Watch out for this guys!

[tug]

hey all,
i just got this;


http://hothardware.com/News/Mac-Trojan-Masquerades-As-Adobe-Flash-Player-Installer/


BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!!!!!

 

[Hansr]

How.... why would you accept a download of flash player from any other source than going manually to adobe or using the build in updater?

 

[tug]

hi hansr,
yeah, just browsin, and it just appeared for no apparent reason!
i went to cancel the thing and it just d/l by itself.
so quick as a flash trashed the package and emptied the bin.

just thought id let y'all know whats on the rounds is all.

 

[AlanShutko]

Actually, you don't have to. I just saw this one myself, triggered somehow off a Voilà survey. What happens is that via javascript it takes you to a new page, and pushes a download to you. It also displays all those screens to make you think you need to run a Flash install. From the redirects, it was from some domain in adobeflashplayer.*.cc or something. I'm not sure where to find logs to track it down directly.

On my machine, the .pkg appeared in my download directory and was not automatically started. Since it was suspicious, I did some googling and found that yes, it's malware.

 

[McGiord]

How you check if your Mac is infected? And you repair it?

 

[Hansr]

Google says check for /Users/YOU/Library/Preferences/Preferences.dylib

To avoid it:
- For one maybe don't browse dodgy web sites.
- Disable Safari's "Open Safe Files".
- Add these to your host file: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/
- Install AdBlock(er)
- And obviously never install anything you didn't explicitly download and know is from a verified source.

 

[McGiord]

I am using Lion and my user folder structure doesn't show the Libraries folder.

Has Apple released an update for this?

 

[r0k]

I am using Lion and my user folder structure doesn't show the Libraries folder.

Has Apple released an update for this?

Yes. Oops. Perhaps not. That article I linked was about was different malware. Just avoid downloading flash from anybody but adobe.com.

 

[McGiord]

I tried to get the virus barrier trial, and it didn't work to update, maybe I need to adjust some ports.
Anyway, using other free antivirus scanned the Mac and it foun some Windows Trojan, cleaned it and I am starting to think it is a good idea to use an antivirus from time to time to clean any windows threats as I share emails with many many windows users.

 

[r0k]

I tried to get the virus barrier trial, and it didn't work to update, maybe I need to adjust some ports.
Anyway, using other free antivirus scanned the Mac and it foun some Windows Trojan, cleaned it and I am starting to think it is a good idea to use an antivirus from time to time to clean any windows threats as I share emails with many many windows users.

Those windows threats aren't spread by anything running on your Mac. They are spread if you forward emails containing windows threats that were already there. I don't bother with antivirus but I admit that avoiding the spread of windows threats is about the only good reason to consider AV on OS X. Just avoid the OS X software sold by the big windows AV names (McAffee or Symantec). They are a huge waste of money and system resources on any platform.