[X4U] Opened for the first time?

[Randy B.Singer]

Michael Rath said:

>Lately my iMac, OS 10.3.7, has been telling me that I have been opening 
>a program for the first time, when in actuality I have opened it many 
>times in the past. This happens most often with the Microsoft products 
>but has also happened with several other programs.
>
>It is irritating. Is there something I did that set this off or maybe 
>something I haven't done to stop it?


This isn't a bug, believe it or not, its a feature.

[Caution: Rant ahead.]

Recently there was a big to-do about the Concept/MP3 Trojan.  This was a 
proof-of-concept bit of potential malware that some hacker created that 
looked like an MP3 file, but it was really a program.  The idiot who 
created this concept Trojan ostensibly was doing it for our own good, to 
show that it could be done so that we could all protect ourselves from 
malicious Trojans masquerading as files.  (This sort of thing is common 
in the Linux world where the best way to protect folks is to bring it to 
the attention of the community, because the community does the 
programming for the OS.  It is frowned upon in the Macintosh world, where 
you are supposed to tell Apple about such threats and then keep it to 
yourself, rather then provide every teenager with no social life with a 
blueprint for creating malware.)  

This Trojan, as far as anyone can tell, was never modified into something 
other than a harmless concept.  However, folks screamed that Apple had to 
do something to protect us from this threat. 

So they did.  Now, the first time that you open a program, your Mac tells 
you that it is a "program" (even if it looks like a file), and it asks 
you if you really want to launch it.  This method of saving your from 
potential Trojans works on the presumption that you are paying attention 
to the fact that what you double-clicked on looked like a file, rather 
than a program, and that you can put that together with the fact that the 
system is reporting that you are trying to launch a program, not a file.

Of course, this will be nothing more than a worthless annoyance to most 
users.  Most users will simply mindlessly click the button to allow the 
program to run, after having routinely done so countless times 
previously.  But at least Apple can now say that they did something about 
the potential threat, and if you do get bitten by a Trojan masquerading 
as a file down the road, Apple can tell you that it was your own fault.

So, no, nothing that you have done has caused this warning to keep on 
coming up, other than upgrading your OS with a patch that included an 
Apple security update.


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