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MacManiac1224
May 11, 2003, 07:56 PM
Are there any viruses on OS X? besides macro word viruses, are there any? I have never heard of them. just wanted to know if anybody else has?


goglamosh
May 11, 2003, 08:04 PM
i have never experienced one!
MrMacMan
May 11, 2003, 08:53 PM
Yes there were something like 10 Mac Os X viruses, but like 0 circulated around.
Jesus on OSX
May 12, 2003, 12:24 AM
There is this virus out there Macs... it's a plain text file with the following contents:

--------------------------------------------------
This OSX virus works on the honor system.

Please delete random files on your hard disk, then forward this message to everyone you know. Thank you for your cooperation.
--------------------------------------------------
Snowy_River
May 12, 2003, 01:42 AM
Originally posted by Jesus on OSX
There is this virus out there Macs... it's a plain text file with the following contents:

--------------------------------------------------
This OSX virus works on the honor system.

Please delete random files on your hard disk, then forward this message to everyone you know. Thank you for your cooperation.
--------------------------------------------------

OMG! LOL!!!!!

I love it!! I'm going to have to keep that one in mind!
hugemullens
May 12, 2003, 03:24 AM
microsoft office.
caveman_uk
May 12, 2003, 03:31 AM
As far as I'm aware even if they're are Mac OS X viruses they aren't in the wild. The only thing you really have to worry about I suppose are Office macro viruses - and that's if you have Office. Macs are like female haemophiliacs - they don't suffer from the disease but can pass it on to windows machines.
F/reW/re
May 12, 2003, 10:16 AM
The first betaversion of Safari was pretty much a virus. A lot of people got their whole homefolder deleted :(

:p
mnkeybsness
May 12, 2003, 10:31 AM
well if you really want...some of us could start writing some viruses!
yzedf
May 12, 2003, 10:35 AM
Yes there is. Most are server based stuff. Your typical buffer overflow stuff.

OS X still enjoys security through obscurity, for most users. That will no longer be the case when Apple and OS X have real market share. :rolleyes:
XnavxeMiyyep
May 12, 2003, 03:38 PM
You could fool new mac users into thinking there is a virus by making an AppleScript that tells Finder to quit.
acj
May 12, 2003, 08:22 PM
Originally posted by XnavxeMiyyep
You could fool new mac users into thinking there is a virus by making an AppleScript that tells Finder to quit.

That would pretty much be a virus.
XnavxeMiyyep
May 12, 2003, 09:52 PM
Quote from acj
That would pretty much be a virus.
Not really. I've done it before out of curiosity. You can just click the Finder icon in the Dock to start it up again.
billyboy
May 13, 2003, 05:21 AM
Some one said that the fact Mac OSX is quite obscure in the scheme of things means Macs are protected by default from the threat of a virus. True to a degree, but bearing in mind the mentality of a virus writer, I dont see how any OS would be immune from attack - and what a carrot to write a code to wipe the smile off a few million smug maccers!.

Is there not something in the idea that OSX is particularly hard to attack. And UNIX being open source must go a long way to helping keep the little ****s at bay.
macdong
Jun 4, 2003, 09:02 PM
Originally posted by XnavxeMiyyep
You could fool new mac users into thinking there is a virus by making an AppleScript that tells Finder to quit.

Well, a while back when i was demostrating the power of AppleScript to a friend i wrote a psuedo virus.
It hides itself in Startup folder and automatically restart your computer.
It sure was fun to see the computer go on and off and on and off... :D
zarathustra
Jun 4, 2003, 09:54 PM
I went to several anti virus maker websites, Mcafee, Symantec, etc. and could not find a virus definition library for OSX. However, I do own a copy of Virex, and it contains a few hundred virus definitions, a good number being trojans and macros for office. Compared with tens of thousands of viruses it's not bad at all. Again, the thing about it is that a virus writer will not go: "Hey, I am the king of the world, I wrote a virus that will debilitate the full Commodore 64 community! Wohooo! ... Hello? Anybody?"

While I certainly don't think my DP 1.25 Ghz is a C64, but you get the idea - why hack 7 % when you can hack 85%?
kjwebb
Jun 4, 2003, 10:32 PM
Viruses= not many. Because Mac os X is 1. Mac OS and 2. based on Unix, there is very few viruses around (not counting MS office virus marcos)

Sercurity bugs= As many as apache, samba and other processes/servers have. Usally not many (around 5 a year?)
G5orbust
Jun 5, 2003, 12:16 AM
Ive never ever experienced a Mac virus in OSX. But, on my father's PC, we have to have a hardware firewall (via router) and software anitvirus, just in case that pesky email gets in and he, being the n00b that he is, never screens his emails and BAH DAH BING, we have virus crap that I have to deal with....

Whats the world coming to?:rolleyes: