News Macs get bugs

[WilHarris]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/02/20/mac_bug_virus/

[MiNiMaL_FuSS]

welcome to our world mac users.

[Hamish]

shouldnt that be Macs get viruses? they've always had bugs, just like everything else

[BioSniper]

Or perhaps something along the lines of; Apples get worms :P

Sad to hear that nothing is safe from those with nothing better to do with their skills.

[DXR_13KE]

Originally Posted by BioSniper

Or perhaps something along the lines of; Apples get worms.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kaze22]

It's about time, there goes the age old Myth.

[riggs]

This is a good one as it semi-proves something I've been debating for a while.

A friend of mine is a Mac user, and he always bitches about Windows and it's security flaws. I've always argued though, that one of the main reasons that Windows has all these problems (etc) is down to the sheer quantity of end users. I mean, if you were terrorist (virus coder), and wanted to drop a bomb (virus) that did the most damage, would you attack London (Windows) or Pontypridd (OS)?

Sure, Windows does suck ass when it comes to security, but I think there will always be security flaws, in any bit of software - it's how well you hide them that counts.

I am sorry to hear this - not sorry for Apple, but for the users of their systems. Just be prepared for the onslaught of noob-fanboy Mac haters heading for the 'Apple' sub-forum...

[Boswell]

wow i never even considered macs not having virus's, anyway as kaze said its about time.

[speedfreek]

Originally Posted by BioSniper

Or perhaps something along the lines of; Apples get worms

Ha, Someone had to get it in.

I know that anything can get a virus, if linux were to suddenly get more attention there would be viruses written for it, not just from it. It was bound to happen but hopefully it will be less virus and hole prone than a certian mainstream OS.

[DreamTheEndless]

Not a virus...... (Not self replicating)

To infect your apple mac with the first one, you must:
1. agree to download the file to your computer from iChat or choose to download it from a website. (It claimed to contain screenshots of os 10.5)
2. decompress the archive (Unzip)
3. run the uncompressed file
4. type in your administrator password confirming that you are installing software.

To get a virus on a windows machine, you have to (for example,):
1. receive an infected email with outlook express
- or -
1. view a corrupt image on a website

There's a little bit of a difference there.........

The second one listed as a "virus" is a proof of concept security exploit that utilizes a flaw in the osX implementation of bluetooth that was patched by apple march of last year.

Still, to this date zero os X viruses (virii)

[adam197]

As the previous post said its rather difficult to infect yourself with this trojan, but it shows that it can be done.

However,

Originally Posted by Kaze22

It's about time, there goes the age old Myth.

it wasnt a myth, it was a fact.

[phonon45]

Originally Posted by DreamTheEndless

Not a virus...... (Not self replicating)
Still, to this date zero os X viruses (virii)

I believe that these two exercises have shown that it is only a matter of time.

[mattyt]

no, not really.
As another reader so astutely pointed out, these aren't even viruses as they don't self replicate (or not without a lot of user intervention).

Secondly 2 proof of concepts has nothing on the windows world, this list is just the recent ones - http://symantec.com/avcenter/global/vinfodb.html almost 50 since january 24th

[TheEclypse]

Originally Posted by mattyt

no, not really.
Secondly 2 proof of concepts has nothing on the windows world, this list is just the recent ones - http://symantec.com/avcenter/global/vinfodb.html almost 50 since january 24th

I would imagine a lot of those are exploiting the same security holes but for different purposes.

[Hybr1d]

"Please type your administrator password to infect yourself with almost harmless malware."

[dullonien]

Originally Posted by adambrennan

As the previous post said its rather difficult to infect yourself with this trojan, but it shows that it can be done.

However,

it wasnt a myth, it was a fact.

It's a fact that OSX didn't/doesn't have viruses, but in my opinion it's a myth that OSX can't get viruses. If the b*****d virus writers out there decided to target OSX it could turn out less secure than windows for 2 reasons :

1. Apple havn't dealt with this problem yet, so wheras microsoft have had years to attempt to make windows secure (mayb havn't done a good job), Apple havn't even started.

2. OSX users aren't used to the windows world of viruses, alot of windows users (apart from the ones who have no clue about anything, and proberly buy a new pc when they get viruses cos they think it's broken) know to be carefull about what they download, accept to and so on while they're online.

As someone said above, OSX have 4% of the market, hackers/virus writers target the platform that will do the most damage i.e. Windows. If Apple contunue to gain more of the market, there might be more and more viruses written and they will most certainly get more malicious.

Think i've written enough now.................

[mattyt]

It has nothing to do with market share, it has to do with the fact the windows has had a policy of being backward compatible, from 95 through to XP.

That's 10 years of not being able to change the security model significantly.

Whilst due to it's BSD background OSX is inherently more secure from the ground up (as I understand it's mostly do with how permissions work) it's also had the advantage of a more or less clean start from the OS9 days (only around 5 years).

The fact of the matter is that Apple have largely dealt with the problem already by their choice of OS. I think you'll find that the 'alot of windows users (apart from the ones who have no clue about anything..' while it might be a large number is a small percentage of windows users. Most people are not technically inclined and not interested in operating systems. I reckon the techy user who knows what they're doing (uses firefox, doesn't use Outlook Express, never opens attachments) is less likely to actually get a virus on their PC without a virus scanner than the average pc user with a full version of Norton chugging away.

I am actually pleased that Vista will be breaking a lot of the legacy support in as much as it gives the MS team a chance to really improve security at the OS level in the next version of windows.

[dullonien]

Nice thorough reply there mattyt. I see where u'r coming from, and hopefully vista will resolve a few majour security flaws thats troubling windows at the moment (i personaly think that they will proberly end up making a few more possibly worse security lapses in vista though....... only time will tell i spose)

As for OSX, dunno why a few of u are glad that OSX is getting mallware etc. isn't it good that theres an operating system out there that is secure, even if it's not u'r choice of os. The only thing thats keeping me on windows is program support (AutoCAD in particular) and the games that aren't available on OSX........... price might come into it somewhere near the top also.

[Kaze22]

Anything can be secure and nothing can be secure, if you know what you are doing then even Windows can be one of the most secures systems in the world on the other hand if a determined individual is hell bent on attacking you then even government level security will not stop it.
So in the end anything can be secure and nothing can be secure. So take nothing for granted.
As for Windows I haven't had a virus since 98 and thats a long time, but then again I take an active part in keeping my OS clean and I don't have any enemies that are hell bent on fcking me over.

[DreamTheEndless]

- Kaze22

The fact that you have not had a windows virus in the last 5 years does not change the fact that in the neighborhood of 20% to 50% of all windows users have had one within the last year and 0% of all OSX users have had one in the last 6 years......

Unix has had network security built into it for 20 years. Windows had network security added on to it 6 or 7 years ago.

windows will continue to be insecure until they rebuild it from the ground up or give it a unix core. (Even if MS were to do those things, I wouldn't be super confident based on their track record.....)