If the online chatter is to be believed, Apple's very soon to be released
Snow Leopard has in its code new protection for fighting malware. According to the picture above corroborated by other online reports, a DMG downloaded by Safari was checked by the OS and found to contain the "RSPlug.A" Trojan. The system promptly suggests you eject the disk image to avoid damage. Should Apple really be treading down this path, it begs the question of how often and how comprehensive / aggressive the company will be updating its
antivirus logs. If nothing else, it's a certainly a notable symbolic gesture that the one-time underdog might be gaining enough market share to catch the attention of the darker side of the internet -- and all of a sudden,
David Puddy isn't looking nearly as bad.
[Thanks, David]
posted Aug 25th 2009 8:28PM
Oh No!
If OSX *stops* the malware from infecting the computer... how is this a bad thing?
Clearly, the hundreds of Windows machines that I've spent hours cleaning out didn't have this feature. SpyBot and SuperAntiSpyware were the required tools in my Mr. Fixit toolkit.
This is just Apple putting up a roadblock to stop any potential infections... something Microsoft hasn't done very well over the years. Windows Defender was a good start... but you can't undo the stigma of years of crap that got installed on millions of Windows machines over the years. Windows XP and IE6 were the breeding ground for spyware. People never forget that.
On the Mac commercials... when Apple tries to convince people to buy a Mac... they are betting on the fact that lots of those people have had Windows machines full of spyware. I've certainly seen my share of messed up machines over the years.
So Microsoft gets shit on for having a built in software in their OS, when should I expect the shit storm to finally be over the house of Apple?
@EricLMcCormick: Never. Apple does not have a monopoly in the personal computer operating system market to abuse to gain dominance in new markets. Apple can legally include any software it wants as an OS feature. Microsoft can only offer it as an add-on that consumers can choose out of hundreds of similar ones.
@kingbirdfivezero: Which is why there's no reason for a full blown anti virus. Once malicious software gains root access on Unix OSes, the only surefire way to do something about it is to reformat, and that's assuming it's not hiding itself well enough to evade detection.
Omar, U joking right? Did you hear about booting OS from CD ROM or SB stick and running AV software that way? There are quite a lot of options from Linux based to Windows (using BartPE) based - almost all of them free.
Mac ads having no viruses is misleading if they aired that in Europe specially UK they would pay millions in return as a misleading ads
Why such thing do not exist in america? Every OS must have viruses the only reason Windows have more because it's the most wide spread OS by miles and windows have more experience with viruses and the security is really high specially with Windows vista.
Vista+Firewall+Antivrus/Spyware Guard = it's freaking almost impossible to get any virus at all
I have windows vista with no Anti-virus to begin with on my laptop for 2 years never got a virus and never formatted my laptop and im a heavy user.
People should drop internet explorer for firefox too if they care about security and viruses ~.
I thought macs couldnt get viruses, trojans, durexes or lifestyles?
@ DR House Macs are advertised that way in Europe. Actually I saw a big campaign over here at mediamarkt (europe's version of best buy) advertising the advantages of a virus free OSX.
@onelove you took the words right outta my mouth :D
This isn't virus protection is it? Read the article- while Engadget may be using the generic term 'antivirus' to describe this, it's really just Trojan protection. Trojans are applications you as the user have to install in your computer to have anything happen- you even need to provide your password if you've set one for your accounts.
DR House:
When you say "Vista+Firewall+Antivrus/Spyware Guard = it's freaking almost impossible to get any virus at all," that sounds the same as someone saying "OS X = it's freaking almost impossible to get any virus at all," so I don't know what you're mad at. Except that the OS X box comes from the factory able to say that.
Or how bout stop pirating, and looking at porn? #1 cause of viruses.
In all my years of computing I have gotten 2 windows viruses, and 1 mac virus.
it's not the lack of AV in windows that causes infections in the first place. It's running as an administrative user, that allows drive-by installations from infected or intentionally malicious websites, or infections from autorun usb sticks, or from malicious executables run by the user.
take administrative rights away and this becomes almost impossible to become infected. You're left with exploiting software flaws, e.g. remote buffer overruns in network-aware services, which every piece of software suffers from. Not just windows, not just mac, not just linux.
what's interesting is that microsoft would find themselves in court again if they shipped any form of actual virus protection in windows out of the box. Windows defender is not AV, it's primary role is stopping software writing digging in to an OS install where the user is running as an admin, or not thinking about UAC. It needs some basic knowledge of malware to do that job. One hopes that this feature in OSX is similar to windows defnder in intent, otherwise apple may find themselves in some legal difficulties with AV vendors.
Mmmm... Dohnuts.:
Then I can safely say Windows Vista and 7 have no viruses either. They're all trojans since you have to approve their installation through UAC.
apple haters are f*cking hilarious to read .. i pitty you fools
@Ben Carroll -
I agree. Same here I've only ever gotten enough viruses on computers over 25 years to count on one hand with several fingers left over.
People acquire viruses on their computers because they do stupid things.
Also - the Ads never actually say that Mac do not get viruses. They only foucs on the fact that Windows PCs are infected more often.
finally apple will stop saying how great their stupid macs are because of no viruses compared to windows
no, now they will say that they have the first OS with antivirus ;)
(yeah, and this is from a mac user... :P )
Idiot any operating system is prone to viruses.. It's impossible for any OS not to be able to get them. Mac's are just not so much targeted as the the most common OS is Windows they will always target Windows. And Also Linux and Mac are both Unix operating systems which does help and make it harder to infect for hackers.
At least this virus would only destroy this users profile and leave system files untouched. UNIX permissions prevent that. Can Windows do that?
And this right after the commercial deeming windows "full of viruses"?
Psh..
@Juan
My friend got a trojan on his mac that asked for his password to install under the guise of iWork 09 (Pirated).
It got root privileges, meaning it had EVEN MORE POWER THAN HIM (And could do anything).
@Juan
Actually I would rather have the virus attack he system and leave my user files alone
@Juan: ACLs, they allow the OS to restrict data to a particular user. By default all folders, files, and other resources have ACLs assigned to them, some, such as Program Files and Windows, allow reading but not writing. If you are an admin, then you can write to this folder. That is where UAC - that thing that all you and your little Apple fanboy buddies as well as Apple in their commercials love to make a big deal about - pops up if you are an Admin and try to modify a file such directories. Meaning it is another layer of protection, if you try to modify such a folder that you really should think twice about, UAC displays a window asking you a second time.
Of course, if you would actually stop and try to learn before shouting your mouth off, you would not look like a fool.
Also, where is that Apple fanboy from a couple days ago saying that anti-virus is what slows down Windows computers? Can we expect the same from Apple?
Not necessarily so -- if a virus got root level control of the system -- it could lock you out of all files on the computer -- including user files.
@electron: Clearly not. Windows has had Defender (anti-spyware like this feature) since XP (standard in Vista).
And yea, they'll just keep spouting out: "Hey, we don't get viruses because nobody cares enough about our shitty all in one system"
"finally apple will stop saying how great their stupid macs are because of no viruses compared to windows"
HAHAH. Which one are you? Dumb or an uninformed troll? Everyone knows OS X has zero viruses. I bet you had no idea there viruses and trojans are different things.
@kingbirdfivezero: Which is why there's no reason for a full blown anti virus. Once malicious software gains root access on Unix OSes, the only surefire way to do something about it is to reformat, and that's assuming it's not hiding itself well enough to evade detection.
Apple advertising has changed. Instead of "Macs don't get viruses" the propaganda now reads: Macs don't get PC viruses.
A small, yet substantial, change.
@Omar: Yep, Agreed. Reformatting would be the only thing that you could do -- assuming, as you say, the virus isn't hiding somewhere that's hard to get at -- like the MBR of a hard drive. I encountered two of three of those a few years back, which, they rendered the drives useless.
Did your mom let you on the computer again?
This isn't virus protection is it? Read the article- while Engadget may be using the generic term 'antivirus' to describe this, it's really just Trojan protection. Trojans are applications you as the user have to install in your computer to have anything happen- you even need to provide your password if you've set one for your accounts.
@hamerhead_12, that's not bad, on campus last year 1 in 5 macs got infected and had to be formatted due to a virus.
Actually its not really a "Virus Scan" since OSX checks all Disk Images for integrity before mounting it. Its simply a routine that tells you if it finds the code of that one trojan while the file check.
Yeap.
People like to lump it all together, but there is a major difference. There are worms. There are malware. Viruses in their classical definition are as good as gone. Worms use OS native ways to propagate themselves to other connected system. Malware is something you download and has to run for it to activate itself.
On Windows to get infected you simply need to do the usual stuff - you do not even need to run programs from Internet, since IE can and does run automatically ActiveX anyway. My friend recently experienced that (for sake of experiment) on his new desktop with Windows Vista: in just three months of using IE, he got about dozen malware running on his box. Those are worms. For normal malware, you still need to run something manually to get infected.
On Mac OS X worms are pretty much non-existent. There are literally no vulnerabilities in default setup of Mac OS X, as all network services are turned off by default. Worms simply have no ways to propagate themselves. That leaves only malware.
Malware would be a problem on any OS. Regardless of security or user proficiency. E.g. there were already several occurrences with hijacked autoupdates of legit program, installing malware without any user intervention. And that's what Mac OS X now has to address too.
But it still a difference between Windows and Mac OS X. For the Windows you have to have some sort of A/V installed so that all activities would be checked: there are way to many infection angles in Windows. In Mac OS X case you do not need anything more special than trivial file check after download, because there are not that many infection angles.
I always skipped that integrity check, hey if I cant get a virus who cares right? lol jk. Never thought the integrity check was a big deal on flash drive. And yes its a hackintosh.
And thus their main marketing point against PCs becomes bullshit.
Well, not really. Macs still don't get viruses which I'm pretty sure was the message they were trying to carry across.
No, it was pretty much bullshit from the start.
@ Lando Calrissian
"And thus their main marketing point against PCs becomes bull"
hahaha! Another dumb-ass that has no clue about the difference between viruses and trojans. It's been 9 years since OS X came out and there are still ZERO viruses. Where are the OS X viruses big boy? show us proof!
@FoxKenji
If OS X was impervious to viruses and trojans, then why would it need anti-virus? Figure that one out, dumbass. I find it funny that you essentially censored my post when you replied. Censor this: FoxKenji, you're a dumbass and you're full of bullshit.
@FoxKenji
Consumers don't care what it's called... Malware, virus, trojan. Just because they can't get one of the three, doesn't mean they are happy about being able to get the other two
@FoxKenji
So you're going to take security advice from Symantec of all companies? Read the comments above you, they beg to differ from the perfect Mac world that you're imagining in your delusional mind.
Trojans and viruses are quite different, and this isn't virus protection. Read the article- while Engadget may be using the generic term 'antivirus' to describe this, it's really just Trojan protection. Trojans are applications you as the user have to install in your computer to have anything happen- you even need to provide your password if you've set one for your accounts.
@ FoxKenji
From: http://www.apple.com/getamac/faq/
"... No computer connected to the Internet is completely immune to all viruses and spyware..."
Jeez. Take an Operating Systems class. Even Apple themselves says that even OS X can have viruses. That's not to say Mac OS X users aren't well protected. It just means viruses are possible.
"If OS X was impervious to viruses and trojans, then why would it need anti-virus? Figure that one out, dumbass." Lando Calrissian
You don't deserve that screen name, Lando. Or maybe you do: Lando ratted out Solo to the Empire...
Anyway, about your conundrum with figuring out why OS X needs an antivirus... It's based on something that's been figured out for millions of years: if something's possible, you take measures against it.
"Never being attacked by a sabertooth in your cave" might be a result of a sabertooth never finding your cave, or it might be the result of keeping close watch and lighting a fire any time one comes near the cave. Either way, you are entitled to say "Never attacked by a sabertooth."
And... Who still says "dumbass" anymore?
So Lando, I'll leave you with some words from Han Solo: "Hey, you lost her to me fair and square."
Because I'll be on my 8th year of not having to worry about viruses? Or because Snow Leopard (apparently) added AV *and* speed improvements?
Yeah, I'm really gonna cry myself to sleep tonight.
Actually, I kid for effect. I haven't worried about viruses since I ditched Windows for Linux in '95. OS X is a new hobby for me.
@USE
I haven't worried about viruses at all because I'm vaguely competent.
@Lando Calrissian
I'm sorry but you are talking just about as much nonsense as FoxKenji. The idea that the presence of anti-malware software implies the presence of malware is just ridiculous. Are you suggesting that we are about to see a flood of malware for the Macintosh platform due to this software? The situation tomorrow will be just the same as today, which essentially boils down to the only real malware to the Macintosh platform being delivered in Torrents of pirated software, something that I honestly hope continues (software pirates deserve to get burnt).
I will finally note that the Apple's main marketing point is simply that they aren't Windows.