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Copied - MailBITS/25-Oct-04<br>
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<br>
**Opener's Existence Encourages Password Care** -- Over the last<br>
few days, news of a malicious shell script known as "Opener" has<br>
appeared on MacInTouch, and several news organizations picking up<br>
the report have incorrectly started calling it a virus. It's not<br>
a virus, and frankly, it's not even that big of a concern. Opener<br>
is a shell script that, if installed and activated on a Mac, turns<br>
on file sharing and remote login, disables the firewall, extracts<br>
passwords, creates an admin-level user, installs a password<br>
sniffer, and more. That sounds bad, but Opener can't do any of<br>
these things unless someone with an administrator password or<br>
physical access to the Mac installs and runs it. More to the<br>
point, if someone has your administrator password or physical<br>
access to your Mac, Opener is just one of many possible worries.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html"><http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html></a><br>
<br>
Randy B.Singer wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid20041027030352.4305D162256@listserver.themacintoshguy.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Carol Weber Mckee said:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Has anybody else found Opener Malware on their computer? I found it by
going to find and typing in "opener." I have been reading it about it.
I wonder if it is responsible for changing my password on ebay.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
I have legitimate software on my computer with the word "Opener" in the
name.
I think that folks need to sit back, take a deep breath, and relax. As
far as anyone can tell, the Opener malware doesn't exist in the wild, and
it would be difficult for it to be successfully installed on your
computer even if it was.
I think that you should first consider ascribing any problems that you
are having with your Mac to alternate explanations before you become
hysterical about it possibly being malware.
Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)
Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html">http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html</a>
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</pre>
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