Virus on Macintosh - Page 2

hombre · 09-30-2002, 09:27 PM

Quote:


	The report told me nothing about what or where they were.

Did you have the verbose option turned on? I think that's the only way to find out the details of the putative infected files. Unfortunately, that option slows the scan down even more.

tcascone · 10-04-2002, 07:53 AM

The only virus I ever had on a mac was on my Power Mac 7200 back in '98. It was that annoying Word 6 virus that saved all your documents as templates. I was a college student at the time, and the college ran on Macs. That virus hit the campus like a plague. Fortunately, it wasn't a major computer killer or anything, but there were a lot of annoyed students.

logo · 10-04-2002, 08:23 AM

In those old days of SE/30s and LCs I came across some nVir...

Never a big problem. Disinfectant was the cure!!!

AHunter3 · 10-04-2002, 10:34 AM

It's like worrying about earthquakes or tornados in New York City. New York does occasionally get such weather, and the possibility exists that a bad one could hit some day. But it just isn't the same level of concern as earthquakes in western California or Mexico, or tornados in Mississippi or Kansas. (~ viruses on Windows PCs).

olwylee · 10-04-2002, 10:55 AM

About three years ago i somehow aquired the 666 virus while running OS 8.6 and it was really nasty, by the time i realized what was happening it had corrupted more then half my HD.

As for lately, I am on several mailing lists and receive up to 200 emails a day. Virex catches a virus daily from my documents folder. Although none of the viruses affect 10.1.5, it does appear that the number of viruses out there is rapidly increasing and I believe it is just a matter of time before a unix virus will surface and do some real damage to those unprotected.

puffynet · 10-05-2002, 04:50 PM

The only virus I ever "saw" on the Mac (since 1995) came through a Windoze email. I don't remember it's name but even if I had opened the viral attachment it would not have affected the Mac. Bottom line: never had a virus!

innersense · 10-28-2002, 02:11 PM

I've been wondering to myself for the last couple of months wether Virex or Norton virus software actually works...It doesnt seem to pick up any viruses even though I know there is weird virus type activity going on in my computer...

For instance...

Today I switch on my computer (G4 powerbook) with Jaguar installed. Went to the Internet Sharing control panel (where your firewall settings are etc etc) to change a few settings. Where you turn your different types of file sharing on and off I noticed another option...which isnt normally there....It began with a "C" it almost looked like it said Carrichio, or something similar, although it didnt. Underneath that it said something about "sharing for timmy, oh yes". I know this sounds really weird...but this is not normal!!! Im running norton anti virus now, however no doubt it will not pick anything up...I clicked off what it said before I could write it down...also...when i did start up my internet sharing it took longer then usual to start up.....

has anybody else experienced the same problem? I know this sounds really weird..

Regards

Innersense

macmath · 10-28-2002, 03:00 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by innersense Where you turn your different types of file sharing on and off I noticed another option...which isnt normally there....It began with a "C" it almost looked like it said Carrichio, or something similar, although it didnt. Underneath that it said something about "sharing for timmy, oh yes". I know this sounds really weird...but this is not normal!!!

I've read at Macintouch (http://www.macintouch.com/mosxreader10.2pt14.html) where others have seen this exact same thing. They were wondering whether or not it was an Apple Easter Egg. I believe that this ("Cupertino Sharing On", and "Lots of information for you. and you. and timmy.") is a reference to something in literature, although I can't recall what. If you go to this link, this item is near the bottom of the page. It is worth reading because it even lists the file where it is located ("/System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.prefPane/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/SharingPref.nib/objects.nib" ). It is also localized into other languages!

jonesy · 10-28-2002, 06:13 PM

In the five or six years I've worked as a Mac tech for our University I've come across virii mabey three times and that wass years ago. All of the virii were Office macro virii. They were virulent and spread themselves pretty good within the oaffices involed (ex. or Geology dept's Macs all got infected by one professor's machine) but I've never seen a confirmed true-to-life virus on the scale of Win virii.

Virii on the Mac or BSD platforms are not a myth, the platforms may be harder to infect but that doesn't mean some enterprising cracker won't find some chink in the armor. And as is often said in the Linux community: "The only reason not many of these come our way is because of Windows' greater visibility."

Probably of greater concern, though, are direct hacks and break-ins. Keep up with CERTand other security advisories, your patches, and have a clear defense plan and you should remain generally safe.

innersense · 10-29-2002, 03:34 AM

Mac math

What you wrote is what I had on my laptop...thanks for your post - at least i know im not going mad!

So what is it? Will it do may laptop any damage? Can I get rid of it?

Cheers

Innersense

macmath · 10-29-2002, 09:50 AM

I don't know enough to answer this question commandingly, but ...

a) It should not affect to the operation of the laptop.
b) I can't imagine it doing any harm to the hardware.
c) My guess is that it only will show up under very special circumstances (such as the first time you open the panel) and that you won't see it any more.

I have not been able to get it to happen myself.

Someone like mervTormel could probably figure out when it is invoked.

I would just ignore it.

Bisam · 11-12-2002, 05:12 AM

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum after having upgraded to 10.2.1...
I read this virus thread last night and couldn't help smiling at the mention of MS mail progs and IE also falling under this category. I have been using Entourage from OfficeX for a week or two now, having used Outlook Express in 9 without problems (sort of) for a long time.
Anyway, Entourage was open in back and I decided to check mail whilst reading this thread and low and behold, a new mail (spam? from which I don't suffer) came in, addressed to my main account, backdated (yesterday I think). I didn't see a paperclip, so no attachment and feeling safe as a Mac user, I opened the mail, which appreared to connect to a website to display html mail, (permanent DSL here) but only displayed a broken jpeg symbol. I closed the window and deleted the mail, selected it and a couple of others in the deleted pane and backspaced to get rid of them.

Since that moment, the sent mail pane is unable to display all its contents and will crash if I click where a sent mail should be. The program seems to work OK otherwise. I have quit it numerous times, logged out and re-booted, trashed the prefs in my user library and now re-installed (even to another drive) with no change. I don't particularly mind not using it and switching to Mail or shopping around for an alternative, but something is not quite right somewhere. Does this sound normal? Any ideas?

Mail seems usable, but it also leaves a copy of all mail on the server as I can pick them up with the laptop again! Seeing as I use email to recieve larger attachments, this could prove to be a bit of a nuisance. Is there a way to turn this off?

Thanks for your time...

Patrick

mervTormel · 11-12-2002, 05:17 AM

bisam,

close all MS apps, then launch entourage with the option key held down and try a 'typical' rebuild first.

doxx · 11-22-2002, 07:49 PM

working since 15 yrs with Macs and had viruses two or three times. No big deal at all. One was in the 90ies, kind of a worm virus and it spread over the whole network with about 15 machines... Disinfectant did the job very well...

Jacques · 09-05-2003, 01:33 PM

I found a good article about this very subject today.

It's tally for Macintosh viruses:

Word Macro: 553
Classic Mac: 26
OS X: Zero

Jacques

Irene · 09-05-2003, 05:05 PM

About four years ago I got my daughter a Pismo as a college graduation gift. It came with a faulty track pad (actually the entire front acted as a huge trackpad, and you could not rest your wrist on the computer!) and was retuned to Apple for repair. It came back to us with that problem solved and with a virus. I'm fumbling for the name-- 7 dust, gold-dust, one of you may recall the name. Agax cured it.

Apple denied causing it but boards then showed a number of pople got the virus after having computers repaired at Apple.

trinitrotoluene · 09-22-2003, 01:11 PM

I work at a University computer lab, so MS Office is a must. A few months ago someone got a word macro virus on 15 of the computers.

pink · 09-22-2003, 03:16 PM

So far, all virii I saw (in ten years) were Word Macros (some of you probably remember Word 6...).
Most recent were 74 copies of such a thing on my bosses machine last week (no damage though, except for some mails being sent back....)

part of my mail signature:

-- given the abundance of virii on the internet, we would greatly appreciate if you could refrain from sending Microsoft executables, including .doc files, as attachments, unless absolutely necessary. Thank you ! --

cheers, pink

tlarkin · 09-22-2003, 04:38 PM

I have been working with computers for about 8 to 9 years now, and have been employed in the computer field for almost 5 years. In my 5 years of experience repairing PC's, Macintosh, printers, laptops, etc. I have never once seen a mac virus. I have read about them. I think one time I was given a virus (on purpose) on a floppy disk from a co-worker (he kept a library of virii on removable media, I am not sure why). I never loaded it on a mac to see what it did but I think the virus was real old. So I am pretty sure the virus would not work on os 8.5.1 or higher.

So for me the macintosh virus is a myth, something you hear about but have never actually seen.

sao · 09-25-2003, 04:26 AM

Quote:


	Irene wrote: I'm fumbling for the name-- 7 dust, gold-dust, one of you may recall the name. Agax cured it

That's the one that struck my 8500 several years ago, as I posted at the beginning of the thread. I got the little sucker when I realized I had an extension named 666 in my system folder.

The SevenDust virus is also called the 666 virus because it comes in two parts:

as an 'MDEF' resource inside (infected) applications, and as an Extension usually named 666.

The virus is also known as MDEF9806. There are many different variants of this virus in circulation.

The most common being the 'A' strain. Strains from A to D, are just trial versions, that simply spread rather than being destructive. Luckily, I got one of those, I think strain C or D. But the "E" strain has the job of deleting every non-application file at a pre determined trigger time.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com...sevendust.html

10-04-2002, 07:53 AM	#22
tcascone Triple-A Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: In my head Posts: 108	Only 1 The only virus I ever had on a mac was on my Power Mac 7200 back in '98. It was that annoying Word 6 virus that saved all your documents as templates. I was a college student at the time, and the college ran on Macs. That virus hit the campus like a plague. Fortunately, it wasn't a major computer killer or anything, but there were a lot of annoyed students.

10-04-2002, 10:55 AM	#25
olwylee Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 16	Re: 666 Virus About three years ago i somehow aquired the 666 virus while running OS 8.6 and it was really nasty, by the time i realized what was happening it had corrupted more then half my HD. As for lately, I am on several mailing lists and receive up to 200 emails a day. Virex catches a virus daily from my documents folder. Although none of the viruses affect 10.1.5, it does appear that the number of viruses out there is rapidly increasing and I believe it is just a matter of time before a unix virus will surface and do some real damage to those unprotected.

10-05-2002, 04:50 PM	#26
puffynet Prospect Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Mac Desktop Posts: 36	It Came from Windows The only virus I ever "saw" on the Mac (since 1995) came through a Windoze email. I don't remember it's name but even if I had opened the viral attachment it would not have affected the Mac. Bottom line: never had a virus!

10-28-2002, 02:11 PM	#27
innersense Prospect Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 2	smells like a virus.... I've been wondering to myself for the last couple of months wether Virex or Norton virus software actually works...It doesnt seem to pick up any viruses even though I know there is weird virus type activity going on in my computer... For instance... Today I switch on my computer (G4 powerbook) with Jaguar installed. Went to the Internet Sharing control panel (where your firewall settings are etc etc) to change a few settings. Where you turn your different types of file sharing on and off I noticed another option...which isnt normally there....It began with a "C" it almost looked like it said Carrichio, or something similar, although it didnt. Underneath that it said something about "sharing for timmy, oh yes". I know this sounds really weird...but this is not normal!!! Im running norton anti virus now, however no doubt it will not pick anything up...I clicked off what it said before I could write it down...also...when i did start up my internet sharing it took longer then usual to start up..... has anybody else experienced the same problem? I know this sounds really weird.. Regards Innersense

10-28-2002, 06:13 PM	#29
jonesy Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Looking-glass, Wonderland Posts: 31	In the five or six years I've worked as a Mac tech for our University I've come across virii mabey three times and that wass years ago. All of the virii were Office macro virii. They were virulent and spread themselves pretty good within the oaffices involed (ex. or Geology dept's Macs all got infected by one professor's machine) but I've never seen a confirmed true-to-life virus on the scale of Win virii. Virii on the Mac or BSD platforms are not a myth, the platforms may be harder to infect but that doesn't mean some enterprising cracker won't find some chink in the armor. And as is often said in the Linux community: "The only reason not many of these come our way is because of Windows' greater visibility." Probably of greater concern, though, are direct hacks and break-ins. Keep up with CERTand other security advisories, your patches, and have a clear defense plan and you should remain generally safe. __________________ Grrr!!!!! the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. - Chaucer

10-04-2002, 08:23 AM	#23
logo Prospect Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 49	In those old days of SE/30s and LCs I came across some nVir... Never a big problem. Disinfectant was the cure!!!

10-04-2002, 10:34 AM	#24
AHunter3 Hall of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York City Posts: 3,032	It's like worrying about earthquakes or tornados in New York City. New York does occasionally get such weather, and the possibility exists that a bad one could hit some day. But it just isn't the same level of concern as earthquakes in western California or Mexico, or tornados in Mississippi or Kansas. (~ viruses on Windows PCs).

10-29-2002, 03:34 AM	#30
innersense Prospect Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 2	smells like a virus Mac math What you wrote is what I had on my laptop...thanks for your post - at least i know im not going mad! So what is it? Will it do may laptop any damage? Can I get rid of it? Cheers Innersense

10-29-2002, 09:50 AM	#31
macmath MVP Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Elsewhere Posts: 1,497	I don't know enough to answer this question commandingly, but ... a) It should not affect to the operation of the laptop. b) I can't imagine it doing any harm to the hardware. c) My guess is that it only will show up under very special circumstances (such as the first time you open the panel) and that you won't see it any more. I have not been able to get it to happen myself. Someone like mervTormel could probably figure out when it is invoked. I would just ignore it.

11-12-2002, 05:12 AM	#32
Bisam Prospect Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 10	Virus Hi all, I'm new to this forum after having upgraded to 10.2.1... I read this virus thread last night and couldn't help smiling at the mention of MS mail progs and IE also falling under this category. I have been using Entourage from OfficeX for a week or two now, having used Outlook Express in 9 without problems (sort of) for a long time. Anyway, Entourage was open in back and I decided to check mail whilst reading this thread and low and behold, a new mail (spam? from which I don't suffer) came in, addressed to my main account, backdated (yesterday I think). I didn't see a paperclip, so no attachment and feeling safe as a Mac user, I opened the mail, which appreared to connect to a website to display html mail, (permanent DSL here) but only displayed a broken jpeg symbol. I closed the window and deleted the mail, selected it and a couple of others in the deleted pane and backspaced to get rid of them. Since that moment, the sent mail pane is unable to display all its contents and will crash if I click where a sent mail should be. The program seems to work OK otherwise. I have quit it numerous times, logged out and re-booted, trashed the prefs in my user library and now re-installed (even to another drive) with no change. I don't particularly mind not using it and switching to Mail or shopping around for an alternative, but something is not quite right somewhere. Does this sound normal? Any ideas? Mail seems usable, but it also leaves a copy of all mail on the server as I can pick them up with the laptop again! Seeing as I use email to recieve larger attachments, this could prove to be a bit of a nuisance. Is there a way to turn this off? Thanks for your time... Patrick

11-12-2002, 05:17 AM	#33
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	bisam, close all MS apps, then launch entourage with the option key held down and try a 'typical' rebuild first. __________________ On a clear disk, you can seek forever.

11-22-2002, 07:49 PM	#34
doxx Triple-A Player Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Hell's Kitchen Posts: 84	working since 15 yrs with Macs and had viruses two or three times. No big deal at all. One was in the 90ies, kind of a worm virus and it spread over the whole network with about 15 machines... Disinfectant did the job very well...

09-05-2003, 01:33 PM	#35
Jacques All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York, NY Posts: 972	Official Virus Tally I found a good article about this very subject today. It's tally for Macintosh viruses: Word Macro: 553 Classic Mac: 26 OS X: Zero Jacques __________________ see / hear Joy is not the absence of suffering. It is the presence of God. -Robert Schuller ..believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.. -1Peter 1:8

09-05-2003, 05:05 PM	#36
Irene MVP Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Tucson, Arizona Posts: 1,168	Virus caused by APPLE Repair About four years ago I got my daughter a Pismo as a college graduation gift. It came with a faulty track pad (actually the entire front acted as a huge trackpad, and you could not rest your wrist on the computer!) and was retuned to Apple for repair. It came back to us with that problem solved and with a virus. I'm fumbling for the name-- 7 dust, gold-dust, one of you may recall the name. Agax cured it. Apple denied causing it but boards then showed a number of pople got the virus after having computers repaired at Apple.

09-22-2003, 01:11 PM	#37
trinitrotoluene Triple-A Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Oregon, USA Posts: 82	I work at a University computer lab, so MS Office is a must. A few months ago someone got a word macro virus on 15 of the computers.

09-22-2003, 03:16 PM	#38
pink Major Leaguer Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 441	So far, all virii I saw (in ten years) were Word Macros (some of you probably remember Word 6...). Most recent were 74 copies of such a thing on my bosses machine last week (no damage though, except for some mails being sent back....) part of my mail signature: -- given the abundance of virii on the internet, we would greatly appreciate if you could refrain from sending Microsoft executables, including .doc files, as attachments, unless absolutely necessary. Thank you ! -- cheers, pink __________________ "And what have we got in here ? - Ahh, things.." (Louis (2), inspecting kitchen cupboards.)

09-22-2003, 04:38 PM	#39
tlarkin League Commissioner Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 11,352	I have been working with computers for about 8 to 9 years now, and have been employed in the computer field for almost 5 years. In my 5 years of experience repairing PC's, Macintosh, printers, laptops, etc. I have never once seen a mac virus. I have read about them. I think one time I was given a virus (on purpose) on a floppy disk from a co-worker (he kept a library of virii on removable media, I am not sure why). I never loaded it on a mac to see what it did but I think the virus was real old. So I am pretty sure the virus would not work on os 8.5.1 or higher. So for me the macintosh virus is a myth, something you hear about but have never actually seen. __________________ sudo make me a sammich