is working on fixing it. I wonder what more problems would arise with the Mac...

Jeigh

Feb 22 2006, 01:08 PM

QUOTE

Tuesday - February 21, 2006
Safari struck by Zip security warning

By Macworld staff

A new security vulnerability in Safari has been identified by security experts at Secunia.

The company - which rates the flaw as “extremely critical” - says that the vulnerability was discovered by a source outside the company, Michael Lehn.

It can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system, it warns.

The vulnerability is caused by an error in the processing of file association meta data (stored in the "__MACOSX" folder) in ZIP archives.

“This can be exploited to trick users into executing a malicious shell script renamed to a safe file extension stored in a ZIP archive,” Secunia warns.

It can also be exploited automatically by Safari when visiting a malicious website.

The company has released a test users can run to check if their system has been affected.

The vulnerability has been confirmed on an up-to-date system running Safari 2.0.3 (417.8) and Mac OS X 10.4.5.

Users can mitigate the threat by disabling the "Open safe files after downloading" option in Safari.

Source: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?N...age=1&pagePos=2

Not a virus per say but I figured I would throw it up since it relates to OSX security. Seems like something they'll be able to fix fairly quickly although who really knows. Hopefully they clear this up quickly and don't find any more vulnerabilities (I don't like when people act like OSX is infallible, but I don't want to see it getting attacked. Anything like this is bad regardless of whichn platform its on :S)

nopaniers

Feb 19 2006, 09:34 PM

OS-X and Unix in general has a better security model than Windows. If you've got a Unix based system set up correctly, the user doesn't have the priveleges to do anything really harmful. On Windows its not the same, and they would have to do a major rewrite to fix the problems. Of course, this sort of thing won't stop you sending out a million bogus emails, but at least your system is safe.

And of course the other thing is that a larger number of people use Windows, which makes it the obvious target (for someone who wants to get a lot of attention).

Nobody ever said that Apples were not vulnerable to attack, but for these two reasons, Mac users are in a much better position when it comes to viruses and worms.