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Virus on Mac OS X?

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John A

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

#11

Jul 20th, 2006

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Originally Posted by superhall

Now a days, if you have XP on your intel mac, then a virus caught on your XP os can screw up your entire computer...including OS X.

Depends. Windows XP cannot natively read/write to HFS formatted partitions, so unless you download an external program that mounts HFS partitions, you will not get caught with a virus on OS X.

Also please note that even if a Windows XP virus infects your OS X volume, the virus will not do any damage when OS X is running (even if the viruses exists on the partition), so the damage will only happen when XP is running.

Last edited by John A; Jul 20th, 2006 at 7:16 pm.

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pty

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

#12

Jul 23rd, 2006

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Originally Posted by joeprogrammer

As I stated before, there are viruses for Macs.
http://www.symantec.com/press/1998/n980714.html

I'm not saying that Macs are better than PCs. I'm not trying to defend Apple. I am simply saying that you are not being very helpful on this forum (do you even own a Mac??!), so keep out of this if you are not interested in other people's Mac problems.

Symantec would say that so people think 'oh noes - there are mac virii and I don't have AV software!!'.

This 'virus' (trojan) IMs itself to your buddies. They have to accept the file, decompress it, double click it and then enter their admin password to install it. It is not a virus.

Symantec (and McAfee, Sophos etc) are just crapping themselves because Vista *may* come with a built in windows AV package (or hell, it may even be secure)

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

#13

Jul 25th, 2006

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This 'virus' (trojan) IMs itself to your buddies. They have to accept the file, decompress it, double click it and then enter their admin password to install it. It is not a virus.

It all depends on how you look at it. Here's Macworld's analysis:

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Is this a virus, a worm, malware, or a Trojan horse?

Technically, it’s a bit of everything. It’s a virus, in the sense that it attaches itself to other executable code on your Mac. It’s a worm, in that it attempts to self-replicate and spread from machine to machine. It’s a piece of malware, because it can do bad things to your computer. Basically, it’s a piece of malware that’s delivered via a Trojan horse and then acts in both viral and wormy ways.

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

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pty

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

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#14

Jul 25th, 2006

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Originally Posted by joeprogrammer

It all depends on how you look at it. Here's Macworld's analysis:

You can do no damage to OSX while logged in as a normal user. Its UNIX origins don't allow you to make changes to vital parts of the system without having root privileges.

The problem is that some muppets just type their password in whenever the box pops up - thats how it spreads.

Its not clever, it doesn't exploit the system in any advanced way, it exploits dumbass users who deserve what they get. In my opinion it shouldn't be classed as a virus. Argue away at malware, etc, but if people have to acknowledge that its being installed its not a virus.

It probably gets the same crowd who gave £3,000 to Mr Henry Onwonku personal aide to the former bank manager of the Royal Bank of Nigeria so that he can obtain the safe key to the deposit box containing $12,140,423 (Twelve Million, One Hundred and Forty Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty Three Dollars) and share it with them.

Last edited by pty; Jul 25th, 2006 at 7:57 pm.

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

#15

Oct 2nd, 2006

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Originally Posted by Jentheoptimist

Hi, I'm a n00b I know. I always scan the forums and now I have a question...

Some random guy IMed me on AOL, who was from another forum I'm on and sent me this link. I clicked on it and it was code. (I'm normally not that stupid but I new him vaguely) Then his away message was on. I IMed him today and he said it's a virus that sends links to people and it's done nothing to his computer. He has a PC. My question is...

Should I be worried? since I run a mac and all? thanks. -Jen

Greetings optimistic one,

I can't name the virus off the top of my head, but it is a PC only virus that spreads by IMing everyone it can. On a PC it will have consequences, but not on a Mac or Linux machine... Yayyy!!

But I do keep my OS X firewall up and occasionally run clamXav. On my PCs, I run AVG Free and Comodo Firewall. Feel free to recommend them to your benighted PC using acquaintances.

Carl

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

#16

Oct 14th, 2006

Whoa, I was going to say Clam is complicated to install but I wasn't looking at CLamx but something else that's supposed to be platform independent, but needs to be compiled - sounds scary to me if you don't know code to know if it's malware or what...but Clamx looks a lot similar - are they related?

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

#17

Oct 26th, 2006

Hi Lads
So what is your advice to stay save on my mac shuld i be always logged is as a normal user? shuld i use any antivirus with firewalls and all that stuff like on my pc? what is the maintance trick for mac's, shuld i divide my hdd for 2 partitions one for system second for my stuff?

Regards, Mit freundlischen Grussen, Pozdrawiam
Kuballa

Please dont be mad if i will write something in wong way i am not native english speaker!

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Re: Virus on Mac OS X?

#18

Oct 26th, 2006

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Originally Posted by Kuballa

shuld i be always logged is as a normal user?

Even when you're logged in as Administrator, you are still required to enter your password to give any program full (administrator) access. Like pty said, you have to enter your admin password for the Leap-A virus to work! So this isn't like the nasty Windows viruses.

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shuld i use any antivirus with firewalls and all that stuff like on my pc?

If your Mac is connected directly to the Internet (no router), then you should use Mac OS X's built-in Firewall. It's easy to configure, and will be adequate for most people. As for antovirus software, my advice is this: if you don't do anything dumb, you have nothing to be worried about. If you only use commercial software, there's no way you should use it. And when downloading freeware/shareware, make sure it's from a trusted source.

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what is the maintance trick for mac's, shuld i divide my hdd for 2 partitions one for system second for my stuff?

Nope, that won't do one bit of good unless you keep one partition unmounted, in which case there's no point in even having it.

In short, Macs are still very secure, so don't sweat it. I download tons of software, I don't have antivirus software, and I've never ever gotten a virus on Mac OS X.

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

All my posts may be freely redistributed under the terms of the MIT license.