New Variant of 'Mac Defender' Quickly Evades Apple's Security Update as Cat-and-Mouse Game Begins

[Yamcha]

I'm amazed people are still stupid enough to manually download and run this considering all the press coverage it has received.

I don't think there is anything to be amazed about, I think most Mac users are not very computer savvy, which is why they chose Mac OS in the first place, OSX has always been very user friendly.. Which is a good thing..

But that also means there will be a lot of users downloading and installing this..

 

[Lord Appleseed]

Nice troll attempt. If MS was serious about security they would start by removing the registry.

That would be a very big issue.

I can't even count how often i needed to fix something in the registry in order to make something (program, device,...) work properly on Windows.
Should they remove it a lot of people would be stuck with immense problems.

 

[ghostface147]

Excellent. These malware people need to step up and become more aggressive on the Mac. Hopefully that will force Apple to be more transparent with their security and not be secret and leave us guessing when they are going to release the update. Before yesterday, we all assumed it was coming in 10.6.8, which itself isn't too far away. We had no idea they were going to randomly release a fix for it.

As for MS, we know every month they are releasing patches and updates. We know that if there an issue with security, they'll address it (although sometimes they are a little slow).

In the end, the end user has final say (unless a drive-by install) over what is installed on their machine.

 

[gkpm]

A full a/v solution in the form of Security Essentials is a good deal more than Apple is doing.

How does Security Essentials help when trojans are changing hours after the detection signatures were updated?

Hint: it doesn't. They signatures not updated in real time.

No need to bring in the anti-virus when the problem aren't viruses, they're trojans.

 

[fishmoose]

more to the point, see my other post. just because you can imagine that the incentive system exists does not produce reality.

Well, I can't prove it and you can't disprove it therefor our posts are equal and all we can do is to leave it there.

 

[TheLee]

That would be a very big issue.

I can't even count how often i needed to fix something in the registry in order to make something (program, device,...) work properly on Windows.
Should they remove it a lot of people would be stuck with immense problems.

i think you took him too literally. rather, MS should move to an alternate system other than the registry. the fact that you had to keep going back to the registry to try and get something to work should be evidence enough that there's something borked about the registry system in the first place.

 

[Repo]

Safari 6? It's just around the corner...

"... we've added a really great new feature: the ability to turn off a feature..."

 

[Full of Win]

Well in terms of doctors, when was the last time you had a doctor actually cure anything? They delay things like cancer and AIDS but they sure as hell don't cure it, no money in that.

As for firefighters, no I don't think so they are employed by the state and get's paid regardless of fires.

Two weeks ago I had an ear infection. My doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics, which aided in the removal of the problem microbes...hence curing me.

 

[fishmoose]

"... we've added a really great new feature: the ability to turn off a feature..."

You can turn off "open safe files", Apple should either make it so it's off from scratch or preferably remove the option to auto open files entirely.

 

[Mr. Gates]

LOL ....


This picture takes on a whole new meaning. It's like the Microsoft guy is scared of the Mac user because he doesn't know how to use a computer and might be contagious.

All fooling around aside, I think this is going to be a problem for most Mac Users who are not that tech savoy because of the smug and irritating slogans Apple has been shoving in peoples faces for while now. (Shot in the Foot!)

The truth is Mac users represent such a small percentage of users that most "bad guys" couldn't care less about writing a code to attack such a small amount of hits....

but.....

with Windows 7 and the majority of PC users knowing what's up with Anti-Virus, security is pretty damn good and the targets are less and less....

Compare that to the growing number of Mac Users who have been told over and over that they have the immunity of gods....


And Well....


Let me ask you ,...If you were writing a malicious code ......


Who would you choose ?


This isn't even the beginning !

 

[EmbraceNext]

Props to those guys beating Apple at this.

As much as you can hate windows, MS has been very serious about security on Windows with a much tighter security system in Windows 7. Not saying that they had already not needed that, but they have been very careful and have come strong on viruses and malware.

Apple, you need to tighten up here.

There is nothing to tighten up on. You have to MANUALLY install this. Its no different than installing Office or iWork. This program just happens to do bad things.

If it installed 100% silently then there would be a security problem. For this issue I think Apple is going above what they should be doing for this.

 

[TheLee]

Well, I can't prove it and you can't disprove it therefor our posts are equal and all we can do is to leave it there.

this ain't a philosophy course where we just deal with relative assertions of equal merit. i don't have to the disprove it because the empirical default is that there isn't a relationship between the two (so i'm not "disproving" anything). because you are trying to assert that there is a relationship, the burden of proof is on you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_hypothesis

 

[ArchaicRevival]

Does Sophos detect that and get rid of it? If not, what is another software I can download that will identify MD?

 

[GroundLoop]

It auto-downloaded from a pop-up when I was on MSNBC.com about a week ago. I didn't install it of course and immediately let them know. And my mom would have totally installed it.

The download started for me when I visited finance.yahoo.com yesterday. Even funnier, I was viewing an article about Apple at the time.

GL

 

[MacAddict1978]

I'm amazed people are still stupid enough to manually download and run this considering all the press coverage it has received.

Who would click the qutoed post negative unless they are idiots who downloaded it and feel stupid? I agree with the above statement! Even before the press coverage, you had to be an idiot to download it.

Steps to stupidity:

1. Believe some random site you clicked on has managed to scan instantly for viruses on your system. Or in some cases, let it... (which took it 2 seconds, an amazing feat since it should take a long time to do such a scan)
2. Actually click the link to download.
3. You never had porn pics popping up before you went to said website... coincidence? I think not. But yet, common sense isn't your friend and instead of just closing your browser while you're downloading the file you don't reconsider as the software downloads.
4. Now you actually run the installer... which needs your admin password. Most curious there too huh? Since only things that want root access need that. And it wants your private credit card information? Really... maybe I should search for a review on this software since this is kind of uncommon and screams scam before I go further. Or if you're an older person not savvy, call someone who is.
5. No. Idiot runs installer and enters their admin password! Brillance!
6. Now the malware is holding you hostage and you wonder why? And you gave it your credit card??? REALLY!??!?!?
7. Do these people answer emails from alleged lawyers in Ethiopia who claim someone with the same last name died and you can have all their money?

And as you stated, that was BEFORE all the media attention. If you do it now, you are probably a contender for the next Darwin award when you bungee jump with a 5 foot cord that stretches to 20 feet from a 10 foot high space.

Brillance.

 

[Repo]

You can turn off "open safe files", Apple should either make it so it's off from scratch or preferably remove the option to auto open files entirely.

It's not the "open safe files" feature specifically, more that Apple puts in place default settings that many users really shouldn't use. This is very prevalent in iOS.

 

[fishmoose]

Two weeks ago I had an ear infection. My doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics, which aided in the removal of the problem microbes...hence curing me.

But there's no permanent solution for you not to get another ear infection. And there's no permanent solution to eliminating malware problems no matter the platform.

this ain't a philosophy course where we just deal with relative assertions of equal merit. i don't have to the disprove it because the empirical default is that there isn't a relationship between the two (so i'm not "disproving" anything). because you are trying to assert that there is a relationship, the burden of proof is on you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_hypothesis

The burden on proof isn't on anyone, I simply said the theory that anti-virus companies hires people to write malware have been around for years and I subscribe to it. I never said you, or anyone else, have to agree with it, thus, I don't need to prove it.

It's not the "open safe files" feature specifically, more that Apple puts in places default settings that many users really don't need or shouldn't use. This is very prevalent in iOS.

Other than disabling Java from default I don't see much more Apple could do in Safari feature wise to secure it.

 

[TheLee]

There is nothing to tighten up on. You have to MANUALLY install this. Its no different than installing Office or iWork. This program just happens to do bad things.

If it installed 100% silently then there would be a security problem. For this issue I think Apple is going above what they should be doing for this.

the 'tightening up' is, i agree with others, that apple should just disable the automatic open safe files in safari by default. leave it as a switch for more savvy users to enable (because i don't want to have to manually mount disk image files all the time).

this is *not* like office or iwork per se. if you download a straight up application, safari is not going to suddenly launch it. rather, this is a loophole in the safari open safe file mechanism that these malware writers have managed to exploit quite well.

 

[MacAddict1978]

Does Sophos detect that and get rid of it? If not, what is another software I can download that will identify MD?

Well, if you have Mac Defender.... you'd probably know. See my above post. You'd actually have to have followed my 5 step plan to stupidity to have it on your machine. It didn't put itself there. You actually have to do it yourself.

 

[stephenxiii]

why the **** are people clicking on instal files that they didnt request

 

[Eidorian]

Sorry my apologies, I did come off a bit harsh. Windows has a huge problem with security and Microsoft knows it, but really doesn't do much about it. Sure they have the security essentials and updates but these are of little use when there are serious problems with the underlying OS. Its like trying to plug a whole in a ship that has the bottom missing. What they need to do is give Windows a re-write and drop some of the extreme legacy code. They don't want to do this for obvious reasons that businesses may have legacy systems, but in all honesty it needs to be done.

This is one of the reasons, note the fact Microsoft never replied to this guy for months:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/microsoft-confirms-17-year-old-windows-vulnerability/5307

It is a thing of beauty when I can run 12 year old software in its original NT4 mode.

 

[Repo]

Other than disabling Java from default I don't see much more Apple could do in Safari feature wise to secure it.

I'm not just talking about Safari. It's a mentality.

 

[ArchaicRevival]

Two weeks ago I had an ear infection. My doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics, which aided in the removal of the problem microbes...hence curing me.

There one very rare type of ear infection that can actually kill you... But the guy was right. There is too much money in drugs and pharmaceuticals to completely eradicate the virus. Do some research.

 

[gkpm]

The difference between anti-virus companies and doctors is that the anti-virus companies employ the same people who can write viruses. Most are actually ex-black hat and did so in the past (tend to be the best at figuring out how to detect them)

Doctors don't employ viruses/bacteria/etc that cause diseases. They also don't need to because those patogens can replicate and mutate themselves, so there will never a shortage of them.

It's pretty clear that with today's complex viruses someone is bankrolling them, they're not done by bored teenagers anymore. Detecting such viruses before the competition is a big money business, therefore it's quite safe to assume the AV companies are behind many of them.

 

[Mr. Gates]

i think you took him too literally. rather, MS should move to an alternate system other than the registry. the fact that you had to keep going back to the registry to try and get something to work should be evidence enough that there's something borked about the registry system in the first place.

Or the Users methods and practices