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Have Mac got viruses or not?

G

glosterseagul

macrumors regular
Original poster
oooer pc man is techying me!

I posted the thing about "dump the pc" he responded with....

"Errr just not true - here's some for starters ( not all attack OS X but most do ).

Mabutu-A, see W32/Mabutu-A
Mac.Moothie.A, see W32/Moothie-KIT
Mac.Simpson, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac.Simpsons, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac/Amphimix-A
Mac/ANTI-A
Mac/Autostart-A
Mac/Autostart-B
Mac/Autostart-C
Mac/Autostart-D
Mac/CDEF
Mac/CODE-1
Mac/CODE-252
Mac/CODE-9811
Mac/INIT-1984
Mac/INIT-29
Mac/INIT-9403
Mac/INIT-M
Mac/MBDF-A
Mac/MBDF-B
Mac/MDEF-A
Mac/nVIR-A
Mac/nVIR-B
Mac/nVIR-Fam
Mac/Scores
Mac/SevenD-C
Mac/SevenD-D
Mac/SevenD-Fam
Mac/Sevendust-A
Mac/Sevendust-B
Mac/Sevendust-J
Mac/Simpsons@mm, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac/T4
Mac/WDEF
Mac/ZUC-A
Macaka-A, see Troj/Macaka-A
Macdwarf-A, see Bat/Macdwarf-A
MacOS/MW2004, see AplS/Fromr-A"
 
homerexplain.jpg


😕​
 
DoH!

I posted the bit about Mac Viruses then he came back with that lot...ie lots of Mac Viruses. Did he make them up? Where did he get the list so quick? Is he bluffing? Am I a fool? ( don't answer that last one!)
 
glosterseagul said:
DoH!

I posted the bit about Mac Viruses then he came back with that lot...ie lots of Mac Viruses. Did he make them up? Where did he get the list so quick? Is he bluffing? Am I a fool? ( don't answer that last one!)
Click to expand...
What the HELL are you blabbering about!?
 
glosterseagul said:
DoH!

I posted the bit about Mac Viruses then he came back with that lot...ie lots of Mac Viruses. Did he make them up? Where did he get the list so quick? Is he bluffing? Am I a fool? ( don't answer that last one!)
Click to expand...

Some of those look familar from System 6 days but I'm surprised that Sevendust has been around that long. There were 38 native System 6/System 7 viruses for the longest time and there were apparently 4 more added around the Mac OS 8/9 timeframe.

There are no native Mac OS X viruses and I doubt someone is going to start the Classic environment to run those he listed.
 
bousozoku said:
Some of those look familar from System 6 days but I'm surprised that Sevendust has been around that long. There were 38 native System 6/System 7 viruses for the longest time and there were apparently 4 more added around the Mac OS 8/9 timeframe.

There are no native Mac OS X viruses and I doubt someone is going to start the Classic environment to run those he listed.
Click to expand...

Sevendust has been around sence '96/'97. Wasnt that around OS8 days? I'm a little shady on my apple history.

anyway... yeah, this thread doesnt quite make sence, but im guessing that the original poster was supposedly 'proven wrong' by saying there are no mac virus's.

My responce would be "multiply that by 500,000 and you got the amount of PC Virus's 😉 )
 
JeDiBoYTJ said:
Sevendust has been around sence '96/'97. Wasnt that around OS8 days? I'm a little shady on my apple history.

anyway... yeah, this thread doesnt quite make sence, but im guessing that the original poster was supposedly 'proven wrong' by saying there are no mac virus's.

My responce would be "multiply that by 500,000 and you got the amount of PC Virus's 😉 )
Click to expand...

thanks thats all I wanted to know
 
This is a very weird thread..Yet, I can't stop laughing...Especially at Homer, as his thought is exactly what I said outloud.
 
glosterseagul said:
"Errr just not true - here's some for starters ( not all attack OS X but most do ).
Click to expand...

Err just not true - He has no idea what he's talking about. None attack OS X. None. Zilch. Zero. Zip.
 
JeDiBoYTJ said:
Sevendust has been around sence '96/'97. Wasnt that around OS8 days? I'm a little shady on my apple history.

anyway... yeah, this thread doesnt quite make sence, but im guessing that the original poster was supposedly 'proven wrong' by saying there are no mac virus's.

My responce would be "multiply that by 500,000 and you got the amount of PC Virus's 😉 )
Click to expand...

Well, considering that the original 38 were around prior to 1993 would make me wonder, but I suppose it doesn't have to fit into my view of things anyway. 😀

There were over 50,000 x86 viruses as of 2001, so I don't think it's a matter of much impact on Mac OS X. Someone with x86 anti-virus software could give us an accurate number from the virus definitions. I believe that over 5000 of those are MS Office viruses and some can work on MS Office for Mac.
 
edesignuk said:
Maybe if you had actually asked a question that made sense you would have got an answer even quicker 😉
Click to expand...

OK Sorry guys.....

ONE:
This thread refers to a bloke wanting some itunes help. He is on a pc and wants to know if there a way of getting iTunes to update the library automatically?

I had this problem on my partners pc I had "add to library" before the tunes would show up.

TWO:
I try to find it don't seem to work https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/89164/

THREE:
The bloke that said loads of viruses on a mac.... this tread

Anyway sorry if I am a thicko
🙁
 
Further to mac has zip nil etc viruses.

I have this cocky git I have been having a discussion with...he seems to know a lot...regarding viruses.his response.....


"OSX not only has a large number of native viruses, it is affected by viruses that attack FreeBSD/PPC and any pan-UNIX virus. Hence it actually has more current, active viruses than, say, Windows 98.

UNIX, and even OSX itself, being a common server OS a FECK LOAD of data-eating network-transmitting worms exist for it.
I'd just like to reemphasise here - I own a *number* of Macintosh machines. From 68K's to Classic PPC's to a X.0 powered iMac.

Hence my hatred is not as biased as a solely Windows or solely x86 user.

And because I use "real" PC's, I have significantly more knowledge of the real world of computing than a closeted Mac user."

How hurtfull...does anyone want to help me fight a battle....or should I just "let it go"? 🙄
 
I really haven't understood any of the threads you've posted. You seem to be using a shorthand that only you understand, and I suspect you mean to reply to some other thread here?

I did, however, note the part in your thread where you say "should I just 'let it go'". I think that's an excellent idea. 🙂
 
I must stress that there are no viruses for Mac OS X. There are EXPLOITS, which are not the same thing. It most certainly does NOT have more viruses then Windows98.

There are only 6 known viruses for BSD. There hasn't been a new one since 2002. The amount of UNIX based viruses ever captured and identified most certainly does not add up to the amount in existance for Windows.

Again, there are no Mac OS X viruses. He has no idea what he's talking about.

Tell him that his zombified WinTelThon is DOSing me and I'm sick of it.
 
I think the best way to put it is there are almost no known virsus for OSX.

Because there are none really known that does not mean that they are none out there or never will be
 
Certainly there will be some one day.. but they will pale in comparison to the plethora of Windows viruses.
 
glosterseagul said:
"OSX not only has a large number of native viruses, it is affected by viruses that attack FreeBSD/PPC and any pan-UNIX virus.
Click to expand...
So, where are these "FreeBSD/PPC and pan-UNIX" virus programs? There was the Morris worm in 1988 (yes, 1988, and it only affected two computer models running long-dead versions of finger and sendmail), but since then things have been pretty quiet.

One has to wonder if your acquaintance actually understands what a virus is. the "pan-UNIX" remark betrays a profound ignorance of the broad diversity of software installed on Unix and Unix-like systems, and an equally profound ignorance of the actual levels at which the various Unix-like systems interoperate.

Hence it actually has more current, active viruses than, say, Windows 98.
Click to expand...
Okay. All your acquaintance has to do is name one virus that works on current Unix systems.

(Hint: yes, vulnerabities have been identified in various Unix-like systems and applications that run on them over the years, and some have even been exploited to gain superuser access to specific operating-system/hardware combinations, but none of those things is a virus or worm.)

[I should also mention that a listing in antivirus vendor databases does not indicate the existance of a real virus in the wild. Independent reports such as actual new items, or discussion of effects in bulletingn boards, Usenet, etc. might be believable]
 
-glosterseagul

When responding to him in the future, don't try to poke specific holes in his argument, he'll just try to do the same to you. clearly he needs to do a lot more research, and that's what you should tell him. And that will get the hell out of his goose. Wintel Accolytes hate it when I do the same.

Usually the conversation goes something like:

"Well Macs are more secure because they have a teeny market share"

Biting my tounge, trying not to dissasemble his argument, I reply, "That's not true. You need to do some more research."

His response: "What do you base that on? How can you say that?"

"The research is readily available, go find it." I say.

Flustered because I'm not giving him the argument he wants, he comes back with the snide remark, "You go to a Machead site or something?"

"Nope. And I simply don't worry about it."

At this point your 'adversary's head should explode. I hope you have a towel.
 
glosterseagul said:
I posted the thing about "dump the pc" he responded with....

"Errr just not true - here's some for starters ( not all attack OS X but most do ).

Mac/MBDF-A
Mac/MBDF-B
Click to expand...

I remember having to deal with these two Mac virusses (viri... virii 😕 ), and they were pretty annoying at the time.
Once your Mac was infected, some (but not all) applications would "unexpectedly quit, error type 2 occured". Tnx to Norton AntiVirus we could solve the problem..... was about 6 years ago or so.
 
I'd say let's start another thread about the possiblities of Mac viruses

🙄

EDIT: Corrected spelling
 
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