Link to article on MacWorld
"SecureMac claims to have discovered trojan horse for Mac OS X"
What you think?
"SecureMac claims to have discovered trojan horse for Mac OS X"
What you think?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Trojan horse targeted at Mac OS X...what do you all think
- Thread starter Caralvarez24
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
i too can write a script that will f up your system lol
simple rule, dont download random files from unsure sources. and if you do, dont open them!
if that rule was followed, this "trojan" wouldnt get anywhere
copy paste into url bar then
simple rule, dont download random files from unsure sources. and if you do, dont open them!
if that rule was followed, this "trojan" wouldnt get anywhere
copy paste into url bar then
Yeah, this serms more advertisement and self-shilling on SecureMac's part than anything else. MacScan is nothing more than "ignorant-ware", akin to Norton products.
The key phrase in that article is:
SecureMac said its product, MacScan, has been updated to remove the Trojan.
Mac OS X Root Escalation using AppleScript
Slashdot has posted an exploit that lets attackers gain Root rights on OSX:
http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/06/18/1919224.shtml
Very scary!
Slashdot has posted an exploit that lets attackers gain Root rights on OSX:
http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/06/18/1919224.shtml
Very scary!
Try this is not the first out there. I think over a year ago one hit the wild and cause a lot of damage to OSX users because of the false since of security.
Trojan horses are idiot "viruses" and as such get around anything the OS puts in place to protect it.
Trojan horses are idiot "viruses" and as such get around anything the OS puts in place to protect it.
The article is nonsense. It says "You must download and run the infected file for it to become active...". That shows of a clear lack of understanding what is actually happening. A Trojan is not a virus. It is not infected; it does exactly what its creator wants it to do. However, what the creator wants it to do is not what the _user_ thinks it will do and wants it to do.
A Trojan is just an ordinary application doing intentionally nasty things. You have to download it, and MacOS X will give a warning that you are downloading an application which maybe you didn't intend to do. Then you have to run it, and MacOS X will give you another warning that you are running an application that you have just downloaded from the Internet, and it will tell you where that application came from, and will ask you if you really want to run it. So the user has to do two stupid things in a row.
MacOS X can protect you from viruses, and from many mistakes, but not from wanton stupidity.
In the last few months, I've come across a few different things that could have been a virus. One started to download right away, the other was a popup that asked me if I wanted to download some file. Both times I was able to prevent whatever it was from doing what it wanted.
If this were Windows, more than likely it would have downloaded something that I didn't know about and I may have been in popup hell or trying to get rid of some virus that was extremely hard to get rid of.
The fact that we are using OS X here is what makes the difference. Nothing to worry about here folks, please move along. Thanks. Happy weekend.
If this were Windows, more than likely it would have downloaded something that I didn't know about and I may have been in popup hell or trying to get rid of some virus that was extremely hard to get rid of.
The fact that we are using OS X here is what makes the difference. Nothing to worry about here folks, please move along. Thanks. Happy weekend.
In a perfect world, most viruses and trojans would never populate past their creators. Because in a perfect world we wouldn't have people blindly running and opening scripts and other tasks that would damage their machine.
Even if you have the system setup to require you to 'click ok' a million times (Vista's User Access Control), or have to input your login or require sudo to get something to work ('OS X'), people still seem to just go ahead and do it without thinking. Its like that 'neighbor' that you set a computer up for, and for some stupid reason they're inclined to click everything that pops up at them.
But at least in this aspect OS X is more secure simply because its not as easy for a user to perform a one-click-boom.
Even if you have the system setup to require you to 'click ok' a million times (Vista's User Access Control), or have to input your login or require sudo to get something to work ('OS X'), people still seem to just go ahead and do it without thinking. Its like that 'neighbor' that you set a computer up for, and for some stupid reason they're inclined to click everything that pops up at them.
But at least in this aspect OS X is more secure simply because its not as easy for a user to perform a one-click-boom.
I like the "free download" button that links to a buy now page.
Or what about that guy who created a google ad that literally advertised to have your PC infected and to click there to have it done. Then he logged all the times people actually clicked on the banner.
is it a compulsion or something?