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Macs May No Longer Be Immune to Viruses
Bill writes "MSNBC reports that the combination of Apple's growing market share and their recent switch to x86 processors has made Mac OS X a new target for viruses. Unfortunately, it seems that many Mac users are in denial. '[Computer security expert Tom] Ferris said he warned Apple of the vulnerabilities in January and February and that the company has yet to patch the holes, prompting him to compare the Cupertino-based computer maker to Microsoft three years ago, when the world's largest software company was criticized for being slow to respond to weaknesses in its products.'"
One might wonder why this (non-)story is featured on the front page of MSNBC... ;-)
:%s/Open Source/Free Software/g
YTARY!
They never were immune. It's just that most virus writers don't give a crap about Macs.
Maybe we'll be seeing x86 and PPC virus fat binaries?
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
What a load of rubbish - viruses infect via operating system and application vulnerabilities, the chipset those are running on has very little relevance.
I'm not even a Mac user and I still call FUD on this one. TFA was so slim on detail it was impossible to work out what had actually happened, and after searching for real info it turns out the virus, Leap.A, needs a root password to do any damage. Better article here: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/04/30/apple.secur ity.ap/index.html
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Why does Slashdot continue to post Apple-related non-stories? Every time Steve Jobs farts or some idiot proclaims the coming Mac-Virus-Mayhem (tm), Slashdot takes the bait.
This MSNBC(!) story contains no facts whatsoever. No piece of significant OS X malware has been discovered so far, and I believe it's highly likely that there won't be any in the immediate future. WTF does the Intel switch have to do with that?
Anyone knows you don't get something for nothing.
Viruses for all different operating systems exist.
There are holes and exploits for practically everything known to man.
Now, if I walk into the dodgiest parts of town (with my turtle neck sweater on) and ask the shady guy at the street corner for a forbidden secret preview of the next big thing do you really think I will survive with the same number (and size) orifices as I started with?
Once you leave the beaten track, you cannot be sure what lurks in the shadows.
liqbase
Nor even markedly more resistant. They have just been less targeted.
Nonsense. Microsoft is the target of viruses and spyware because of Microsofts moronic design decisions and security policies, not because of marketshare.
No-one can deny that with growing popularity of OS X that it becomes an increasingly attractive target. Malware writing works on similar economics to regular software: this implies that malware will exist but be a niche deployment. So it is a concern, but not the end of the world, or of Apple, as the world likes to regularly predict.
/less/ vulnerable than the mainstream desktop OS. The thesis that using an intel processor increases security risks is not true - OSen don't allow direct hardware access as such, and how many script kiddies write x86 microcode?. Running Windows on a IntelMac may potentially increase security probems, and reduce the Macintosh (not OS X) brand reputation for security. It depends on how the 'wall' between x86 file access and OSX file access is implemented.
The article was mixed in accuracy. Many Mac users believe themselves to be invulnerable - the truth is they are currently
Nothing in IT or anywhere else is 100%. Currently OS X is more secure in many areas than its competitors. To maintain or improve on this, constant vigilence and innovation are required by Apple, ISVs and most importantly users.
I wonder what percentage of some anti-virus software company's profits are a direct result of this article.
I'm in denial about invisible pink unicorns too. Put up or shut-up.
Direct away from face when opening.
The advisory is from 9 days ago. It is from a company that would like to sell you stuff related to its advisories. No known instance of the alleged flaws exist publicaly. The descriptions of the flaws do not support the conclusion of either a DOS attack being possible or compromising of one's system. As such, I invite you to use this flaw to do anything to my Mac.
Or, even present me with a URL where I can observe the alleged flaws in the wild.
Your handle, Whiney Mac Fanboy (963289), should be a tip-off that you are not posting about this matter in good faith.
I'm calling bullshit on that. True, Macs haven't been tested with a huge market share like Windows has, but you seem to be using that as proof that Macs have as bad-a security model as Windows. My favourite analogy to this is asking which one is more bulletproof, an apple or a kevlar vest. You'd shoot the apple into smitherines then say "Obviously the kevlar vest would crumble similarly if I shot it therefore neither are bulletproof".
You're right that they have never been "immune" to viruses. I don't expect you to say something stupid like that *nothing* is immune to viruses unless you can successfully hack my hello world program, but macs definitely aren't. That doesn't mean they're as bad as Windows though, so if you say something like "Nor even markedly more resistant" how about you back up that comment...
The Year of the Linux Desktop
or
The Year of The OS X Viruses
Inquiring minds want to know.
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
I'd take an Apple spokeswoman's word over Tom Ferris's word. He's fairly good at finding crash bugs, but he frequently reports zero dereferences as "buffer overflows", etc. See his record in bugzilla.mozilla.org, for example, starting with bug 303433. I have no idea why the media keeps calling him a security expert.
I call bullshit.
By your logic, because Apple now has a much higer visibility, it is a more likely target for viruses.
This is true, and I'm not going to argue with it. However, your reasoning behind it is faulty. Just because it is now being targeted more, does not mean that we are going to see huge numbers of viruses cropping up for OS X.
Heck, the "virus" described in the article isn't a virus at all. It's a trojan, and a shitty one at that. The guy downloaded an executable from an unknown source, and willingly ran it. "strange commands ran as if the machine was under the control of someone -- or something -- else."
Not only did the guy make a boneheaded move that would effect even the most secure operating system in the world, it was obviously apparent that the file being run was a virus the second he opened it. I don't think this is any cause for concern.
What's more, in order to inflict any serious damage on an OS X machine, you've got to provide the Administrator password. It is impossible to run OS X as root. If a program's trying to screw with your settings and files, you're going to know about it! Likewise, unlike Windows, file permissions are properly implemented (it's Unix after all...).
By your logic, because approximately 70% of the internet's web servers run Apache, we should be seeing tons of apache exploits, hacks, and viruses cropping up. The reason we don't is because Apache is a well-written and secure program, and because administrators are generally not stupid enough to run unmarked executables.
OS X and unix are inherently more secure by design than Windows is. This is a known fact that has been proven by time. I'll go a step further and say that because OS X is only 5 years old, and NT has had 10+ years to mature, that Windows should be more secure than OS X is. We all know this isn't the case. 95% of Windows viruses, trojans, and spyware would not be possible on OS X or unix simply due to the design of the OS.
Likewise, the article points out seven new vulnerabilities that were discovered two months ago that have yet to be patched, and draws the conclusion that "They didn't know how to deal with security", but later admits that the vulnerabilities wouldn't actually allow someone to execute malicious code on your machine, and that they're being rolled up into the next OS X security update. (Coincidentally, I've got to praise apple for their cumulative and bundled security updates. It makes it TONS easier for end users and administrators to install the updates, avoids confusion, and makes it significantly more likely for these people to install the updates to begin with, compared to the many crypticly-titled windows security fixes and the ActiveX horror that is Windows Update)
In short, the entire article is a piece of crap. Sure, OS X isn't perfectly safe, and it's a given that any system is vulnurable to a stupid user. However, it's damn better than anything else out there. Shame on slashdot for posting such a poorly-researched piece like this.
PS. Do not blame MSNBC for the content of the article. The article came through via the Associated Press, and appears on Cnn.com in addition to a plethora of other sites.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Nonsense. Microsoft is the target of viruses and spyware because of Microsoft's moronic design decisions and security policies AND because of marketshare.
Virus writers are writing viruses to make profit; either by stealing information, creating botnets, or proliferation of unwanted advertising. They make more profit by exploiting more machines, so it's no wonder that the most common OS is also the most targetted.
The fact that it's so trivial to exploit Microsoft software is purely because of the moronic design decisions and security policies, not because of marketshare. But the fact that Microsoft is so frequently the target of virus writers is a function of marketshare as well.
Seriously, it's way too easy to have a go at this MSNBC BS. What is more worthy to note is the frequency and desperation with which these articles keep appearing, claiming sleeping beauty mac-users are in imminent danger if they continue to refuse to take part in the virus paranoia of the Windows world.
I have been using W2K with no anti-virus software for years with no side effects. Sadly and with amusement do I follow the antics of my fellow XP users with their shiny anti-virus crapware popping up redundant warnings and notifications and slowing the machine to a crawl. And to top the irony they have to turn off anti-virus whenever they install anything or run certain software. And when you go to your workplace or school the machines there have been made almost entirely useless by over zealous protection software.
Having a go at Macs for security is either stupidity or plain propaganda. Security doesn't come from anti-virus programs. It comes from the underlying architecture of the OS and the third-party software having to comply with the security principles of the underlying architecture. Anti-virus software only protects the computer against clueless users and thus it can be claimed that any computer/OS architecture requires some.
And as for the age old user base threshold argument I'm still waiting. OSX has been for some time the most common UNIX based OS. It is remarkable how little vulnerabilities have been found considering the amount of software and services running on OSX by default. Thus, comparatively, statements involving OSX and poor security continue to be plain ludicrous.
As for me I'll merrily continue running my apparently 'immune' W2K box (behind two tailor made firewalls) and wave my greetings and encouragement to my fellow mac users.
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I'll believe that when I see water running uphill!
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That also describes the majority of Windows "viruses".
Don't bother with silly semantic games that only Slashbots care about. In the media when they say virus, they're talking about malware in general. Most Windows malware falls into the "trojan" category and requires varying levels of user interaction to get started.
Not only did the guy make a boneheaded move that would effect even the most secure operating system in the world, it was obviously apparent that the file being run was a virus the second he opened it. I don't think this is any cause for concern.
I do, because it's by far the most common vector for malware and, indeed, all security breaches.
It's also damn near impossible to defend against programmatically.
What's more, in order to inflict any serious damage on an OS X machine, you've got to provide the Administrator password.
Bollocks. For a start, any user can delete files they own - ie: the most important data on the machine.
Secondly, any user's account can turn the machine into just about anything an attacker might want, include allowing a remote login for further attempts at privilege escalation (because the OS X firewall is disabled by default).
Finally, any user in the Admin group (the default for most users) can delete (or modify !) not only just about everything in /Applications, but also other "system" files in /Library and /System.
It is impossible to run OS X as root.
Actually it's trivial. Running code as root is marginally easier than actually logging in to the GUI as root, but neither are particularly difficult to do.
If a program's trying to screw with your settings and files, you're going to know about it!
Highly doubtful. Most users have no ideas what processes run on the systems and even fewer actually monitor them.
Likewise, unlike Windows, file permissions are properly implemented (it's Unix after all...).
Windows's file permissions - indeed its security capabilities in general - are vastly more capable that OS X's.
In short the whole "but root is disabled" argument (and variants) is largely irrelevant. Elevated privileges are simply not required for the vast majority of things malware wants to do.
By your logic, because approximately 70% of the internet's web servers run Apache, [..]
(Wow, the good old Apache argument, what a surprise.)
Websites != Servers.
Also People Running Apache != People Running IIS. The bar for running an Apache server is set higher.
[...] we should be seeing tons of apache exploits, hacks, and viruses cropping up. The reason we don't is because Apache is a well-written and secure program, [...]
Actually we do. For the last few years, Apache has had a worse security record than IIS.
[...] and because administrators are generally not stupid enough to run unmarked executables.
Users are not administrators. Users have *extreme* difficulty identifying malicious code before running it.
OS X and unix are inherently more secure by design than Windows is.
False. There are many aspects of traditional UNIX "design" - including that in OS X - what are inherently less secure than Windows. For example, the concept of 'root'.
I'll go a step further and say that because OS X is only 5 years old, and NT has had 10+ years to mature, that Windows should be more secure than OS X is. We all know this isn't the case.
Firstly, the product OS X was is actually a touch older than NT. Secondly, it was basically yet another reimplementation of the flawed unix "design".
This is the same "virus" that we talked about in February. link 1, link 2. The CNN (AP, really) article mentions Benjamin Daines as finding it. MacRumors forum post from Benjamin Daines dated Feb 13 whining about how he was duped by someone posting a link to said trojan. We've gone over this before. This is nothing new. Must be a slow news day at AP...
This sig intentionally left justified.
If the installed base size is the critical factor for exploit success, then why are there more successful exploits for Microsoft IIS than there are for Apache?
Take care,
brad