Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 31st Oct 2007 20:06 UTC
"A new trojan horse designed specifically for Mac OS X systems has been discovered on several pornography websites that can hijack Web traffic, according to security firm Intego. Affected systems are used to hijack some Web requests that lead users to other phishing sites, or simply display ads for other pornographic websites to generate ad revenue. Phishing attacks may lead users to believe they are surfing to eBay, Paypal, or various banks when in fact they are accessing specially-crafted mockups designed to retrieve usernames and passwords for those sites. The trojan, titled OSX.RSPlug.A, is rated as a critical risk by Intego, and is known to affect Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger as well as Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Intego is testing prior versions of Mac OS X, but believes them to be vulnerable as well."
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Member since:
2006-04-26
I don't think anybody is making excuses, because there is nothing anybody can do against a program that the user deliberately installs. I suppose if Safari automatically downloaded and installed it without the user's knowledge, then Apple could definitely be taken to task for it.
However, it does highlight the issue (at least to me) that the "Download 'safe' files" option should not be checked by default in Safari. Still, even with this option checked all it does is download and mount the image. Though that is definitely scary in itself, it still doesn't hurt the user's system until they install the program. This is far different from say, the drive-by download and install BHOs and ActiveX controls that plagued IE on Windows for so long.
The article does say that one thing the user can do to protect themselves is to buy the Intego VirusBarrier X4 which incidentally is available from the company that issued the release