Mac Virus
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Soldato
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The only one I've heard of recently was an application that was disguised with a different icon.
Soldato
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It'll probably happen eventually though. 
Didn't we have this thread the other day?
Didn't we have this thread the other day?
Nope, why you may ask?
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8050188&postcount=26 Has a little something to do with it
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8050188&postcount=26 Has a little something to do with it
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Perhaps there will be more malware, bad software that unwitting users install themselves, but it's unlikely that the OS will be compromised in any way like NT has been compromised in recent years.JonRohan said:
There were a few 'serious' viruses on what is now referred to as 'Classic' MacOS, but not OSX.. I remember one in particular that brought our entire advertising department down as it hung the AFP volumes the host machine was connected to - this was years ago tho, when OS9 was still new 
The only reason to have a virus checker on your OSX machine is to prevent distribution of files infected with Windows virii tbh.. for now anyway 
The only reason to have a virus checker on your OSX machine is to prevent distribution of files infected with Windows virii tbh.. for now anyway
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There are macro visuses that effect MS Office for Mac. Silly VB scripting.
BillytheImpaler said:
I completely agree.
Its not the amount of users that will create a virus, it will be stupid hacker OMFG people that will see Apple selling loads of units and decide to cause some problems.
How many problems did Firefox have in the early days?
Mac systems are very well designed so I’m sure its not really going to be an issue as big as MS. However I personally wouldn't be so naïve.
Man of Honour
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Linux is very well designed, but put a clueless user in control and rootkits become a big issueJonRohan said:
If the target's big enough, it's likely the overall user-awareness is also low enough to make attacks worthwhile
There are a few reasons why osx is less targeted really.
The kernel is based on BSD, which is a pretty secure architectural model but its not flawless, nothing is.
Up until recently they were all PPC, which means a different style of assembly (used a lot for self modifying polymorphic code in virii) and hardware was expensive for testing.
The applications are closed source which makes them harder to reverse engineer compared to open source ones, so it takes quite a bit more effort to find flaws (though so is windows, so this is debatable ).
Still there are plenty of vulnerabilities in OSX software, just less effort is put into finding them compared to windows. If you want zombies/botnet drones why bother working harder to get a small number of mac machines when you can have thousands of windows box's.
I don't think anyone can really give a definite answer. Mac users are fanatical and don't believe this could ever happen to them. One day the ivory tower will come crashing down.
The kernel is based on BSD, which is a pretty secure architectural model but its not flawless, nothing is.
Up until recently they were all PPC, which means a different style of assembly (used a lot for self modifying polymorphic code in virii) and hardware was expensive for testing.
The applications are closed source which makes them harder to reverse engineer compared to open source ones, so it takes quite a bit more effort to find flaws (though so is windows, so this is debatable
). Still there are plenty of vulnerabilities in OSX software, just less effort is put into finding them compared to windows. If you want zombies/botnet drones why bother working harder to get a small number of mac machines when you can have thousands of windows box's.
I don't think anyone can really give a definite answer. Mac users are fanatical and don't believe this could ever happen to them. One day the ivory tower will come crashing down.
Soldato
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\Una said:There are a few reasons why osx is less targeted really.
The kernel is based on BSD, which is a pretty secure architectural model but its not flawless, nothing is.
Up until recently they were all PPC, which means a different style of assembly (used a lot for self modifying polymorphic code in virii) and hardware was expensive for testing.
The applications are closed source which makes them harder to reverse engineer compared to open source ones, so it takes quite a bit more effort to find flaws (though so is windows, so this is debatable
Still there are plenty of vulnerabilities in OSX software, just less effort is put into finding them compared to windows. If you want zombies/botnet drones why bother working harder to get a small number of mac machines when you can have thousands of windows box's.
I don't think anyone can really give a definite answer. Mac users are fanatical and don't believe this could ever happen to them. One day the ivory tower will come crashing down.
One day for Intel Macs.
PPC macs? Not a chance really, no point.
