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Trojan Hides In Pirated Copies of Apple iWork '09
CWmike writes "Pirated copies of Apple's new iWork '09 suite that are now available on file-sharing sites contain a Trojan horse that hijacks Macs and leaves them open to further attack, a security company said yesterday. The 'iServices.a' Trojan hitchhikes on iWork '09's installer, said Intego, which makes Mac security software. 'The installer for the Trojan horse is launched as soon as a user begins the installation of iWork, following the installer's request of an administrator password,' Intego said in a warning. Once installed, the Trojan "phones home" to a malicious server to notify the hacker that the Mac has been compromised, and to await instructions."
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Sometimes I wonder if companies that create security software aren't sometimes guilty of either creating or funding the creation of viruses, trojans, worms, &c. simply to justify their own existence.
Is that cynical?
This requires user action and piracy. No one can -ever- claim that -any- computer is safe from, essentially, social engineering.
Whos talking about a virus? I dont see ANYTHING about a virus. I DO see a story about a TROJAN. Whole different ball of wax there. No system EVER will be secure from a trojan, since for a trojan to work the USER has to willingly give his admini password to install it.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I don't think anyone would blame Microsoft for user-installed malware. It's when you get something simply by going to a website, clicking a link, mounting a drive, or even just hooking it up to the internet that can be blamed on lousy code. When malicious nasties get onto OS X by any of the above with no real action on the user's part, then you we can all blame Apple just like we blamed Microsoft. Until then, it's just a PEBKAC issue.
This requires user action and piracy.
So does 99.99% of windows malware.
No one can -ever- claim that -any- computer is safe from, essentially, social engineering.
Again right. But what's the solution? That is the real question.
Because this is the ecosystem microsoft lives in, we've seen what they're trying... digital signatures on drivers, the inability to put admin items in your startup, UAC prompts... etc, etc.
What is Apple going to do in response to inevitable arrival of social-engineering malware as it gains marketshare?
What is Linux going to if/when it acheives enough marketshare among joe-sixpacks for social engineering to be profitable?
As much as /. likes to take shots at Microsoft, what would you do better? *nix security is just as vulnerable to social engineering as windows is, given the same users.
Just this week.
A worm differs from a virus only in so much that it doesn't need to copy itself into a system program. For all intents and purposes however, the difference between the two terms is antiquated.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
They don't encourage users NOT to install... they simply don't hawk the virus software as a crutch to avoid good common sense. That's not to say that Windows (or more specifically Microsoft) does, it's just the nature of the OS itself that dictates what might be vs. what might not be.
You can safely say that, out of the box, Apple's OS is safer than Microsoft's (and you can make up your own reasons why), and this particular "virus" (it's a trojan, not a virus) isn't related to a vulnerability in the OS. It's related to a vulnerability in a trusting user. It's vastly different than an exploit that antivirus programs are designed to watch for. No antivirus would protect someone from this, unless it was known already as a trojan (then an update would have to show up, etc.) But you begin to see the fallacy of blaming Apple for social engineering. Educating the novices of ANY OS is something we should be doing, rather than trying to have a pissing contest between Jobs and Ballmer.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Note to keygen creators: I do not want to hear your brother's crappy techno remixes when using your app. Is there some way I can pay you to disable this feature?
Erm, you can indeed. You can pay money to buy a legit serial number - voila - no crappy techno music.
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
Go learn about the difference between a virus and a trojan.
Not to troll, but as far as I'm concerned anyone who pirates software deserves it...
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Is this a virus?
Didn't think so.
This is social engineering at its finest - an untrusted source, launching executable code (via user action) and gaining elevated privileges (via user input of password).
Welcome to any operating system's severe vulnerability to attack.
Still no viruses on OS X though, beyond that proof of concept thing a while back. Still, 1 versus.... how many on Windows? So many you *require* a dedicated third party app to bog down your system and act as doctor, surgeon and nurse to keep the machine clean?
I'll take OS X thanks.
Also, don't steal software. You're just asking for trouble. This isn't the first time that OS X has been targeted with dodgy copies of software from download sites - I seem to remember an app that claimed to be the MS Office for Mac installer that did nothing except delete the contents of your home folder.
Moral of the story again: Untrusted code could do anything. Don't download copied software.
That was exactly my point. It's a trojan that relies on social engineering to defeat system security, and that's not unique to any one operating system, Windows, Mac or even your favourite flavour of Linux if you're in the market of using dodgy packages.
I didn't mention anything about porn or music.
The installation of this virus still requires the user to authorise it to do so by entering an admin password. It's far different than many Windows worms which can infect simply by the built-in autorun feature of windows which will feed a worm into your machine as soon as you stick in a USB or floppy inside your box. Macs do have protections from viruses that Windows does not, but like any protection, if you give the vampire entrance, it's all over.