[X4U] Opener Malware

[James Baker]

Copied - MailBITS/25-Oct-04
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**Opener's Existence Encourages Password Care** -- Over the last
  few days, news of a malicious shell script known as "Opener" has
  appeared on MacInTouch, and several news organizations picking up
  the report have incorrectly started calling it a virus. It's not
  a virus, and frankly, it's not even that big of a concern. Opener
  is a shell script that, if installed and activated on a Mac, turns
  on file sharing and remote login, disables the firewall, extracts
  passwords, creates an admin-level user, installs a password
  sniffer, and more. That sounds bad, but Opener can't do any of
  these things unless someone with an administrator password or
  physical access to the Mac installs and runs it. More to the
  point, if someone has your administrator password or physical
  access to your Mac, Opener is just one of many possible worries.

<http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html>

Randy B.Singer wrote:

>Carol Weber Mckee said:
>
>  
>
>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>
>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
>http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html 
>
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>
>  
>
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