Earlier quoted context omitted.
To Linux! Quickly now!
In 10 years, I bet most of us will be running Linux on the desktop, actually.
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Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
21–30 of 125 posts
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
In 10 years, I bet most of us will be running Linux on the desktop, actually.
Cuz I haven't heard that for the past 15 years.... But as a recent convert to the Linux desktop, I kinda hope so.
My guess is it will be a 3 ghz quad-core android phone that docks on your monitor & wirelessly connects to everything else.
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
The interesting part is that I still haven't seen one traditional "virus" — even is thing appears to still be just social engineering users to install it, by pretending to be Flash Player. I can't imagine it's that much more difficult to actually find an OS X vulnerability to propagate with, but I still haven't seen any. Edit: It appears this uses a Java vulnerability, rather than the fake-Flash Player-installer that…
Doesn't it use a Java exploit? From the article: >..the most recent variant from earlier this week targeted an unpatched Java vulnerability within Mac OS X. That is, it was unpatched (at the time) by Apple—Oracle had released a fix for the vulnerability in February of this year, but Apple didn't send out a fix until earlier this week, after news began to spread about the latest Flashback variant. >..the malware insta…
Well, it does have to get the user's permission to install it first...
From the F-Secure site: http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashb...
On execution, the malware will prompt the unsuspecting user for the administrator password. Whether or not the user inputs the administrator password, the malware will attempt to infect the system, though entering the password will affect how the infection is done.
If infection is successful, the malware will modify the contents of certain webpages displayed by web browsers; the specific webpages targeted and changes made are determined based on configuration information retrieved by the malware from a remote server.
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cuz I haven't heard that for the past 15 years.... But as a recent convert to the Linux desktop, I kinda hope so.
My guess is it will be a 3 ghz quad-core android phone that docks on your monitor & wirelessly connects to everything else.
I hope so. I really really hope so. That's the direction I see computing going in the future, despite all the haters that say a tablet/phone will never replace the "desktop"
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't it use a Java exploit? From the article: >..the most recent variant from earlier this week targeted an unpatched Java vulnerability within Mac OS X. That is, it was unpatched (at the time) by Apple—Oracle had released a fix for the vulnerability in February of this year, but Apple didn't send out a fix until earlier this week, after news began to spread about the latest Flashback variant. >..the malware insta…
Well, it does have to get the user's permission to install it first... From the F-Secure site: http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashb... On execution, the malware will prompt the unsuspecting user for the administrator password. Whether or not the user inputs the administrator password, the malware will attempt to infect the system, though entering the password will affect how the infection is d…
Did you even read the page you linked or the text you pasted?
It specifically states that the malware will infect the machine even if the user does not give permission.
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#26As someone who used to sell Mac computers, I used to get asked the question "Is it true macs never get viruses?", to which I replied "No that's not true." (It was just an apple reseller store afterall so I was never compelled to bend the facts.) I'd try to explain the caveats a bit: a smaller market share and the unix based operating system requiring more permissions, yada yada, being "prohibitive" to an attack but s…
I don't think small market share was ever really a reason that Mac OS X didn't get traditional viruses. UNIX-based servers have always had a huge market share, and since servers are presumably a more desirable target of infection and cracking than home computers are, we would have seen traditional viruses hit UNIX machines a long time ago if it were realistically doable. Also, before Mac OS X became as popular as it is now, there were lots of Windows users who hated Apple fanboys and would have loved to write a wide-spread virus that targeted Mac OS X if possible. But it seems like Windows, especially pre-NT and pre-Vista and pre-7, but even now, has a unique vulnerability to traditional viruses. Obviously, Mac OS X can still get hit by trojans if people use intelligent social engineering, but I feel it's still not too much of a semantic exaggeration to say "Macs don't get viruses."
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#27Whoa, it aborts infection if you have XCode installed? Is this just to prevent itself from infecting someone's computer that might be able to study it?
That is really clever.
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
The interesting part is that I still haven't seen one traditional "virus" — even is thing appears to still be just social engineering users to install it, by pretending to be Flash Player. I can't imagine it's that much more difficult to actually find an OS X vulnerability to propagate with, but I still haven't seen any. Edit: It appears this uses a Java vulnerability, rather than the fake-Flash Player-installer that…
And almost no Windows "malware" in the last decade has been a traditional "virus" either. Trojans, social engineering, all so much easier.
Exploit kits are big these days!
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#29I seriously doubt that 600,000 macs were infected... How do we know this number is correct? Because a completely unknown security firm that sells Mac antivirus software ("Dr. Web", a russian antivirus company) tweeted about it!
Re: Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The interesting part is that I still haven't seen one traditional "virus" — even is thing appears to still be just social engineering users to install it, by pretending to be Flash Player. I can't imagine it's that much more difficult to actually find an OS X vulnerability to propagate with, but I still haven't seen any. Edit: It appears this uses a Java vulnerability, rather than the fake-Flash Player-installer that…
And almost no Windows "malware" in the last decade has been a traditional "virus" either. Trojans, social engineering, all so much easier.
I disagree. Visiting a malicious website or opening an email that exploits a vulnerability in your os or software is very common.