Well, I think what we need to remember is that our key vulnerabilities are in available services. Those that don't run services are pretty much OK. However, each service is only as secure as the developers make it (apache/sshd have had problems in the past), and Apple does lag behind by about a week on these issues. This provides an opening for infection, however, there are so many 'if's that the attack vector is nearly worthless for a variety of reasons (finding PPC/Darwin instead of Linux servers, etc).
-----Original Message----- From: G-Books [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bruce Johnson Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 4:33 PM To: G-Books Subject: Re: malware question On Jun 3, 2005, at 4:00 PM, Brian wrote: > I'm a bit late to the frey on this issue (by more than 6 months) > but just learned of a malware program out there called "opener" > that supposedly was talked about in October (saw an older article > in macintouch about it). Sigh. 'opener' was never 'in the wild'. Installation requires physical access to the mac in question as an Admin User. If you have that, you don't need 'opener'. It allows you to take over a machine you already own...oooooh, scaaaarrrry... It's like the Honor System Virus, here listed in its entire, awsum h4X0r p0w3r: " THE NEW "HONOR SYSTEM" VIRUS: This virus works on the honor system. Please forward this message to everyone you know, then delete all the files on your hard disk. Thank you for your cooperation." It was a non-starter then, and it's a non-starter now. If 'opener' is the best the skriptkiddies can do to OS X, we're sitting pretty. > IS this little number still out there? have any others popped up > since then? AFAICT only one piece of malware ever has been released into the wild for OS X, a trojan posing as a 'free beta of Office 2004' that was alleged to have been circulated on some P2P nets. -- Bruce Johnson This is the sig who says 'Ni!' -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:" Send list messages to: <mailto:G-Books@mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com --------------------------------------------------------------- -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:" Send list messages to: <mailto:G-Books@mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------