Snort
Excuse me while I have a little snicker here ……….GUFFAW…… .. OK it was a bit bigger than little. I’ve said numerous times both here for example, and elsewhere that the only reason that Mac computers don’t suffer the virus/trojan attacks that Windows boxes do is simply the fact that they represent such an infinitesimally small percentage (3%) of the desktop environment. However, the advent of the iTunes and the iPod with its near dominence of that market has caught the eye of virus writers at last.
Users of Apple’s music jukebox iTunes need to update the software to avoid a potential security threat.
Hackers can build malicious playlist files which could crash the program and let them seize control of the computer by inserting Trojan code.
A new version of iTunes is now available from the Apple website which solves the problem.
Security firm iDefence, which notified users of the problem, recommended that users upgrade to iTunes version 4.7.1.
The problem affects all users of iTunes - Windows and Mac OS - running versions 4.7 and earlier.
Just goes to show, it is prominence/dominence in a market that carries with it the threat of attack and vulnerability exploits, not the software itself. Here’s a prediction for you. If the Mac Mini really takes off and Apple’s share of the desktop starts approaching 10 to 15% you can bet the virus writers will turn their attention to OSx and you’ll start seeing vulnerabilties showing up on a regular basis. If you pay attention to security lists like SANS you will see over the course of time that there are almost as many security holes reported for *nix Os as there are for Windows. The difference though is that much of the *nix arena is open source and as such gets fixed quicker. That’s one thing MS must improve on, it’s response time to known exploits/holes.
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Comment from Douglas Murray
Time: 1/18/2005, 9:51 pm
No doubt you are correct that the smaller installed base of Macs makes them a less attractive target for malicious pranks than Windows or *nix systems. However, at the moment the number of Mac OS X viruses, etc. is only an infinitesimally small percentage of its “infinitesimally small” market share. That is – there are fewer viruses (approaching zero) than one would expect from looking at market share (installed base of approx. 30 million). Is the relatively small market share the only reason for this? The potential security threat in iTunes you mention has been fixed before being exploited, even before being announced as a threat by the BBC and other media. I didn’t see any mention of any actual virus writers actually exploiting the weakness (yet). The patching of yet another potential security hole by Apple is an example of the good work that keeps me a happy customer.
While your underlying point is probably accurate - that growing popularity will encourage more bad deeds - your apparent glee in the likely worsening of Mac users currently virus free experience is wishful schadenfreude, so far.