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The Macintosh OS is as secure as an OS can be, but there is no such thing as 100% security.

Sure there is. However, this involves unplugging and placing the hardware in a vault sealed away from people. Nice thing is that it doesn't matter what OS you are using.
 
The article has clearly stated that you need to use Terminal, which involves commands and some deep knowledge of what you're doing, for Flashback's removal.
In Windows, you just need to use Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool or a decent anti-virus, which involves 1 or 2 clicks.

Yea, it's gotta be very hard to click things. I mean, typing commands in Terminal must be simpler.

I know that MacRumors is an Apple oriented place, where Apple lovers come to discuss things about Apple's product. But, posts like the one I quoted make it look like a fanboy place, not an Apple technology discussion place.

Or you could choose to not be an idiot and Google **** that you don't understand, the word certificate alone should be users to Google wtf their Mac is asking them.

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Humans can't get malware.

Not yet anyway...
 
My systems is clean.

BTW, I noticed that no one has mentioned these commands are case specific, so copy and paste is the best way to go. If you don't capitalize what needs to be capitalized you will not get the correct results, as I tried it in all lower case.
 
Well, I ran the check and appear to be clean.

Granted, I have Xcode so it looks like even if I tried installing the trojan it would just abort itself.

Edit:



If you don't have a technical job (IE, you develop on/for Macs or are an IT guy managing Macs,) you probably haven't heard of Terminal and probably never need to use it.

Here's a quick explanation of the instructions:



This assumes you actually have Terminal open. It should be installed in Applications => Utilities. Alternatively, just search for it with spotlight (top right corner of the screen.)



Copy that, paste it into terminal (wherever the cursor already is. Terminal probably printed a little bit of stuff already when it launched,) and hit enter.

It should now have a message or two below that. I got some gibberish ending with the phrase, "does not exist". The instructions say:



Yeah, that's the gibberish I got. So I skipped to step 8.



So just copy and paste that directly into terminal, again, wherever it has left the cursor, and then hit enter.

It spits out some more gibberish, again ending in "does not exist".



Ah, yes, that's what I see. So my system is clean.

Now, why isn't there any easier way of doing this? Because there's no need for it. Apple has an automated malware remover in Mac OS X that will periodically update itself and remove malware for you. These instructions are for if you don't want to wait a day for the automated malware remover to handle it for you. Or if you're paranoid. Apple doesn't want you paranoid (because that makes your experience subpar), so they don't even tell you about any of it. Because really, you'd have to be paranoid. You really don't have to worry about it as long as you're not giving random people/applications your computer's password so that they can install whatever they like. If they don't have your password, they can't install anything behind your back. Thus why it's a trojan, and not a virus, because you have to actually hand over your password for it to work.

That was one of the most helpful posts I've read in a long time here.
Thanks for not being one of the "only dumb people install Trojans so I'm not going to help them" people.
 
Here we go again....

At least it appears to be easier to remove than a Windows style malware infection...

Because hitting the "remove all" button after a scan completes is so difficult in Windows these days.
 
600,000? Is this a sizable portion of the install base of OSX? I would think this would be just a drop in the bucket for the Windows install base.

Im pretty sure my Mac Pro is clean as I have Office '08 installed. I think it is kind of weird that the presents of this program would interfer with a trojan.
 
It exists and it's called " Software Update" ;)

So the fact that I've run Software Update (and always update whenever prompted) and everything is up-to-date means I'm ok? Why all this Terminal shenanigans then?
 
I beg you to refute my claim with conclusive evidence....

Also, here is an article about Snow Leopard. I know it's not Lion, but people always thought it's so secure.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/14754/security_pro_snow_leopard_is_less_secure_than_vista_windows_7

Charlie Miller stated that Vista is more secure than Snow Leopard.

OSX is far from "as secure as an OS can be" not only that, but it's not even the most secure OS out there. As a software engineer I can see why hackers don't want to write malware for OSX... why would I risk prosecution to infect 10% of the world? On top of that if a hacker makes a virus for Mac it makes headlines, so there is a lot more attention to it.
 
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Can anyone recommend anti-virus/malware software for the Mac? I am willing to pay for peace of mind.

It wouldn't be money well spent and it would be the illusion of peace of mind. An anti-virus cannot protect you against future threats, while known threats are patched by Apple via Software Update.
The best strategy against malware for a Mac user is to follow sites like this one to keep informed of any occurrence of malware.
 
What if you just have the path without the app installed?

The app is part of the path.

I think that the original question is more of "what if you have an empty directory?"

/Applications/whatever.app (with the program installed or not) is nothing more than a directory name. The OS handles it in a special way when you double-click it. So, is that sufficient or does the malware go deeper and look for the executable which is in a sub-directory?
 
So glad I've been using my ipad lately so i havent had time to get my mbp infected. After hearing this i went to update my mac right away though, TY COMMUNITY!
 
Go to the link posted on the original post rather than that. It gives you explicit instructions. You post the first command that guy gave you, and if that one finds nothing (blah blah does not exist), then you post that other line, and if that one finds nothing you are clean. Otherwise there are some other steps you need to be doing that are explained in the article.

Thanks T666!! Both my Macs are clean. Learned something new today.
 
The Macintosh OS is as secure as an OS can be, but there is no such thing as 100% security.

When I bought my Mac I remember Apple having a series of ads (the "Hello I'm a Mac..." ones) where the 'PC' had a cold and the 'Mac' said he can't get viruses. It was one of the reasons I went for a Mac.

Has that changed or were Apple stretching the truth?
 
The best strategy against malware for a Mac user is to follow sites like this one to keep informed of any occurrence of malware.
This has to be the most naive comment I've read all day.
The typical non-techie person is not going to waste their time following Apple forums.
 
That is a reactive approach instead of a proactive one.
You'll also be shocked at how many people ignore the software update notifications.

I do agree, but then, PEBCAK. There is really no proactive approach against that.
 
No, they have no need of virus scanners because doing a Software Update works better. AV software would not have caught this before there was a software update and using AV software can create an additional attack vector for malware because AV software needs to be trusted in order to do its job but there's no guarantee that the AV software itself is secure. For example, AV software has been used to attack Windows in the past.

This is just simply untrue. Any decent AV with a good heuristic scanning engine will certainly have a *shot* at detecting 0-day malware. "Software updates" have virtually no chance of doing the same (nor are they supposed to). And your insinuation that an AV can make a system more insecure is just simply dangerous.

Back on topic, I'm not sure this thing is that big a deal. It's an exploit in Java and not OSX itself.
 
Can anyone recommend anti-virus/malware software for the Mac? I am willing to pay for peace of mind.
Software Update is free and it comes with your Mac.
That is a reactive approach instead of a proactive one.
You'll also be shocked at how many people ignore the software update notifications.
How is installing another piece of software that itself might be compromised being proactive? And if some one is going to ignore software updates what makes you think they'll use AV software properly? Don't AV packages require frequent updates too?
 
Macs are as safe as ever.

It used to be that when you hooked up a fresh install of windows, connected it to the internet, and waited 20 seconds, you'd already have a few viruses. Since those days, Microsoft has done a good job securing windows, but it's still less secure than a mac.

Macs are safe as long as you read what see on the screen. If you can't, then they're just as unsafe as windows, but it's a USER problem, not an OS problem.

When the day comes (and I don't doubt it will come for a mac, just like for ANY OS), that there is a virus that attacks a mac just connected to the internet, then I will feel that macs are unsafe, but that has never happened yet. Any time new code is created, like Mac transitioning to Lion, the new code might have bugs in it that allows viruses. But nothing has come out yet.
 
When I bought my Mac I remember Apple having a series of ads (the "Hello I'm a Mac..." ones) where the 'PC' had a cold and the 'Mac' said he can't get viruses. It was one of the reasons I went for a Mac.

Has that changed or were Apple stretching the truth?

Macs still can't get "viruses". There is actually no known virus for Mac. But Macs can get infected by Trojans, that is malicious code that bad people lure the user into installing on their machine.
 
That is a reactive approach instead of a proactive one.
You'll also be shocked at how many people ignore the software update notifications.

You have it backwards. Keeping up to date with software updates is a preemptive or proactive approach.

A reactive approach would be falling behind with software updates, getting the malware, then using a scan and remove program.
 
This is just simply untrue. Any decent AV with a good heuristic scanning engine will certainly have a *shot* at detecting 0-day malware. "Software updates" have virtually no chance of doing the same (nor are they supposed to). And your insinuation that an AV can make a system more insecure is just simply dangerous.
Sure it has "a shot" in the dark, but the fact remains that AV software has been used as a vector for attacking Windows. That's not an insinuation, it's the truth.
 
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