Shame on MacRumors

[mdavey]

[T]he reality is anyone who opened this "virus" or malware did so of their own choosing.

You are overlooking the fact that this virus disguised itself as (and the poster claimed it was) a jpeg image.

Is it reasonable to expect that something that looks like an image file can cause damage to your computer? As geeks, we know that is a real possibility, however it does show a fundamental flaw in the design of the OS (a flaw inherent in pretty much every OS out there).

A naïve user would expect things that look like files to behave like files and to be warned about the risks the first time they run a new application. These are fair expectations in my book (but I do acknowledge that technically, they are hard to implement).

 

[slb]

arn:

Well, the incident is old news now, but thanks for taking note of and responding to my complaints.

 

[bousozoku]

You are overlooking the fact that this virus disguised itself as (and the poster claimed it was) a jpeg image.

Is it reasonable to expect that something that looks like an image file can cause damage to your computer? As geeks, we know that is a real possibility, however it does show a fundamental flaw in the design of the OS (a flaw inherent in pretty much every OS out there).

A naïve user would expect things that look like files to behave like files and to be warned about the risks the first time they run a new application. These are fair expectations in my book (but I do acknowledge that technically, they are hard to implement).

There was until recently a problem with JPEG files in general that could cause a real image file to cause a buffer overflow and allow access to any system with a viewer or other handler. In that case, you don't even have to fool anyone into believing that it's an image--it is. Jaguar and earlier, and possibly older versions of Panther, are vulnerable.

 

[AppleTalk Aust]

You are overlooking the fact that this virus disguised itself as (and the poster claimed it was) a jpeg image.

Is it reasonable to expect that something that looks like an image file can cause damage to your computer? As geeks, we know that is a real possibility, however it does show a fundamental flaw in the design of the OS (a flaw inherent in pretty much every OS out there).

A naïve user would expect things that look like files to behave like files and to be warned about the risks the first time they run a new application. These are fair expectations in my book (but I do acknowledge that technically, they are hard to implement).

Please quote me fully, otherwise what I said can be taken out of context. You only read the first part of my paragraph.

What I said was...

the reality is anyone who opened this "virus" or malware did so of their own choosing. People chose whether or not they wanted to open something that was posted by an unknown and relatively new member of a public forum.

 

[California]

I love MR and my only thought was that MR has been quoted before by lazy journalists who don't know what they are talking about in regards to Macs.

The Financial Times quoted some poster on MR in an article last year.

This means that media people troll MR.

This also means that people with finanical stakes in APPL or M$ or related companies would have some $ interest in rumour mongering about viruses on OSX.

Personally, THAT'S what I think happened, no matter how conspiratorial I sound.

And that is why I thought our responses, my own MR posts included, were naive and amateurhour. It is naive to think that there aren't finanical reasons for there to be a mac virus on the part of antivirus companies --

and naive to think that with Disney, Pixar, Dell, Intel, etc., on the line or potentially influenced by Apple/iPod sales and stock prices -- that people wouldn't stoop to posting weird stuff on MR.

I still think the Trojan writer was one of the "newbies" logged on specifically for the thread about the Trojan that day. He went away very quick after I mentioned that he might be back to see the results of his handiwork on an MR board.

 

[California]

Yeah, to support my own theory. Symantec is putting out a false story today that there is a weakness in Mac OSX and a new worm. This is depressing AAPL stock prices.

It's a fake PR game for greedy gain.

And the so called "journalists" at Reuter's are too dumb to figure out the difference between a company's PR spin for sales and actual NEWS.