Nothing stops malware from encrypting your backup volume, if you keep it attached. (Don't know if this particular one actually does it, though.)
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.
First Mac Ransomware Found in Transmission BitTorrent Client
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Nothing stops malware from encrypting your backup volume, if you keep it attached. (Don't know if this particular one actually does it, though.)
Then nothing to do. Let Apple update XProtect and carry on as before.
Whilst most the time both go hand in hand, BitTorrent is just a method of file transfer and not directly related to piracy.
Will it encrypt the Time Machine as well? I'm fairly sure I'm not infected, but I guess I should disconnect one of the Time Machine backups just to be sure. One reason I still rely on optical disks is that no ransomware can corrupt them once written.
Torrent are used for more than piracy my friend, we are not in the early 2000 anymore!!
All Linux distribution are downoadable with torrent and they are 100% legit!
This is good. Thanks....
[doublepost=1457294270][/doublepost]
Sarcasm, a thing of beauty when done correctly.
Damn there are many people here who can't read the OP.
No, if you dont use the software you are not affected. You don't die from car crashes that happens in the other end of the country.
No, if you dont use the software you are not affected. You don't die from car crashes that happens in the other end of the country.
Lol, I don't think I've met an even SLIGHTLY savvy computer user (Mac or PC) in the last eight years or so that uses a client other than uTorrent.
Given that ALL torrent apps are free, why would anyone download this????????
Given that ALL torrent apps are free, why would anyone download this????????
As others have already mentioned sort of mentioned, no.
I don't know the specifics of this malware, but for similar malware on Windows it will encrypt ALL data it has access to, which would include your time machine backups. Your time machine drive is accessible directly from your mac, so the malware would have access too.
This is pretty important to mention, so I thought it would be good to confirm. There have been cases of this type of malware on PC where the affected wasn't able to use their backups because the backups got encrypted too. You're only safe if the backups are physically not accessible by the machine after you're done making them, because as soon as it has access to files it can encrypt them.
Edit: The article with more information linked a few posts up mentions that the logic to encrypt Time Machine backups is 'unfinished'. But it also mentions that it encrypts everything under /Volumes/. Time Machine drives mount under /Volumes/ (at least mine is...) so it's not clear to me whether it would encrypt them or not. Based on the fact it encrypts everything under /Volumes/ I assume this includes Time Machine anyway, but I'm not positive.
Last edited:
Don't discount the butterfly effect...
You must have only met slightly savvy computer users then.
Transmission was a pretty good application that didn't have all the junk and spyware uTorrent tries to install. I don't know why a tech savvy user would be using uTorrent, though I guess the same holds true for Transmission now.
Stability and no ads. Never had a problem with Transmission as my default client.
I doubt you know many Mac torrent users then, because Transmission is very popular among Mac users. uTorrent now bundles adware along with their installer, so there is also that.
BitTorrent is simply a communication protocol and there are many legal uses for it. You can have a summary about its adoption here.
Quite often, to meet demand, these site use "mirror" servers, and it's possible that a rogue mirror slipped into there somehow? Verification should be getting performed on the binaries provided by each mirror.
Code:
System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.plist(I think, I'm on my iPad)
This is an ignorant statement to make. How is using BitTorrent directly attributed to "pirating stuff"? The last Linux distro I downloaded was officially available via BitTorrent.