Has anybody ever had a virus on their Mac?

[Apple OC]

+1 more for GGJ ... he has a great track record

cheers

 

[viizi]

It's funny reading through this thread. So either we have no viruses, one virus, or at most a few. So what? Look what the Windows world has to put up with. I do use Windows 7, with virus protection, and it's not at all bad.

That being said, not worrying about viruses for OS X is an added bonus for being a Mac user. But what I like, even though Windows 7 is great, is that OS X is pretty intuitive.

Even if the Mac had viruses, and lots of them, I would simply get anti-virus software and use OS X 4 times out of 5 and only use the PC for certain tasks.

This. I have installed that sophos thing and the only virus i found was an exe (for pcs not macs) it was a keygen for something that i keep in my storage drive for my girlfriend's computer. I like having sophos even though mac dont get viruses i just dont wanna be a carrier when filesharing with pcs i like to be the angel of computers and clean stuff before sending them on

 

[aussie_geek]

Not sure if this qualifies but I plugged my mates usb drive he uses on his PC in to transfer some stuff and a virus was picked up on it and was disinfected.

I am using Sophos free antivirus.

He was using AVG and it wasn't detected.

Imagine that !! A mac picks up and cleans a vrus on a PC drive LOL

 

[mjsmke]

Having an anti virus program for me is just piece of mind.

I still belive that now Macs are getting more and more popular along with iPads people will probably start writting more viruses (or anything else harmfull) for Macs too. I know SL has its own very good protection. But think of your front door to your house.... an extra lock may not be necesary all the time but its a nice thought to have one.

This. I have installed that sophos thing and the only virus i found was an exe (for pcs not macs) it was a keygen for something that i keep in my storage drive for my girlfriend's computer. I like having sophos even though mac dont get viruses i just dont wanna be a carrier when filesharing with pcs i like to be the angel of computers and clean stuff before sending them on

+1
I share a lot of files with friend's PC's

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Having an anti virus program for me is just piece of mind.

That is okay. A piece of mind is sometimes wanting to have a peace of mind.

I still belive that now Macs are getting more and more popular along with iPads people will probably start writting more viruses (or anything else harmfull) for Macs too.

One can't multiply ZERO (0) and get more. (http://www.multiplication.com/basics/teach3.htm)

The Mac OS X Malware Myth Continues

By Carl Howe

Continuing a non-story that will never die, Wired Magazine has an article about the threat of Mac OS X malware, in which I was quoted. I spoke with the author, Ryan Singel, by phone yesterday, and disputed the premise that Apple's (AAPL) market share grows, it will be subject to the same degree of malware that Windows is. Unfortunately, something got lost in the translation. Here's the quote:

 

[mjsmke]

I didnt say anything about multiplying. I simply said Apple Macs are getting more and more popular so it is very likely the people who write viruses (and anything else harmful) will start to write more for Macs.

I fully understand and appriciate other posts saying there are no currently known viruses for Macs. All i have been trying to say is there have been cases in the past (i know they were mostly trojans). This doesn't make Macs immune to viruses forever. There could be someone out there planning/making some now. This, we cannot prove to be impossible.

Also making fun of me misstyping the word 'piece' for 'peace' is a little unnecessary dont you think?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Also making fun of me misstyping the word 'piece' for 'peace' is a little unnecessary dont you think?

That wasn't my intention, I didn't see a typo there. When I wrote "peace of mind" I suddenly remembered, that often "piece" is written instead. It wasn't meant as a slight at you.

I didnt say anything about multiplying. I simply said Apple Macs are getting more and more popular so it is very likely the people who write viruses (and anything else harmful) will start to write more for Macs.

I fully understand and appriciate other posts saying there are no currently known viruses for Macs. All i have been trying to say is there have been cases in the past (i know they were mostly trojans). This doesn't make Macs immune to viruses forever. There could be someone out there planning/making some now. This, we cannot prove to be impossible.

The word "more" implies multiplication, but I get what you mean. Read the article I linked to in my earlier post, as the market share has still nothing to do with Mac OS X' immunity to viruses, it has to do with its UNIX underpinnings and that we don't run at full ADMIN rights even when using an ADMIN account (which is why you have to enter a password when you install certain pieces of software).

 

[GGJstudios]

I fully understand and appriciate other posts saying there are no currently known viruses for Macs. All i have been trying to say is there have been cases in the past (i know they were mostly trojans). This doesn't make Macs immune to viruses forever.

You're absolutely correct. Here's a summary:

• There are no viruses in the wild that run on current Mac OS X systems.
• There are currently trojans in the wild that can infect current Mac OS X systems. They require the user to actively invite and initiate the trojan by some combination of either clicking a link, downloading a file, installing an application and most of the time, entering their admin password. They must also acknowledge the warnings that pop up on first executing a downloaded app. Therefore, trojans can be completely avoided by common sense and prudent action on the part of the user. No anti-virus software is required to keep a Mac safe from trojans.
• Macs have never been immune to malware. There have been viruses in the wild that affected older versions of Mac OS.
• New viruses could be developed in the future and released into the wild that affect current Mac computers. Common sense suggests that this is inevitable at some point. When that happens, it will be very publicly announced by the media and the Mac community, so Mac users will be alerted.
• No anti-virus application can detect a virus that does not yet exist, because they don't know what characteristics to look for. Therefore, no anti-virus app can protect your Mac from being infected by a future virus, until that virus is identified and a defense is developed.
• Therefore, since no anti-virus app is required to protect against trojans (only user common sense) and no anti-virus app can detect a virus that has not yet been created, anti-virus applications are useless for protecting current Mac OS X systems from malware.
• Users may choose to install anti-virus apps on their Macs as a placebo, but doing so does not provide any greater protection than a user operating without anti-virus and exercising prudent care.
• Users may choose to have anti-virus apps on their Macs to detect Windows viruses, so they don't pass them to Windows users, but that doesn't protect those Windows users from the greater threat of malware from other sources.

 

[notjustjay]

I fully understand and appriciate other posts saying there are no currently known viruses for Macs. All i have been trying to say is there have been cases in the past (i know they were mostly trojans). This doesn't make Macs immune to viruses forever. There could be someone out there planning/making some now. This, we cannot prove to be impossible.

I agree. The one thing that I would point out is that when, one day, someone finally is successful in creating the first Mac OS X virus (or the first Mac OS X trojan that actually gets out there and does a lot of damage), it will surely be ALL over the news. I'm banking on not being one of the unlucky few who will get hit by this first wave -- whenever it happens -- and thus I choose not to bother with AV software (which, I believe, won't be able to detect the "new" virus until a signature is properly captured, anyway).

People are also correct that in addition to peace of mind, Mac AV scanners are able to detect and clean viruses that would affect Windows users, so there is some utility there, too.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

Back in the year 2000, I had some quicktime thing that infected my system from my school computer lab. I think it was a Trojan (if I understand all the terms correctly) - it kept copying itself over and over again and affected people who had quicktime audio CD autoplay enabled.

Nothing since.

 

[notjustjay]

Back in the year 2000, I had some quicktime thing that infected my system from my school computer lab. I think it was a Trojan (if I understand all the terms correctly) - it kept copying itself over and over again and affected people who had quicktime audio CD autoplay enabled.

Nothing since.

The computer lab was likely running Mac OS version 8 or 9 or older. There were most definitely (many thousands of) viruses affecting those older OS versions. I remember having Mac labs at school too, and there was hardly a computer there that wasn't infected with CDEV or nvirB. As soon as one computer was cleaned, some student would insert an infected floppy disk and start the whole process over again.

 

[MacHamster68]

see it realistic , there might be a day when a virus might spread in osx in the future , but so far all "virus warnings in osx " come from companies who want to sell you their anti virus software

so if you really want a virus on your Mac the safest and easiest way is to install windows on it , so you can enjoy having a virus on your Mac, as thats the only way today , apart if you are really clever and write one for OSX

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What I found interesting, is that doing a simple web search for "mac os virus", there are many claims to have found the first virus for Mac OS X ever. It happened in 2004, in 2006 and in 2010, and some other times I can't recall right now. Does that mean, that whenever such "virus" was found, that the others ceased to exist from their timeline?

 

[GGJstudios]

What I found interesting, is that doing a simple web search for "mac os virus", there are many claims to have found the first virus for Mac OS X ever. It happened in 2004, in 2006 and in 2010, and some other times I can't recall right now. Does that mean, that whenever such "virus" was found, that the others ceased to exist from their timeline?

All of those that claimed to be a virus were, in fact, trojans. There hasn't been a new Mac virus introduced in over 5 years.

 

[Dr McKay]

90% of Anti-Virus is just Common sense and not browsing dodgy sites, I havent had a virus on my PC since 1998. While I do have anti-virus, it sits so quietly in the background using 1.7mb of RAM that I forget it's there untill a tiny alert window glides up above the clock telling me it's updated, or the results of a scan I didnt even know was taking place.

(It consumes resources accordingly for a scan, if a user is doing things, it dynamically drops the scan speed so it only uses spare memory.

But on the other hand, I'm forever removing all sorts of crud from my Parents PC. But the thing is I'd probably be doing it if they had a Mac, if a box popped up asking for his Administrator password, he'd blindly enter it in, believing he needed to for something his Mac needed him for.

It comes down to the end user and how educated they are in computers.

 

[dejo]

I simply said Apple Macs are getting more and more popular so it is very likely the people who write viruses (and anything else harmful) will start to write more for Macs.

Care to elaborate, mjsmke? What is the basis for your reasoning that it is "very likely"?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

All of those that claimed to be a virus were, in fact, trojans. There hasn't been a new Mac virus introduced in over 5 years.

I know that, I just found it "interesting" that they have claimed they found the "first" virus again and again. I'm not really good with words right now, thus a proper explanation escapes me. Hmm.

 

[notjustjay]

What I found interesting, is that doing a simple web search for "mac os virus", there are many claims to have found the first virus for Mac OS X ever. It happened in 2004, in 2006 and in 2010, and some other times I can't recall right now. Does that mean, that whenever such "virus" was found, that the others ceased to exist from their timeline?

I think what happens is, just like in this (and every) virus thread, people play games with the definition of "virus". "That's a virus!" "No it's not, that's a trojan." It becomes a semantic debate rather than a practical one. Or they find, or create, a lab prototype that never actually goes wild before the vulnerability it depended on gets fixed.

The practical matter remains that the number of viruses, trojans, worms and other malware on Mac OS X in the wild are currently so incredibly few and far between that it is not necessary to run antivirus scans, but people are free to do so if it gives you the needed peace of mind or for the sake of protecting your Windows friends from any Windows viruses that you might come across.

The people who say "well, any day now" are technically correct but they've been saying it for ten years now. There has yet to be a massive OS X virus outbreak that has taken the world by storm, infecting thousands or millions of machines at once. One day, perhaps, it will happen, and whoever manages to do it will become world famous. Meanwhile, how many times have we seen that happen on Windows? Remember ILOVEYOU? Melissa? Nimda? Conficker? etc.

Also: how many times do we hear about Linux or Unix virus outbreaks? Virtually never! It's not OS X that's unusually secure and virus-free, because every other major non-Windows platform has a similar track record. It's Windows that's unusually insecure!

 

[munkery]

I still belive that now Macs are getting more and more popular along with iPads people will probably start writting more viruses (or anything else harmfull) for Macs too. I know SL has its own very good protection. But think of your front door to your house.... an extra lock may not be necesary all the time but its a nice thought to have one.

iPad popularity will have little effect on malware for Mac OS X. iOS is based on Mac OS X but they have very different security architectures.

iOS is 32 bit while Mac OS X 10.6 is mostly 64 bit. This impacts the effectiveness of security mitigations.

iOS by default runs as a unprivileged user (EDIT: All apps run unprivileged as well unless the device is jail broken, then apps can be installed with elevated privileges). This is somewhat mitigated by iOS only running apps code signed by Apple and iOS not having bash or ssh. Mac OS X follows the principle of least privilege much more strictly.

iOS has no ASLR while Mac OS X has partial ASLR. iOS has both Stack and Heap XN (ARM version of NX/DEP) but XN can be bypassed without ASLR. Mac OS X has stack and heap NX for 64 bit processes (and mostly 64 bit).

For example, only one of the two exploits used for Jailbreakme.com effected Mac OS X and it only was an issue for 10.5 not 10.6. The exploit that effected 10.5 was the initial browser exploit but not the kernel exploit that provided root.

You really have to look at the iOS and Mac OS X as two independent OSes in terms of being targets for exploitation.

Windows in some ways has better implementations of these technologies than Mac OS X. But, a lot of popular third party software does not implement any security mitigations in Windows. For example, DEP and ASLR neglected by popular software. Also, all of the security in the world goes out the window if you run with superuser privileges.

 

[loopsey]

sorry, i got all confused with the discussions here..very much a newbie on mac and not so techie...but i wanted to know if i should install anti virus on my macbook since i do bank transactions online? i also wanted to install utorrent but im scared that it will be "harmful"?

i've used my regular laptop for the longest time and im on my 1st week using my mac. maybe someone can help me?

 

[MonkeySee....]

sorry, i got all confused with the discussions here..very much a newbie on mac and not so techie...but i wanted to know if i should install anti virus on my macbook since i do bank transactions online? i also wanted to install utorrent but im scared that it will be "harmful"?

i've used my regular laptop for the longest time and im on my 1st week using my mac. maybe someone can help me?

I'm using Transmission on Mac having been a long time PC user an uTorrent. I prefer it.

I'm not running any AV. Just being careful thats all.

p.s i've had my Mac for about 3 weeksish.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

sorry, i got all confused with the discussions here..very much a newbie on mac and not so techie...but i wanted to know if i should install anti virus on my macbook since i do bank transactions online? i also wanted to install utorrent but im scared that it will be "harmful"?

i've used my regular laptop for the longest time and im on my 1st week using my mac. maybe someone can help me?

Read the FAQ GGJstudios provides (https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/9400648/), therefore AV software is not needed, unless you throw away common sense and install everything you find and give your password to every password prompt you encounter. Using uTorrent in itself is not harmful, only when executing (installing) some pirated software like iWork or PS.

 

[loopsey]

thank you...that was very informative now im less stressed with this AV thing and my mac

 

[AWtrainer]

I know this is an old thread

I just recently had my first run in with a Mac virus, but I do not believe that it was a downloaded virus that I put on my computer. This is in part a question and a statement.

I first noticed something wrong with my macbook pro when it started running incredibly hot. I literally had it sitting on a crate so a fan could blow behind and under it to cool it off. Within just a couple of hours of trying to configure settings and figure out the problem for the over heating my MacBook became increasingly slower. Suddenly, out of no where there was an icon on my menu bar. At first it looked like "time machine" but then i realize it was only circle with arrows (no inside icon) and when i hovered or tried to click on it, there was no information to be found or even what it was doing. The only thing it would do would come up when you clicked and give an option to "sync now". Anyways. I completely took my mac off of wireless (At my house, so private network) and pulled out the ethernet. Within 30 seconds my macbook went from flow to completely dysfunctional and i was forced to shut down and exchange the hard drive for a new one.

My question now, is it possible for someone to have placed this on my computer and been syncing my files remotely? I believe that it was a certain person, I had originally found my iphotots synced to his iMac and he had my IP address for that.

How do I know if my mac is safe on my network, even after changing out the harddrives and isolating the virus he had put on here?

 

[munkery]

My question now, is it possible for someone to have placed this on my computer and been syncing my files remotely.

That icon has nothing to do with syncing files. It is the "iSync" menubar icon. iSync only syncs contacts and calendar data. It is no longer present by default in Lion and Mountain Lion.

I believe that it was a certain person, I had originally found my iphotots synced to his iMac and he had my IP address for that.

The only way that individual installed or configured something with that type of functionality on your computer is via having physical access to the machine and knowing your password to authenticate those types of changes.

Do not let this person have physical access to the machine. Make sure to change your password.

How do I know if my mac is safe on my network, even after changing out the harddrives and isolating the virus he had put on here?

Do not let this person have physical access to the machine. Make sure to change your password.