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Operating Systems => macOS => Topic started by: piratePenguin on 17 February 2006, 02:41

Title: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: piratePenguin on 17 February 2006, 02:41
Quote
Experts at SophosLabs
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 17 February 2006, 02:53
Looks like they better fix iChat ...

Quote
the malware threat on Mac OS X is real


because of a single virus that spreads through a single program ? I guess this applies to Linux too, at least to Linux servers running a particular program, and who have neglected to update it. Somehow I feel they are leaving out the virus-laden cesspool called Window$.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: piratePenguin on 17 February 2006, 03:05
Whenever they fix iChat, do the users have to wait 'till 10.4.6?
It would be worrying if they did.

10.8.36223, anyone?
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: cymon on 17 February 2006, 03:17
Seeing as how I don't use IM, and thus don't give a flying fuck about iChat or AIM or Yahoo!, this once again doesn't affect me. Also, having the common sense not to click on a file from an untrusted sender protects me, even if I run XP.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: worker201 on 17 February 2006, 04:06
Quote from: piratePenguin
Whenever they fix iChat, do the users have to wait 'till 10.4.6?
It would be worrying if they did.

Apple releases security updates separately than system updates.  So the answer would be no.  All they/we have to do is wait until Apple decides what the proper fix is.  For all I know, they could have a patch already.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: Calum on 17 February 2006, 20:50
apple's updates tend to (from what i have heard) be the size of microsoft's service packs (150MB for example) so some people aren't going to be applying that so quickly, are they?
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: worker201 on 17 February 2006, 22:22
Sometimes they are pretty big.  But lets compare apples and Apples.

Apple - large update every 4 months or so, normally (until yesterday) for problems no users were even aware of

Microsoft - small updates every week or so, for problems that should have been patched months ago

I think Apple has done pretty well for itself.  And most Apple users that I know are pretty good about getting those updates when they come out.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: davidnix71 on 18 February 2006, 00:15
It's not a virus. It's malware that IM's you what appears to be a jpeg. If you attempt to open it, even logged in as admin, you will be prompted for a password because it is really a script. If you are not running as admin, then you will have to give it an admin name and password or your keychain password. If you are stupid enough to give an admin password to open what appears to be a picture, then it writes itself into iChat and tries to pass itself on to your IM buddies.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: worker201 on 18 February 2006, 00:19
How dumb.  A self-propagating worm.  Yawn.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: WMD on 18 February 2006, 02:19
Quote from: Calum
apple's updates tend to (from what i have heard) be the size of microsoft's service packs (150MB for example) so some people aren't going to be applying that so quickly, are they?

No, not at all.  The biggest plain security update I've ever seen was 20MB, and that thing fixed over a dozen vulnerabilities.  The biggest updates are things like 10.3.0 to 10.3.9, which is nearly 150MB.  But that's over a year's worth of stuff.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 18 February 2006, 02:39
SP2  for XP was pretty big  >75MB if I remember I know this is Windows and not MAcOS I'm just saying)
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: sjor on 18 February 2006, 14:48
The new Mac OS X update (10.4.5) specifically said the iChat was updated. So there we go, no worries!  :)
The 10.4.5 update was only 4 MB for PPC, but was 40 something for Intel.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 18 February 2006, 15:09
Talking of viruses for non-Windows OSes, how many are there?

Does Linux have any viruses and are they any worse than this one?
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: cahult on 18 February 2006, 15:40
I don
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 18 February 2006, 18:12
Quote from: Aloone_Jonez
Talking of viruses for non-Windows OSes, how many are there?

Does Linux have any viruses and are they any worse than this one?

I think this worm (http://www.microsuck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9839&highlight=linux+virus) is the only thing. It's a worm not a virus, and it only affects an unpatched webserver program ... you were the one who informed us of it. Other than that, I don't know of anything.
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: M51DPS on 19 February 2006, 03:59
Even if Apple did release a security update for iChat.... just what would it be updating? If I really wanted to, I could write an AppleScript (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/applescript/) to send someone an instant message, or someone could create an Automator (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/automator/) action. This is not really taking advantage of a flaw to speak of.

Am I the only one wondering about that security feature which asks you if you want to open an application for the first time when you click on executables you just downloaded? When the Opener (http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html) malware came out, I thought we would be protected against things like this.

EDIT: Some of the links were a bit screwy....
Title: Re: First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered
Post by: piratePenguin on 19 February 2006, 20:00
Quote from: sjor
The new Mac OS X update (10.4.5) specifically said the iChat was updated. So there we go, no worries!  :)
The 10.4.5 update was only 4 MB for PPC, but was 40 something for Intel.
That article was written after 10.4.5 happened.