Comments on: Oh Look. An Apple WORM?

By: Brett_x

Brett_x — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 20:33:11 +0000

“Real outbreaks are more than ever possible.”

That sounds like a virus company’s motto. Should every mac user now buy antivirus software?

That aside, the strange part of his threat is: He doesn’t have access to a PPC Mac? You mean the kind you can get for less than $100?

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:07:58 +0000

Mac user since 1988, OSX since version 10.2 (5 years)

Don’t have any viruses yet, don’t use any virus software. And don’t tell me I must have hidden viruses, spyware etc. I know better.

24 million copies of OSX out there, but the most dangerous time is early in the life of an operating system, not when it has been out there for 5 years. Vista, virus in first 8500 copies.

Could it happen: Yes, but less likely now, not more.

Am I really worried? NO

By: Joel Cairo

Joel Cairo — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:44:30 +0000

I can to some degree understand the hackers who search for holes in security code to make some sort of profit, but these hackers who think that finding and exploiting flaws in an OS raises them to some sort of deity level within the programming community just pisses me off. I mean really, aside from those in the development and security community, who else really gives a crap if this guy found an exploit? Some unbathed nerd living in his parents basement who searches the web for other bottom feeders who shares his passion for Tron collectables and can reverse engineer code? These hackers need to put their computer skills to good use and start patching XP and OSX…they’d be in a far better position to navigate that skill into a high paying job and earn themselves the respect of other PC users and nerds!

By: Penetrate

Penetrate — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:07:37 +0000

Interesting… seems now some guys are taking interest in breaking MAC. I am eager to see some sort of exploit code being published.

Hope this guy is not kidding around

By: Neil Anderson

Neil Anderson — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:42:03 +0000

Worm: “any of a number of creeping or burrowing invertebrate animals with long, slender, soft bodies and no limbs.”
Any similarity to worm writers?

By: dre

dre — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:18:55 +0000

You said, “This story prove both things…”

I’m going to have to agree with Matasano on your first wrong assumption.

In regards to your second incorrect assumption, infosecsellout does live in a relatively liberal US city that is not in WA; and works for a legitimate (in all ways) UK company, although I’m certain you’ll never guess the right one.

By: jetfanboy

jetfanboy — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:57:41 +0000

Even if this is functional, it will only propagation to computers on the same subnet (As far as I am able to tell, anyway).

It writes a file to the Desktop? Well, that isn’t particularly difficult–it
could be done with AppleScript, if you could convince the user to run the script.

And there’s the rub: barring an exploit to escalate privileges, you’d have to convince the user to run a script or application AND do so with administrators privileges to “Bot the Mac” in the same way that PCs are have been botted over and over again.

The point isn’t that Macs are invulnerable, or that Mac users should
be scolded as children and talked down to about security. The point is that Macs are not quite the same “house of cards” (*especially* in security terms) that PCs have historically been.

By: Fred Hamranhansenhansen

Fred Hamranhansenhansen — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:47:37 +0000

The interesting thing to me is the psychology of these so-called hackers who are so desperate to prove the Mac is vulnerable that they keep crying wolf. They are having the opposite effect to what they’re trying to do. When you hear about a “worm” that exploits something that has already been patched by the easy-to-use Software Update system that gives the user confidence. When the MOAB folks, who are to computer security as Rush Limbaugh is to journalism, can only crash a Mac and then go on to find a few bugs in third party apps it gives a nice warm feeling.

The fact is that network security is 30 years old and Apple’s system does the right things with user accounts and software updates so that is why they’ve had success. Windows is wel known to have architectural flaws that can be exploited and lacks basic security features from a decade ago, and that is why Microsoft has been unable to secure it. It runs professional malware like a pro.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:56:58 +0000

Other reports are that this same author has made similar claims in the past and refused to substantiate any of those claims.

And no worm came from that either.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:39:41 +0000

“Macintosh with Intel is an interesting target.”

You lost me there. If this is a genuine claim, then presumably the blogger’s claim that he’s writing a version for the PPC architecture is true as well. IOW, if there is a worm, or something like one, it doesn’t target anything peculiar to Intel chips.

http://www.beskerming.com/commentary/2007/07/18/222/A_Worm_for_Your_Apple

However, I enjoyed the quotes. My favourite was “there are [sic] no such thing as [sic] full-proof [sic] system”. Can someone tell this semi-literate thug that the term is “fool-proof” and he’s supplying the “fool” himself in this piece of histrionics?