Sales of AV software for Mac must be down, so it's time for the monthly "sky is falling" news release.
Following from the Ambrosia website, the company that first mentioned it:
Quote
Ambrosia Software's Andrew Welch explains:
You cannot be infected by this unless you do all of the following:
1) Are somehow sent (via email, iChat, etc.) or download the "latestpics.tgz" file
2) Double-click on the file to decompress it
3) Double-click on the resulting file to "open" it
...and then for most users, you must also enter your Admin password.
It does not exploit any security holes; rather it uses "social engineering" to get the user to launch it on their system. It requires the admin password if you're not running as an admin user. It doesn't actually do anything other than attempt to propagate itself via iChat. It has a bug in the code that prevents it from working as intended, which has the side-effect of preventing infected applications from launching. It's not particularly sophisticated.
End Quote
So, for those inclined to hyperbole and panic: RELAX. You cannot simply "catch" a trojan as you would a "virus." There are zero Mac OS X viruses. This is not the first Mac OS X trojan and it won't be the last. Even if someone does send you the "latestpics.tgz" file, you cannot be infected unless you unarchive the file, then open it, and authorize it to run. Just trash it. As usual, do not install and run applications from untrusted sources. Do not run Mac OS X as "root." Same stuff as usual
OS X has a built-in Firewall, use it.
Back to sleep. Wake me when someone finds a real one
Though I don't Ichat, or open strange attachments, today's news about a viral attack on MacX brings me to ask: what, if any, anti-viral / firewall downloads should be done to protect one from these sophisticated ne'er-do-wells? I try to run a very clean machine stripped to the required basics; but if I should do a protection layer I will. Thanks, Eric
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