wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Mac Virus - 25 Oct 2004
Roger Howard 2004-Oct-26 00:26:00
On Oct 25, 2004, at 3:30 PM, Willy Kaemena wrote:
>
> Thanks Markus to put this again into (right) proportion.
> If somebody would write about all the possibilities to get a PC
> virus..... I think your mailbox would be full in a second...
Except that's the thing - it's not a virus, nor a worm, as stated in
the many alarmist news pieces. It's simply a trojan horse at worst...
it does things ANY app installed by an admin or root can do - in other
words, anything admin or root can do. If such apps couldn't be written,
then all software would be neutered.
The difference is what we do often hear about on Windows *are* viruses
and worms... they are self-replicating and self-infecting. They can get
you without you doing anything active to run then - for instance,
viewing a JPEG can infect your system, which constitutes a virus.
Viewing an attachment which then copies itself to all your friends
infecting them constitutes a worm.
The set of scripts in this case - called "Opener" apparently - have to
be installed somehow. Now, it might take a bit of social engineering to
get them installed, but they are still properly installed. If there was
some security hole that allowed them to install themselves, either
locally or over a network, then we'd have a real problem - and a worm
or virus. Right now, we just have malicious software, which ANYONE can
write on any platform. No news.
-R