Hackers have created a proof-of-concept sample of adware that targets Apple Mac OS X users called “iAdware” by anti-virus firm F-Secure.

Kamil writes for F-Secure:
We recently received a proof-of-concept sample of an adware program. Normally that wouldn’t be worth blogging about, but in this case it’s for Mac OS X. In theory, this program could be silently installed to your User account and hooked to each application you use… and it doesn’t require Administrator rights to do so. We won’t disclose the exact technique used here, it’s a feature not a bug, but let’s just say that installing a System Library shouldn’t be allowed without prompting the user. Especially as it only requires Copy permissions. An Admin could install this globally to all users.

The result: This particular sample successfully launched the Mac’s Web browser when we used any of a number of applications.

This is easier to do than with Windows. After all, it’s a Mac.

“The malware is notable for its rarity rather than its threat value, which remains minimal. There’s hundreds if not thousands of ad-ware packages floating around that are capable of infecting Windows users with intrusive pop-up software that impairs system performance,” John Leyden reports for The Inquirer. “iAdware is the first such application for Macs that we’ve come across.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Dirty Pierre le Punk," "RadDoc," and "Fred Mertz" for the heads ups.]