So apparently Apple’s market share has caught the attention of virus writers. I remember the days when so few Macs were hooked up to the Internet, nobody would have even wasted the time writing a virus for the old OS8/9. Now that Macs are Darwin (UNIX) based it provides not only a development standard for programmers, but also for hackers.
MacCNN Reports that the virus is spreading from PornTube’s ‘Codec’ installer:
Should a PornTube visitor agree to install the object, an “AdobeFlash” shell script file is created in a Mac’s /Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder. The file is set to execute periodically, and contains a shell script with a Perl script buried inside. The Perl code in turn communicates with a distant website, downloading data for malicious purposes. Other files associated with the Trojan include: HDTVPlayerv3.5.dmg, VideoCodec.dmg, FlashPlayer.dmg, MacTubePlayer.dmg, macvideo.dmg, License.v.3.413.dmg, play-video.dmg and QuickTime.dmg.
Hackers are no stranger to the underlying UNIX framework. For those of you not ‘in the know’, Linux is the hipper, more popular cousin to UNIX. The environment is very similar across all platforms and architectures and comes with the pre-approved stamp of “It’s not Microsoft” security. The fact that it is so popular with virus writers and malware developers is the fact that it is a very flexible, extensible environment.
With that, Apple responded with:
The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box. However, since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, antivirus software may offer additional protection.
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