Flashback Trojan Returns With a Multi-Pronged Infection Strategy

[blackhand1001]

OS 9 had a far smaller share and more malware.

OS X has been on the market for nearly twelve years and all we have are a handful of trojans. And all this despite over 50 million users.

The old market-share argument dictates that we should have at least 1000 viruses by now, and that's being conservative. Right now we still have zero viruses and a few trojans.

The iDevice ecosystem (and the rapid proliferation thereof) has rendered this entire virus discussion moot anyway.

Except 5-10% market share doesn't mean 10 percent of virus's, virus writers want the bigger piece, far more than 90% of them. Still, there are loads of vulnerabilities in Mac OS X whether you want to admit it or not, especially if you have a real person trying to hack you rather than an automated trojan.

 

[bbeagle]

The average user doesn't care or know the difference between a trojan, virus, malware, etc. So if there's a vulnerability and there's news about it - all they hear is virus.

Argue technical fine points and semantics all you want. Most people wouldn't differentiate.

But there is no way to stop a trojan on ANY OS. So, for a OS to be secure, we must discount those.

Any website may ask you 'Do you want to install XYZ?' and if you keep clicking yes, and typing in your superuser password, then the OS cannot help - irregardless of OS.

However, just being connected to the internet without clicking anything could get you a virus. I've dealt with this on Windows systems for years. Never had a problem with macs on this front.

 

[lilo777]

in all honesty malware can affect any system whether it be Windows or Mac. But at least apple has a system in place to help prevent malware.

Windows has had this system for decade(s) and it's virus/malware prevention infrastructure is way more developed than the one on OS/X. At least it does not require OS updates to fight every new trojan.

 

[samcraig]

But there is no way to stop a trojan on ANY OS. So, for a OS to be secure, we must discount those.

Any website may ask you 'Do you want to install XYZ?' and if you keep clicking yes, and typing in your superuser password, then the OS cannot help - irregardless of OS.

However, just being connected to the internet without clicking anything could get you a virus. I've dealt with this on Windows systems for years. Never had a problem with macs on this front.

We can discount anything we want. As I said - the average user doesn't and won't.

Whether they have to take 20 steps to actually install malware or visit some random site and pick it up without any interaction. The general public sees it as the same. Especially since people never want to own up for their own gullibility.I have dealt with many issues from friends and relatives that I knew stemmed from downloading/running/etc things they should never have opened. But they insisted otherwise.

Worsening the issue is the perception that Macs can't get infected. No matter what. I don't mean to imply Apple is perpetuating this "fact" - but if you ask around - people will say get a mac - they can't/don't get viruses.

But see my earlier point. Whether or not they get VIRUSES doesn't matter if the general user sees all malware, etc the same.

 

[Vegasman]

But there is no way to stop a trojan on ANY OS. So, for a OS to be secure, we must discount those.

Any website may ask you 'Do you want to install XYZ?' and if you keep clicking yes, and typing in your superuser password, then the OS cannot help - irregardless of OS.

However, just being connected to the internet without clicking anything could get you a virus. I've dealt with this on Windows systems for years. Never had a problem with macs on this front.

Maybe for years... but not since Vista. Which released in 2006. And that was over 5 years ago. Please step into the present.

 

[jonnysods]

Man these guys are aggressive!

 

[bbeagle]

Maybe for years... but not since Vista. Which released in 2006. And that was over 5 years ago. Please step into the present.

You do realize that a huge number of people still run XP. Heck, at work, we still use XP. They see no need to upgrade, because it will cost too much to upgrade 290,000 employees.

 

[interrobang]

Windows has had this system for decade(s)

False, Windows did not get this feature until late 2006. Apple added the feature in 2009. [size=-2](It's currently early 2012. A decade is ten years.)[/size]

At least it does not require OS updates to fight every new trojan.

Neither does OS X (10.6 or later) following Security Update 2011-003.

 

[Renzatic]

Spot on...I always have, I not going to get paranoid and scan all my drives on a daily basis....I'd never get a damn thing done. All the files on my NAS have already passed through my iMac, MBA or MBP anyway.

I am not spending all night scanning those puppies.

Yeah. I'll do a scan once a month just to do it. Even with the 50 kadrillion pieces of malware floating about for Windows, I haven't had to contend with anything in about foreVVHVHASHA**)##)9%$##$#

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VUEIOUTGB*))#4-0_#%*(ver. I think, at most, I had one Java exploit slip through a few months back, but it was caught by MSE pretty quickly.

Really. I don't even worry about it.

 

[5aga]

Windows has had this system for decade(s) and it's virus/malware prevention infrastructure is way more developed than the one on OS/X. At least it does not require OS updates to fight every new trojan.

yeah I wasn't dogging windows i was stating that Apple finally has a system in place. Also by marketshare alone Macs have a lesser threat of malware. But apple is at least acknowledging they can no longer depend on that.

 

[jcb10]

Anyway, I found ClamXAV and Sophos. Anyone have experience with these?

I've got Sophos, free from my school. It's picked up and quarantined a couple infected files I've gotten from PC users. Doesn't seem to slow me down much, if at all.

 

[*LTD*]

Windows has had this system for decade(s) and it's virus/malware prevention infrastructure is way more developed than the one on OS/X.

So developed that the user needs to run 3rd party Antivirus/malware/spyware blocking/cleaning software to prevent the whole system from falling on its face?

Windows 7 is still affected by 70% of the old Windows viruses. And there were over 200,000 of them.

 

[Renzatic]

So developed that the user needs to run 3rd party Antivirus/malware/spyware blocking/cleaning software to prevent the whole system from falling on its face?

Windows 7 is still affected by 70% of the old Windows viruses. And there were over 200,000 of them.

I run one program perpetually. and another occasionally. It's not vastly different than OSX, save for the fact that it's more up front about it, instead of running it silently in the background.

Also, you want to buy a leather jacket?

 

[mrkgoo]

11.1.102.55 is installed. Thats the latest version of flash according to the website (official).

I am still running SL and am updated, have ClamXav also as a backup, windows has made me aware that nothing is absolutely secure, so even though right now most malware is you being dumb, I am just preparing for that scan when it just bypasses it completely.

To my knowledge, this isn't the latest update.

 

[manu chao]

The technical distinctions among them (virus, trojan, etc.) are likely to be useful to only a very small segment of the entire user population.

The technical distinction is relevant in deciding whether to run an on-access malware scanner is generally recommended or whether people who feel they know how to pick out trojans can get by without an on-access scanner.

 

[D.T.]

Yeah. I'll do a scan once a month just to do it. Even with the 50 kadrillion pieces of malware floating about for Windows, I haven't had to contend with anything in about foreVVHVHASHA**)##)9%$##$#

Also, you want to buy a leather jacket?

Hahaha, the leather jacket killed me (you must be getting the same spam as me )

 

[ZacNicholson]

where is that guy who always writes on peoples post who think they have a virus. he always writes macs cant get viruses

 

[lars666]

Could some who *KNOWS* please answer this. I got a prompt this morning supposedly from Adobe saying there was an update to Flash. It appeared in the style of the CS5 installer windows ( black rectangle with coloured text ).

I thought no more and installed it.

Now I read this and am worried it may have been this trojan.

Any advice gratefully received.

Don't know why this question is downvoted (probably some smarties think that it was sooooo dumb to install it), but I also had a Flash update window in the last days and installed it. I was aware of the reports of last year, but 1. didn't open any downloaded program by myself and 2. it had the "correct" Flash update look instead of the wrong one of the malware program last year.

I"m pretty sure it was the real thing, but to be sure: Could anybody please give a short note if there was a Flash update (something like "64-bit HD video" (not the real term) was mentioned in the improvements, if I remember correctly) in the last days and/or how to find out if the trojan is installed on a system? Thanks!

EDIT: This is what I got (screenshot):

http://yfrog.com/h4nc6qp

 

[pooprscooper]

where is that guy who always writes on peoples post who think they have a virus. he always writes macs cant get viruses

There's zero viruses for OSX. There's always the possibility that there might be one in the future though.

 

[MValentine09]

what program or app can I use to scan my computer for malware or trojans? I'm currently using ClamXav, and I also have CCleaner.

 

[SkippyThorson]

Apple computers do not get a virus. Yeah right. (as the Tui advertisment goes).

Wow. That only took 5 posts. I expected the Virus comments to not start AT LEAST until the second page of comments... Is that a new record?

First off, no one in any position of authority has ever said Macs don't or can't get viruses.

Small White Car, normally I'd agree with you; you always know what you're talking about. However, Apple's own commercial and ad campaign from a few years back says differently. The theme of the ad, from Apple itself; 114,000 Viruses? Not On A Mac. See the commercial here. They also sent out emails that touted "PCs get infected with a 100,000 new viruses a year. Macs don’t. Get a Mac." A writeup about those emails can be seen here.

I thought I'd point that out. Apple used to tout that Viruses didn't effect Macs. Most people (see this thread) have no idea what the definition of a Virus actually is, and why Macs can't get "Viruses", per se. So that ad campaign stopped.

While it's still true that Macs don't get Viruses, Apple itself doesn't say so out loud anymore.

 

[dejo]

where is that guy who always writes on peoples post who think they have a virus. he always writes macs cant get viruses

If you mean GGJstudios, no, he doesn't.

Macs are not immune to malware...

 

[SeattleMoose]

Thank Heavens I Have a PC!!!

We don't have this Trojan on the Windows side of the world

 

[tido2012]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I have to admit, there is a large portion of people that always ask why would you want anti-malware or virus software whoever someone expresses an interest in downloading it. Hopefully, those people will understand the growing interest instead of commenting a pointless why or there are less than windows etc etc. denial doesn't fix anything

 

[lilo777]

So developed that the user needs to run 3rd party Antivirus/malware/spyware blocking/cleaning software to prevent the whole system from falling on its face?

Windows 7 is still affected by 70% of the old Windows viruses. And there were over 200,000 of them.

Have you heard about Microsoft Security Essentials? 1-st party, free and it's all you need. The claim about old viruses (or any viruses to that matter) affecting Windows 7 is simply ridiculous. You do know that OS/X is the oS that is the easiest to break judging by the results of the annual hacking contests, right? If you don't here is a link.