Coming soon to a MAC near you

[alexora]

Seven years and 3 months since I started this thread, and not a single member has reported their Mac being infected.

Does this make any of you think...?

[Grumble]

Originally Posted by alexora

Seven years and 3 months since I started this thread, and not a single member has reported their Mac being infected.

Does this make any of you think...?

I concure and have had no detectable malware on my own system but honestly, I had the same experience during my Windows days. More headaches, hassles and frustrations for sure but no infections but that had more to do with my three and a half decades of experience using computers than anything.

It has been pretty funny to see the tech press freak out when proof-of-concept malware is discovered despite having no real threat. Honestly I think that works in our favor because the rarity of it alerts us to any potential risks if or when they come. A single zero-threat Mac virus gets press from CNN but Windows and Android malware gets very little attention most of the time which is unfortunate considering what a shit show of vulnerabilities and malware we see in the Android market.

[sumairp]

Hate to Rain On Your Parade but . . . .

Techinsider dot io is reporting:-
"Macs have been hit with a nasty form of malware for the first time, Reuters first reported, citing a report from researchers at Palo Alto Networks."

Hope that cheers you up

[Grumble]

Originally Posted by sumairp

Hate to Rain On Your Parade but . . . .

Techinsider dot io is reporting:-
"Macs have been hit with a nasty form of malware for the first time, Reuters first reported, citing a report from researchers at Palo Alto Networks."

Hope that cheers you up

Here's some clarification. News coverage on such things is usually abysmal on the actual facts at hand.



Malware-infected Transmission 2.9 app threatened OS X users, stopped by XProtect
by Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider

"Users who downloaded the Transmission BitTorrent client on Friday or Saturday are being warned to update to the latest 2.92 version to avoid being targeted by a ransomware that infiltrated an earlier version of the open source software.


Claud Xiao and Jin Chen of Palo Alto Networks reported on the threat earlier today, noting that "attackers infected two installers of Transmission version 2.90 with KeRanger on the morning of March 4."

KeRanger is the name given to what is believed to be the "first fully functional" ransomware on the OS X platform. When incorporated into an app, the malware connects to a remote server via the Tor anonymizing service, then "begins encrypting certain types of document and data files on the system."

The malware then "demands that victims pay one bitcoin (about $400) to a specific address to retrieve their files." Researchers say the malicious code is "under active development" and seems to be trying to also encrypt users' Time Machine backups to also prevent them from being able to recover their backed up data.


Mac OS X's GateKeeper, XProtect spring into action


The same day that Palo Alto Networks discovered the threat—which was distributed with the Transmission app in a DMG package signed by a valid developer ID—Apple revoked the signing certificate involved to prevent new installations of the infected version via the Mac's iOS-like GateKeeper signed-app security system.

Apple also began automatic distribution of an OS X XProtect antivirus signature to flag and quarantine existing compromised downloads.

The security firm noted that anyone who directly installed Transmission between March 4th and March 5th may be infected with the KeRanger malware, and outlined steps to identify and remove the malware if it has already been installed.


Because Apple has already revoked the certificate and distributed an XProtect update, anyone attempting to open a known-infected version of the Transmission app will now be given a warning dialog box that notes "Transmission.app will damage your computer. You should move it to the Trash," or "Transmission can't be opened. You should eject the disk image."

A clean, updated 2.91 version of the Transmission app can be downloaded from the app developer's website."





As usual, the actual threat is not quite what some would believe but it is certainly a bit of a wake up call but also goes to show that the security of the platform is very good.

My very tech saavy father got hit recently with a very nasty strain of similar ransomware on his Windows system and it is very nasty stuff. It even went after his external drives though he fortunately had a disconnected one with his most important data. His rig was highly protected and secure and he has been a pro-level Windows user for decades and he still got hit.

No matter what you run it is important to back up your data and stay informed on the current situation and thankfully the overreactive media quickly brings any such threat to our attention. They think its a "Ha! Ha! You got hit too" thing but in reality they are helping keep Mac users safe.

That said, we shouldn't be arrogant and "poke the bear". Thanks for the heads up, sumairp.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by sumairp

Hate to Rain On Your Parade but . . . .

Techinsider dot io is reporting:-
"Macs have been hit with a nasty form of malware for the first time, Reuters first reported, citing a report from researchers at Palo Alto Networks."

Hope that cheers you up

Has your Mac been infected?

[sumairp]

I do crunch numbers and need the CPU's, therefore I don't have a Mac. All OS's have their good & bad points. I do not deride other peoples choices. I am paranoid about security and being spied on.

see Oculus Founder: Rift will come to Mac if Apple “ever releases a good computer” - arstechnica dot com

[Grumble]

Originally Posted by sumairp

I do crunch numbers and need the CPU's, therefore I don't have a Mac. All OS's have their good & bad points. I do not deride other peoples choices. I am paranoid about security and being spied on.

see Oculus Founder: Rift will come to Mac if Apple “ever releases a good computer” - arstechnica dot com

To be fair, he specified that "It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn't prioritize high-end GPUs" and I have to agree with that. Don't get me wrong, I still love my Macs to bits and nothing else can compare for what I need from my system but I wish Apple would address this. Their recent efforts on the software side have been very good with OpenGL performance and their new Metal API but I wish they'd do more on the hardware side of things.

While integrated graphics have come a long way and definitely have a place in their very efficient laptops and entry level systems, it is very frustrating that you can't get a 21" iMac or Mac Mini with discreet graphics or upgrade graphics on the Pros anymore. It's a damn shame when you look at the PowerPC days when Macs shipped with industry leading graphics and math co-processors. The Xeons in the Pros are excellent chips but the system is in dire need of an update.

[HiTrack99]

At the moment, it is only coming through a download of a torrent client, from what I understand anyway!

[Grumble]

Originally Posted by HiTrack99

At the moment, it is only coming through a download of a torrent client, from what I understand anyway!

Yeah, it was an earlier version of Transmission, its already been fixed. Apple also addressed it through GateKeeper right away. The steps to figure out if your system is infected and getting rid of it is pretty easy. Installing the latest version of Transmission apparently deals with it too.

I use Transmission but when I heard there was a vulnerability discovered in the Sparkle framework a little while ago I disabled the automatic update so I had no issues. This article from those that discovered it covers it in depth and how to deal with it if your system was compromised:

researchcenter.paloaltonetworksDOTcom/2016/03/new-os-x-ransomware-keranger-infected-transmission-bittorrent-client-installer/

[HiTrack99]

At least they have dealt with it.