Kaspersky Lab today claimed discovery of the first virus designed to infect iPod portable media players. “The virus, which has been named Podloso, is a proof of concept program which does not pose a real threat,” Kaspersky Labs reports.
“The virus is a file which can be launched and run on an iPod. It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Linux has to be installed on the iPod. If the virus is installed to the iPod by the user, the virus then installs itself to the folder which contains program demo versions. Podloso cannot be launched automatically without user involvement,” Kaspersky Labs reports.
Kaspersky Labs reports, “Once launched, the virus scans the device’s hard disk and infects all executable .elf format files. Any attempt to launch these files will cause the virus to display a message on the screen which says ‘You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus.'”
“Podloso is a typical proof of concept virus. Such viruses are created in order to demonstrate that it is possible to infect a specific platform. They do not have a malicious payload. Additionally, Podloso is unable to spread. The user has to save the virus to the iPod memory for the device to become infected. Podloso has no malicious payload, and does not present a real threat; it simply demonstrates that it is, theoretically possible to create malicious programs for such devices,” Kaspersky Labs reports.
Full article here.
So, first you install Linux on your iPod, then you find this virus file and run it, and then your iPod has a “virus” that’s unable to spread itself? If so, here’s the first Mac OS X “virus:” write an AppleScript that trashes a file, folder full of files or maybe even a whole drive – on your Mac. Save it as an app. Run it. Voila! Alert the headline writers and get the clueless AP reporters on the case!
Give us a break.
The only problem with this story is that clueless media types will write headlines that say:
First iPod Virus discovered!
dead on there. How many iPod customers are really going to install Linux on it? This really is nothing.
Um, it’s Linux that has the virus, then, not the iPod.
I would call all the steps necessary for this “virus” to work to be called a “pretty complex program installation” on an iPod.
Humans found to get Feline AIDS! First, they have to enter into a teleportation pod with an infected cat. Next, they must be transported across the room and reconstituted into a hybrid critter.
Warn all your friends of this imminent threat!
WTF!!
How retarded can you get?
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1. connect freshly set up Windows XP PC to the ‘net with no firewall or security. wait 10 minutes.
2. connect iPod to now virus-ridden PC.
3. copy C:\Windows directories over to iPod hard disk.
OMFG!!!! VIRUSES ON MY IPOD!!!11!!
can you say desparate? Good Lord
so, lemme see if i understand this… cuz to me, this looks more like an application, than a virus. something you have to download, install, then run. does this sound like “application” to anyone else?
and if it’s got linux installed on it, it’s not longer an /*\apple/*\ ipod, it’s a LiPod, so i think the headline should be changed to reflect the more accurate title.
–elija–
Someone please shut those guys up, they only spread FUD
Linux? LINUX? For the love of Gawd, who gives a shite about this supposed story? The world’s “journalists” (M$ apologists) are so eager for a scandal of ANY sort involving Apple products that even this crap/ordure/waste pronouncement makes MDN headlines. What’s next? Oh, I know:
“iPod Susceptible To Breakage When Attached To A PC Running BeOS and Dropped from Empire State Building.” News at 11!
I hear you can get viruses on a toaster this way too, provided that you have a toaster that runs ToasterLinux and you copy a virus file onto it.
Kaspersky Lab’s hands down beats all the other anti-virus software makers in catching viruses on Windoze PC’s.
Their success rate is near 100% compared to 80 something percent for the others.
What Kaspersky Lab’s sufferes from is a lack of OEM installs because they are a Russian company.
Security through obscurity will protect the Zune!
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I agree with “Darth Avenus”, this is NOT an iPod virus AT ALL! This is a Linux virus.
Why is this a story again?
This reminds me of the old George Carlin “news” story:
“A man has barricaded himself in his second story apartment, but he is unarmed and nobody is paying any attention to him.”
MDN, where is ‘Think before you click TM”?
‘Security through obscurity will protect the Zune!’
Unless you install Linux on it, apparently . . . ;p
I have discovered many viruses for Mac OS X. I can proove that Apple computer can be infected and spread the virus around the net. You don’t believe me?
Here are the steps:
1. Take a Mac with Mac OS X 10.4.9
2. Install Windows on it
3. Plug to the net and wait five minutes
Voila – first infected Mac!!!
Am I famous now?
Kaspersky’s crap it is.
JUST ANNOUNCED:
THE FIRST WAY TO PROTECT YOUR WINDOWS FILES FROM VIRUSES AND SPYWARE IN JUST 3 STEPS!!!!!
1.) Buy a Mac
2.) Transfer all files from windows computer to Mac.
3.) THROW AWAY WINDOWS COMPUTER!! (recycle please)
First off, if it’s proof of concept then it is not “discovered” but created. (morons can’t even get that one right)
Second, if it can’t spread then it is not a virus. Trojan horse maybe, but not a virus.
Third, if you have to install Linux then it is not an iPod virus/program/Trojan thingy. It’s a Linux thingy! Or Windows or Amiga or whatever.
I have a headache.
I wonder if it’s theoretically possible for a computer ‘security’ company to do an honest assessment of a so called threat. Sure, they’ve got the necessary disclaimer to cover themselves legally, but how can they honestly call it an iPod virus, as they do in their headline?
Right.
So first you make your iPod something it’s never supposed to be, (a Linux computer) then you manually install software it would never use. (a “virus”)
Yea, the other day, I flew my iPod like a paper airplane off of a highway overpass and then the OS crashed when it flew into an oncoming 16 wheeler. That iPod OS just isn’t very stable is it?
It’s quite a stretch, eh?
Funny.
Funnysad, really.
Funny that it’s so totally benign and doesn’t even fit the generally accepted definition of “virus”.
And sad that it will be promulgated by those who don’t know any better (mainstream press, I’m lookin’ straight atcha…)
I’ll be shocked and pleasantly surprised if this doesn’t get some sort of out-of-proportion, run-for-the-hills response in some media arenas.
The shattered eye of Mordor awakens. The ivory tower of Gandalff has been smitten.
Let me remind you that Zunes have no executables or virii.
The taste of blood is in the air.
“…it is, theoretically possible to create malicious programs for such devices,” Kaspersky Labs reports.”
And it is theoretically possible to do a lot stupid things in a lot of stupid ways but this is a really good one.
The headline should read,
“Kaspersky lose any credibility they had by announcing ludicrous iPod virus story.”
As you were….
@@Enuz Gnat
> ‘Security through obscurity will protect the Zune!’
> Unless you install Linux on it, apparently . . . ;p
Point taken, but how many Zune Linux hackers exist in our or any other universe?
Are any US military vehicles running Linux? If so then I’ve got tomorrow’s headline:
First US Aircraft carrier virus discovered.
Same difference
Let me follow the logic of our Kaspersky’s Lab
1. You have to install it yourself.
2. You have to run it.
3. It will display the message that your computer has been infected.
4. It may damage your files or make you mad by performing other malicious actions.
5. It cannot spread by itself
Hmmmmm…. Is Vista a virus than?
MW: “bacause” it meets the above criteria
This reminds me of the old Steve Martin comedy bit:
How to get a million dollars and never pay taxes.
First… get a million dollars….
Stupid beyond comprehension. Stupid stupid stupid.
iPod = Apple manufactured hardware + Apple installed software.
If you install Linux on that hardware, it’s no longer an iPod. I guess that’s too obvious for the likes of Kapersky et.al.
I laughed out loud when I read the “first install linux” part.
That is soooo funny. But I think this is a linux Proof of Concept virus, not the iPods.
@Dr. Mark
> 5. It cannot spread by itself
Damn right, it can’t be squirted!
There is one mildly and briefly concerned dorm room out there . . . somewhere . . at least until they read the entire report.
Remember folks, even a rabbit can be deadly if you sharpen its teeth, inject it with adrenaline and hurl it at your enemies exposed veins. Repeatedly. One day your enemy will die guaranteed.
This guy should research another proof of concept…”The ability to put a pineapple up his ass”
Well hell, using this logic there are thousands of Mac viruses out there.
Just install Windows XP on your Mac and watch it get infected.
Same friggin logic as this iPod crap.
have you ever interupted your sleep by snoring too loudly?
boredom…. ipod linux sausage factory with too much time on its hands.
“Remember folks, even a rabbit can be deadly if you sharpen its teeth,”
Get out The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!
And the Lord spake, saying, “First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.
Have you heard? Thousands of viruses* have been discovered for the Mac!!! It’s shockingly easy to get infected!!! Millions may already be at risk!
Procedure:
1. Get a Mac
2 . Install Windows XP via Bootcamp.
3. Connect to the internet…
I smell a class actioon!
-c
*(I know it’s ‘virii’, piss off. When you say ‘virii’ out loud to someone, they look at you in the exact same way as they do when you pronounce Ayn Rand’s name correctly, or you pedantically correct someone who says Oxy-Moron by snobbliy barking “It’s Ox-im-er-on, you pre-pubescent ignoramous.”)
So much for Cory Doctorow’s desire to have iTunes for Linux!
@Zune Tang
> Let me remind you that Zunes have no executables or virii.
And Saint Attila raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high
saying, “Oh Lord, Bless us this Holy Hand Grenade, and with it
smash our enemies to tiny bits.”
We have brought you your shrubbery. May we go now?
No doubt Microsoft, desperate for negative news about iPods, paid Kaspersky Labs to come up with an iPod virus.
After struggling for months they just said feck it, installed Linux and wrote a linux program to work on the iPod and look like it owned the OS.
After the news release, the iPod is still safe, idiot journalists do the free, negative iPod publicity for Microsoft, Kaspersky Labs gets paid and several bloggers, including MDN, get lots of hits.
Looks like a win, win, win, win, win, win to me.
Just proves that OSX and Apple hardware are safer than Linux and Windows now doesn’t it. First you have to install linux on the iPod which doesn’t belong there in the first place, and then install some crap software to get a linux virus, not an iPod virus. It can’t spread by itself so it just means you have to be stupid to do both before you can prove that you are really stupid and get a Linux stupid virus.
Which means that the iPod doesn’t get a virus, Linux does. The whole story is FUD since linux doesn’t belong on the iPod to begin with.
This has to be the most flimsy security issue I’ve ever seen…..
Then new Parallels Desktop for Mac comes with a free install and subscription to Kaspersky AV. I’d never heard of them before. Now I have an AV program to slow down Windows. Wahoo!
bwahahahhahahahahahahhahaahhhhhhhhaaaaa! ROFL. so weak.
Yawnnnnnnn.,,,,
I literally LOL’ed when I read.
“It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Linux has to be installed on the iPod.”
What? How many iPods have Linux on them?
Macs are, in fact, just as susceptible to viruses as PCs. It should be noted that in order for the virus to function, Windows has to be installed on the Mac.
All Apple product viruses work under carefully controlled laboratory conditions. Part of the conditions usually involve that somehow the admin account is comprimised..again somehow.
Vista viruses occur “in the Wild” and require no laboratory of suppositions.
I’ll take my chances with Apple any day of the week.
Just my $0.02
P.S. Please feel free to put Avril Lavigne ads on every article. In fact you can make the page 90% Avril image and 10% article and it’ll be okay.
Kaspersky Labs also claims to be the first lab to find a Zune in the wild. As the beer commercial says, “Brilliant”!
“It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Linux has to be installed on the iPod.”
FIRST VIRUS FOR THE MAC DISCOVERED.
It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Windows has to be installed on the Mac.
@ken1W
… great minds
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i prefer the honor virus:
“if you reading this web page you have been struck by the Mac honor virus. please delete 3 items at random from your harddisk and copy this virus into all of your outgoing mail and documents. thank you.”
magic word “services” as in sarcasm is just one of the many services i currently offer.
> “Comment: From: The Other Steve
>
> If it can’t spread then it is not a virus.
> Trojan horse maybe, but not a virus.”
Correct. Here is the categorization system in outline form:
I) Malware
A) Virus – Runs spontaneously without involvement of the user. Infects copies of itself into the user’s media. Commonly damages the user’s media. Spontaneously spreads copies of itself from one user to another.
B) Trojan Horses – Cannot run themselves spontaneously, but require being run by the user. Can infect copies of itself onto the user’s media. Commonly damages the user’s media. Cannot spontaneously spread itself from one user to another. Instead it must be spread by the user.
C) Worms…
D) Spyware…
E) Bots…
F) Root Kits…
Kaspersky know this system. Shame on them for calling this malware a ‘virus’. Who cares what programmer of the malware calls it? He got it wrong, as did Kaspersky. It is a Trojan.
>Third, if you have to install Linux then it is not an iPod
> virus/program/Trojan thingy. It’s a Linux thingy!”
Correct. This malware has NOTHING to do with the iPod Apple sell. The iPod has to be HACKED to be susceptible to this Trojan. Again, shame on Kaspersky.
This malware should correctly be called:
‘The iPod Linux Podloso proof-of-concept Trojan horse.’
End of story. Go back to your homes. False alarm. The perpetrators will be properly ridiculed.
😀
Jackass of the week, anyone? Is there a name attached to this? I’m not dignifying the site with a visit.
This is great press for Apple, because it shows just how desperate people are to find something negative to say about Apple!
Perhaps Kaspersky should be given an award. They have single handedly put the final nail in the coffin of the “Security by Obscurity” claims. . .
. . . they have found a virus that has been written to infect all five of the iPods in the world with LINUX installed. . .
This is great publicity Apple. The fact that a major AV shop can only concoct a “virus” on the iPod by having the user install Linux and then deliberately install the virus at least indicates that the iPod has robust security.
If only people would read past the headline, all would be well.
@ shen
i prefer the honor virus:
“if you reading this web page you have been struck by the Mac honor virus. please delete 3 items at random from your harddisk and copy this virus into all of your outgoing mail and documents. thank you.”
GENIUS!!!
And you want Windows users to get it too? Okay. Got it.
One more thing.
“If you have saved this document, you have been struck by the Mac honor bug of death. Please delete the entire hard disk, including this document. Thank you.”
If you copy the above lines of code into a word processor, you will suffer from the world’s first severe Mac OS X vulnerability – severe enough to wipe all the files off your computer. Of course, the vulnerability requires user participation and acceptance in order to succeed.
Thank you for your support, and remember that the second Mac virus will involve the words “set your computer on fire after emailing this virus to ten people” in someone’s post on MDN.
Fresh_keys-http://rapidshare.com/files/51566596/KKeys.rar