[X-Newbies] MAC VIRUS

[Rob Griffiths]

On Feb 17, 2006, at 12:12 PM, J wrote:

> A little care should protect you as well as the update to 10.4.5

Kirk McElhearn and I both spent most of today testing this thing out  
on a couple of controlled machines. After way too many hours of  
experimentation, we have just posted a writeup of our findings to the  
Macworld site:

   http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/02/17/leapafollow/index.php

This isn't a technical analysis, as Andrew Welch of Ambrosia has  
done, but rather, a user-centric analysis: what happens when Leap-A  
is installed on a system. How do apps get infected? How does it try  
to spread? How do I get rid of it if I do have it?

We found a few surprises, including the fact that the iChat spread is  
limited to Bonjour networks, and that only apps you own are infected.

As others have pointed out, it takes some effort to get this thing on  
your system, and it won't spread on its own. Still, it serves as a  
good reminder to be aware of what you're downloading and installing.  
Sometimes, being the first to grab that latest shareware app may not  
be a good thing! :)

-rob.