Posted on 01/02/2006 3:54:03 PM PST by Swordmaker
Thanks for that. I'm researching it now....
Sounds like a great Law Enforcement tool.
Insert the virus in some kiddie pork and get it circulating.
Then after a few months you can start picking up the perverts as the virus reports back the location of the infected machines.
"Virus attacks every Mac ever made, hundreds affected."
MSIE users may be infected automatically. Firefox, Mozilla and Opera users will be prompted for action (open with application, save to hard drive).
F-Secure:
"In our tests (under XP SP2) older versions of Firefox (1.0.4) defaulted to open WMF files with "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer", which is vulnerable. Newer versions (1.5) defaulted to open them with Windows Media Player, which is not vulnerable...but then again, Windows Media Player is not able to show WMF files at all so this might be a bug in Firefox. Opera 8.51 defaults to open WMF files with "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" too. However, all versions of Firefox and Opera prompt the user first."
I've tested Firefox 1.5 and Mozilla 1.7.12. With both browsers, the above is the case. In my case, Paint Shop Pro is resgistered to handle WMF files. When encountering a WMF file (which I created myself) embeded in a HTML file (I tried both the IMG and EMBED tags), these browsers prompted for action.
Opera 8.5 displayed the IMG tagWMF file as an empty box with the word "Image" inside. The EMBEDED tag WMF file was displayed as an empty box with the words "Plug-in content" inside.
LOL
susie
Yep...and then Macs will be the target.
I just love these Mac folks who think that the answer to all ills a Mac.
Get a clue.
Nah... you can't manipulate a Mac.
Also, I only go to a few sites good sites like this one.
.
Cute. Here Let me re-state it correctly for you:
"No Vruses attack every OSX Mac ever made, 20,000,000 not infected!"
otoh, is this alert just a bit overblown?
If Metasploit and the other packet crafting tools were directed at Macs with as much vigor as at Windows, Macs would have a huge increase in vulnerabilities.
Anything connected to the Internet and accepting/processing unknown packets is theoretically exploitable. And it will get worse (or a million-dollar product solution for someone), because tools such as Metasploit make it possible to undermine the fundamental design of ALL firewalls, intrusion detection, and AV products.
These packet crafters make it (relative) child's play to change signatures quickly, thus evading conventional security measures (e.g., signature detection). Think of it this way: one attack has a hexadecimal payload, the next gen is in binary; and the one after that is decimal. Or a handful of uneeded bytes discarded or rearranged, again to avoid the detection measures.
OS X doesn't provide any inherent protection against these types of attacks or methods. I like the Mac, but it really is security through obscurity.
That explains why my computer was running slower after reading about that brave/stupid teen... hmmm
And that changes the situation today exactly how? The independent clause, "nobody targets them" is irrelevant. As you said, "MACs don't have viruses".
Some might say, "Well, if enough people starting using Macs, somebody COULD write Mac viruses." So what? Today, and for the forseeable future, "Macs don't have viruses".
I. STAND. BY. MY. TAGLINE.
If everyone switched to a Mac, you would have the problem....you see, it's not worth a hackers time to destroy the 25 or 30 macs out there...they have a need to cause great damage....
Soooooooooo, When a pic displays on the monitor like the ones we see on our FR pages, that could give us the vulnerability...???
Why do these threads always degenerate into Mac versus PC quibbling.....who gives a crap. If you want virus proof tech buy WebTV, I spend days repairing computers for friends that click on every popup and email......I have a Windows 2000 system running Firefox, ZA and AVG that has never been infected in 4 constant years of use.....to each their own.
If you're using MSIE, it would appear the answer is "yes".
See my post #44 for more.
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