Mac Virii Experiance

[Animortis]

These past weeks have seen an increase in the number of viruses available for Mac OSX. Since OSX is based on Unix, however not open source, it is probably a good idea to pay attention to the virii that are available for it and how a simularly written program might affect Linuxes.

As we all know, there aren't any real worms or virii for Linux, but before a few weeks ago, there werne't any for OSX either. While of the three security exploits all generally require the user on the system to have super-user access, we all know OSX doesn't exactly make security a priority like Linux does. The only thing that comes close is Ubuntu, which uses a sudo system simular to OSX. Though the virii that work on OSX aren't going to work on Ubuntu, it certainly is plausible now.

So what do you think of the OSX virii? I'm not terribly concerned, but I imagine they're a good learning experiance. Specifically, for me, never run as root, and when/if I get a Mac/Ubuntu, never run as the super user.

The last thing we need is a bunch of Unix viruses going around, requiring us to buy Virus scanners. That's part of the reason why I quit Windows.

[techieMoe]

These past weeks have seen an increase in the number of viruses available for Mac OSX. Since OSX is based on Unix, however not open source, it is probably a good idea to pay attention to the virii that are available for it and how a simularly written program might affect Linuxes.

Let me first say that the vast majority of things that are reported in the mass media as "OS X Virus" are not. They are usually trojans, and at worst badly written third-party applications. The most recent "virus" required the user to open up a TAR.GZ archive, and most that I've read have required some sort of user interaction beyond "visit this site".

As to how this relates to Linux, I could give a damn less. Viruses will happen, eventually. Most of us will be bright enough to keep our systems up to date and have the usual common sense required to keep these things off our computers. In the 8 years I used Microsoft Windows I recieved 1 virus. If a reasonably educated user can keep MS Windows secure, we all have nothing to worry about when it comes to OS X or Linux.

[carlosponti]

Let me first say that the vast majority of things that are reported in the mass media as "OS X Virus" are not. They are usually trojans, and at worst badly written third-party applications. The most recent "virus" required the user to open up a TAR.GZ archive, and most that I've read have required some sort of user interaction beyond "visit this site".

As to how this relates to Linux, I could give a damn less. Viruses will happen, eventually. Most of us will be bright enough to keep our systems up to date and have the usual common sense required to keep these things off our computers. In the 8 years I used Microsoft Windows I recieved 1 virus. If a reasonably educated user can keep MS Windows secure, we all have nothing to worry about when it comes to OS X or Linux.

DAMN STRAIGHT

i havent had many virii in my lifetime either maybe two but they got in due to my ignorance.

[Animortis]

All the PCs in my office caught one - The one that spreads through Bluetooth. I was actually though hoping we'd take the opportunity to pre-empt the inevitable Linux virii.

[bigtomrodney]

I'm like Moe, I've only ever had one virus - that was blaster and it was a freshly built machine (read uptime 3 minutes) that was on a LAN. If you patch your system you should be okay as long as you keep away from root. Most machines I have seen infected are either not being patched or belong to users that consistently ignore warnings and strange symptoms. To be honest I still think malware sucks, I think things would be better if the windows world took more from the unix school of thought.

[onlinebacon]

I have never ever had a virus on any of MY machines, although the windows home pc that belongs to everyone _crawls_ most of the time because of the HUGE amount of virii for windows

[fingal]

Yes, the important point has already been made - but worth underlining - most viruses do their damage through the ignorance of end users. If someone is naive enough to believe that downloading a certain something will achieve a certain something else (beyond what you would expect from a software package) then viruses will spread.

At work I'm responsible for monitoring emails to a specifc account which we have. Viruses are not a daily hazard, but they happen. What I do is scan through the emails, and it goes something like this:

spam, spam, spam .... Ah! Another virus. Delete. etc.

With practice you can see them coming a mile off.

<edit>Having said that I just read this article which made things a bit clearer for me.</edit>

[Weedman]

As to how this relates to Linux, I could give a damn less. Viruses will happen, eventually. Most of us will be bright enough to keep our systems up to date and have the usual common sense required to keep these things off our computers. In the 8 years I used Microsoft Windows I recieved 1 virus. If a reasonably educated user can keep MS Windows secure, we all have nothing to worry about when it comes to OS X or Linux.

what the people with low download limits. updating linux is a big job (downloading wise). you know that.

i couldnt have counted the times ive had a virus or some sort of other crap under windows. at least 50 viruses i guess, and over 1000 things of spyware/adware/other crap.

i should be using a linux firewall. i just need another psu for the machine (and maybe a hdd).

your right. one day linux will get a virus, but it wll be shrugged off within a few hours, even if the headlines are screaming "linux gets a virus".
-weed

[fingal]

i should be using a linux firewall. i just need another psu for the machine (and maybe a hdd).

What I've gradually realised is that there's no absolute definition of what a 'firewall' is. It can be hardware / software related... Or kind of both. I've ended up with 2 firewalls ... One in my router, the other built into Mandriva (Shorewall). Surfing is more fun when you feel secure.

Have you tried Guarddog? It's a front end for configuring IP tables.

[Weedman]

i havent tried guarddog. ill look at it.

personally, i prefer a hardware firwall as my parents still use windows, and i personally feel more secure when all of my pcs with windows & linux use a hardware firewall.

or maybe i should wait until i (ever) get a router. but then im just dreaming.

i have tried using smoothwall b4, but as i said b4, the ic just suddenly stopped working.
EDIT: had a look at guarddog. it looks like a perfect app for me! thanks fingal!
-weed