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I love how this statement implies Intego customers look at porn....perverts!! jk jk

Sadly this will effct an abnormal amount of Mac users since most at between the ages of 18 and 35 and are male.

Oh, come on - everybody knows Mac users NEVER visit porn sites.

Wonder which porn sites these are just so I would could take a closer look and make sure I don't fall into this trap!

Just wait for the mainstream press, Dvorak, Enderle et al to spin this as meaning Macs are just as vulnerable is PCs. I cringe just thinking about it...

If a Trojan makes you hoarse, you're doing it wrong.

"Oh, come on - everybody knows Mac users NEVER visit porn sites."

Sure, the kids are protected by the (no, not the infamous new firewall), but the parental controls in Leopard

Time to sell all your AAPL stock! This could take it to pre-OS7 levels.

Oops! Did I say that out loud?

Finally some use for Leopard Parental Control

Ummm...yeah, like I'm gonna willingly install software that I didn't intend to download

Anyone who is stupid enough to do this to themselves deserves it.

Damn it my mac crapped out....

There is never a reason to install a codec from a website; ever...

Duh...

This one seems plausible.

Best quote in a while MDN! Laughed my arse off!

"but we suggest that an even better way to protect against such trojans is to use your head and not download, authorize, and install software from porn sites."

Wonder how long it took RadDoc to get his mac back up and running?

;-p

porn / ms

in together to hack the Mac.


I am glad QT doesn't work with their sh_t.
And can't bother to add new codecs which I have no clue on managing.

So being on a mac is like using a condom.

MDN, I would say that the best way to protect against this IS to install Intego's VirusBarrier. There are many computer users who don't understand when to enter their password since they are asked so much for it. It's like reading the license agreements. People just click by it. Many who are still not comfortable with computers (I know many older people like that) need something for protection. Intego is correct and their software is good. I also prefer NetBarrier to many of the options. Intego got a bad rap a few years back for handling something poorly. But they are going strong now and I think it is wise to have some background protection on the Mac for a time when something might sneak up on us.

COS OSX RULES

Difficult to believe, that anyone would use their administrator’s password to say "sure install whatever a porn site suggests..."

No matter how secure an OS, still can't stop the user from silly

As a security researcher, this is most likely a case of FUD and an attempt to drive sells for their software. The Trojan that he is describing is a common Windows DNS hyjacker. Not saying that one could not be created for the MacOS. It's just not very likely and I've looked at thousands of Trojans from Porn Websites in the past few weeks and have not found one yet that is targeting the MacOS (Windows IE 6 and IE 7 and even Vista).

I'd take any claim that a company that sells software to protect against such things with a huge dose of salt. Until independent conformation is made in public, I'm sceptically.

And so how do you get rid of it once it is in your computer????

OK, porn users, pay close attention: be careful what you install, or you may catch something bad.

All others: don't worry, your Mac is as safe as ever.

Demon, Rob Griffiths at MacWorld did some looking into this and seems convinced that this is legitimate. Unless new facts emerge, I doubt this is FUD. And of course a security firm will promote its own software. When you go to a car dealer, you expect them to promote their own cars. But you also expect information on their cars that you can't get elsewhere. OK. Maybe cars is a bad example, but the point is that people in the field will give you information you sometimes need. So to disregard Intego (or any other legitimate company) is not always advisable, IMO. And what's the problem anyway having some virus and other protection on the Mac? Are you trying to keep Macs clear of such things because your new career is in writing malware?

Wallace the Man, look here:
http://www.macworld.com/2007/10/firstlooks/trojanhorse/index.php

Symantec are feeling snappier now...

"Sadly this will effct an abnormal amount of Mac users since most at between the ages of 18 and 35 and are male."

But wait! I thought all Mac users were gay! Why would they be interested in heterosexual pornography?

MDN which head were you talking about?

Such rubbish. Mac users don't look at porn sites. They are too busy creating content and authoring sites.

Installing "a codec" from a porn site is one of the dumbest things you can do. Macs have locks on the doors, but if the user is a moron...

I bet there will people who will install this, and if they learn not to trust everything and everyone - good for them, if not - ...well, nature eliminates weak and dumb.

from Hg Wells: "MDN, I would say that the best way to protect against this IS to install Intego's VirusBarrier. There are many computer users who don't understand when to enter their password since they are asked so much for it."

In my experience, I am VERY rarely prompted for my administrator password, and I darn sure click "cancel" if I'm not explicitly authorizing an install. If your Mac is imitating Vista and nagging you every few minutes for your administrator password, you already have a problem.

Oh, and I didn't realize the venerable Mr. Wells was shilling for Intego. Royalties from his books must have dried up.

MDN magic word: "few" - as in, there are so few deceased authors you can trust these days.

Who said it was hetero?




MW= "bed" (do they do that on purpose?)

A trojan for Macs? AAAAAH! We have to save ourselves! EVERYBODY RUN!!! SWITCH TO VISTA!!! S-W-I-T-C-H T-O V-I-S-T-A-A-A-A!!!!

"If the user then proceeds with installation, the Trojan horse installs; installation requires an administrator’s password, which grants the Trojan horse full root privileges“

WRONG! It will only give the Trojan ADMINISTRATOR privileges. Unless you know how to use the command line you can’t get root privileges.

Gosh, porn sites... hmmm, never go there.

Seriously, anyone who downloads from such sources deserves a good kicking (with leather and high heels of course).

Ahem, I'm not sure the emoticons work, so try this -- :-O

Methinks HG Wells works for Intego.

There they go. Safe porn surfing was the number one reason to switch to a Mac.

Watch the Mac market share disintegrate now.

Buy Dell shares ASAP.

Wow. A non-theoretical trojan. But it still requires the user to do things as opposed to the automatic stuff that happens with Windows. Nonetheless, one should surf carefully.

@Peter

You beat me to it...mac users are safe since the malicious site it for heterosexuals..and we all know mac users are gay...

@Peter and BalLmeR

They never specified the type of porn sites.

@Pron

So now looking at porn you can catch something, and if you have sex you can catch something. Now that is a delimia.

No, H.P. Lovecraft, Hg Wells does not work for Intego. If you check other forums where Intego has been discussed in recent months, you'll see similar takes. So, would it be your preference to have nothing extra installed on the Mac (saving money)? Or do you have another security company whose software you prefer?

Well the least they could do is list the names and URLs of the websites in question. Not that I want to go there, or anything, but to be sure I could avoid them. Yeah, that's it, avoid them!!!!

Magic word "shown", as in "what would we have been shown if we had gone to one of these sites?"

This is why I use either MPlayer or VLC for my viewing pleasure, not Quicktime

Hey Fatty, apparently hell is freezing over 'cause on TWIT this week Dvorak actually is advising people to choose Mac. He's also saying he thinks Ballmer/MicroSoftie is nuts trying to compete with Google selling ads. Microsoft is losing focus and it shows.

I checked the link above for the MacWorld article by Rob Griffiths. Remember that Rob was one of the writers who exposed the Leap A/Oompa-loompa Trojan as a wimpy badly-written piece of code.

His tone this time around is A LOT different:

"This is really bad. Really. And even though it’s targeted at porn surfers today, the malware could easily be associated with anything else... Because this thing may spread to other such sites, we spent some time investigating the trojan—no, not its source sites!—to determine the best way to tell if you’ve been infected, as well as how to remove the software if you do find it on your machine."

You might wish to bookmark this article just in case. Also, let's hope ClamXav is updated soon as well to ID this nastyware.

Although theOSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse is not a virus, it is serious!!

Laughing at this Trojan is not the appropriate response this time around.

MDN MW = united

So let's be united as Mac users in helping us protect one another from real security threats.

what's to stop some other scammers/assholes to implement this in a more legitimate site - say, a spoof of apple's quicktime page?

one could argue that nobody should visit porn sites and do a download - that's common sense, which, sorry to say guys, even some mac users don't have. but if you click a link and it looks like apple's site and says it's installing a quicktime updater, someone who might not know that macs don't usually update like that wouldn't think twice about clicking.

this is a serious issue and hopefully apple will patch it up soon. we can all still take joy in knowing that our platform has far less malicious software on it than windows. =)

oh, macsmiley just basically said what i just did. heh

Hmm..being a creative Mac user I suppose I'd either be the porn star gettin' some pom pom in and being paid lots of $$$, then again be a porn video director - as if direction is required??

On a serious note I'd like to hear more about this Trojan affecting Macs and from an independant source. Not to say anything is wrong with Intego, after all most anti-virus software developers have been saying this for years.

They would wouldn't they, its their business to scare computer users into buying 'extra protection' against infectious diseases?

It is up to each of us if we want to take heed, luckily for us Macheads we don't have to - pity the poor Windows user who has to take heed or get infected and die.

Damn, now I'll have to get a linux box to view porn. Damn.

What is the sound of one hand typing on a mac?

Ohh..on the subject of spoof websites mentioned above, it doesn't matter if you're a Mac user, Windows user or Linux user as those types of emails & websites made to look genuine are more related to identity theft. PayPal is a case in question, I happen to think they've been the most spoofed brand of Internet based businesses ever!

For emails it doesn't take much effort to delete such scams from your inbox as the email always looks too good to be true, so it probably is, how often do people actually win the Minnesota lottery for instance (let alone I'm 5,000+ miles away from Minnesota) through not having even entered into the draw and get an email saying I've won???

On the Mac side Micheal Tsai's SpamSieve works perfectly for me after a short period of training it to 'sieve' out spam emails with dubious spoofed websites usually provided to catch out the unwary.