If Apple didn’t have a problem before, it does now. Antivirus firm Intego today reported that there is a new variant that of the Mac Defender Malware in the wild. This one has a new trick:
Unlike the previous variants of this fake antivirus,no administrator’s password is required to install this program. Since any user with an administrator’s account – the default if there is just one user on a Mac – can install software in the Applications folder, a password is not needed.
The fact that this is the case means that it’s only a matter of time before something really dangerous appears on the Mac platform as you can fully expect that this attack vector is being reverse engineered by those who have more evil thoughts in mind. For that reason, Apple needs to address the security of their OS now.
The days of Mac users feeling smug about not being the targets of virus writers are officially over.
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This entry was posted on May 25, 2011 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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New Mac Defender Variant Bypasses The OS X Admin Password…. Sucks To Be You Apple
If Apple didn’t have a problem before, it does now. Antivirus firm Intego today reported that there is a new variant that of the Mac Defender Malware in the wild. This one has a new trick:
Unlike the previous variants of this fake antivirus,no administrator’s password is required to install this program. Since any user with an administrator’s account – the default if there is just one user on a Mac – can install software in the Applications folder, a password is not needed.
The fact that this is the case means that it’s only a matter of time before something really dangerous appears on the Mac platform as you can fully expect that this attack vector is being reverse engineered by those who have more evil thoughts in mind. For that reason, Apple needs to address the security of their OS now.
The days of Mac users feeling smug about not being the targets of virus writers are officially over.
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This entry was posted on May 25, 2011 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.