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First Mac OS X Virus?
bubba451 writes "MacRumors reports on what may be the first virus to affect Mac OS X, disguised as screenshots for the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. From the report: 'The resultant file decompresses into what appears to be a standard JPEG icon in Mac OS X but was actually a compiled Unix executable in disguise. An initial disassembly reveals evidence that the application is a virus or was designed to give that impression.' The virus is said to also spread via Bonjour instant messaging." Update: 02/17 00:09 GMT by P : This is not a virus, it is a simple Trojan Horse: it requires manual user interaction to launch the executable. See Andrew Welch's dissection.
Glad I just 'switched' to windows ;-)
(fp?)
Sounds more like a trojan to me. But the question is, how in the world did they get it to show up as a JPEG image and still be executable? And does this script do any damage beyond the user's home directory? I.E., does it have some sort of a rootkit? Or does it simply prompt the user for the root/admin/sudo password?
Somebody better wake up Apple and fix this application-looks-like-a-pretty-JPEG icon bug!!
Note the following from http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtop ic=102379 :
...and then for most users, you must also enter your Admin password.
You cannot be infected by this unless you do all of the following:
1) Are somehow sent (via email, iChat, etc.) or download the "latestpics.tgz" file
2) Double-click on the file to decompress it
3) Double-click on the resulting file to "open" it
You cannot simply "catch" the virus. Even if someone does send you the "latestpics.tgz" file, you cannot be infected unless you unarchive the file, and then open it.
Well, of course there's a mac virus now - virus writers have been comfortably writing to the intel platform for years, and now with the processor switch, all the viruses will be very easy to port over :)
Ñ'
How can it be a virus if it is a Trojan?
You have to execute it yourself, and that is why it is _not_ a virus.
Back in high school we used to make little mean scripts in Applescript. Since there was no concept of security or multiple users in Mac OS 7 and 8, the script could do all sorts of nasty damage. All you had to do was compile/"save as" a standalone executable application from the Applescript Editor and paste an innocent icon on it. We liked to use the ClarisWorks icon to be extra mean.
Another variant was useful on computers that were proteted with OnGuard or AtEase. Simply make a script that would pop up a dialog box asking for the password. An unknowning teacher would enter the password and the script would exit... leaving behind a log file with the password in it for later use.
Nothing magical about these. Very basic trojan horses.
Come on. MacOSRumors.com on a forum post. Let's not loose our heads and start spreading FUD because of something someone's brother's first cousins next-door neighbor read in a forum post. If you're smart enough not to accept random files and put your admin password in for anything that pops up - this won't be much of an issue.
Where? I want to see!
The first Mac virus hidden cleverly inside a picture of desktop eyecandy. No doubt it will spread like wildfire. Insidious.
What wrapper will the first Linux widespread virus take? "Hey, download this PDF -- it's a transcript of a big IRC shouting match about which is better, emacs or vi! You gotta read this!"
We won't know what hit us...
Anyone know when the Universal Binary will be avaliable? Plus, we need a "no password" crack.
:(
When will Mac viruses get to the level of Windows when? For godsakes, this one still requires user intervention, and it doesn't even work on all OS X platforms!
Come on Apple! Microsoft has you soundly beaten in this regard
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Everybody seems so certain that this is a non-starter on OSX because it requires some user intervention to propagate. I have bad news for you: there are clueless Mac users out there, too. These are probably the same folks who will click on a web popup to "see the lastest hollywood gaff" and then "accept" the untrusted executable when windows warns about the download to be executed. And they're the same ones who will dutifully click their bank url in an email and login to make sure their information is correct .
Never understimate the power of the incomptenece of 20% of your userbase.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Nah, that's just the title of Steve Jobs upcoming self-biography.
1. Denial and isolation
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
I think with the appropriate counseling, the MacOSRumors.com community will be just fine.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
That's a totally legitimate question.
If you choose "View as List" in the finder (equivalent to the Detail view in Windows), and then expand the window so that you can see the "Kind" column, the Finder will tell you the kind of file you're looking at. For example, Application, Picture, Document, etc.
The Finder looks at some stuff which is not visible to the user in determining this -- in addition to the ".app" file extension on Cocoa bundles, there are also the traditional Mac 'Type' and 'Creator' codes, stored in the file metadata in the resource fork. By setting a file's Type to "APPL," it becomes an executable. This is the traditional Macintosh analog to the UNIX eXecute bit (but arguably more flexible, since it also handles file typing), and is totally independent of the file name. But anything that you set this way will be clearly marked as an Application in List View, regardless of what you name it, or what kind of custom icon it has.
This is how the MP3Concept trojan worked, and how many old-school ResEdit tricks worked. You can have something that's legitimately named "Mp3Concept.mp3" and looks like an MP3 but is really an executable, by setting the Type and custom icons correctly. It's nothing new, people have been doing it for years. (There were a lot of ResEdit "hacks" that worked off of this principle -- for example, creating a dummy Excel document that gave a rude dialog when double-clicked.) I think it's because we've migrated away from OS 9 and the metadata concepts that people have forgotten how easy it is to do, and that the Mac still supports it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
This story is the biggest FUD of the day.
.tgz file in Safari, Safari warns you that it's an application, and you have to click to continue.
1.) Several proof-of-concept viruses have been written for OS X in the past, so this isn't the "first." They never propagate.
2.) When you download this
3.) When you run it, an admin password prompt is displayed by OS X, and you have to enter it to continue.
Like I said--FUD of the day.
"Sufferin' succotash."