“Research firm Gartner has issued a warning to companies using Mac OS to guard against malicious code attacks and spyware,” Munir Kotadia reports for ZDNet Australia. “Just a week after Symantec caused uproar in the Mac community by warning the OS X operating system was quickly becoming a target for hackers and viruses, Gartner has warned businesses reliant on the Mac to guard against ‘spyware infestations.'”
“Martin Reynolds, vice president of Gartner’s Dataquest organisation, said last week although the overall Mac userbase is relatively small, just one vulnerability exploit could cause trouble,” Kotadia reports. “‘The Macintosh installed base is relatively small, with only about three percent of systems in use today running the Mac OS… The Mac OS is also a harder target… However, it only takes one exploited weakness to cause trouble,’ said Reynolds in a research note.”
MacDailyNews Note: The Macintosh installed base is closer to 10 percent than 3 percent. Gartner’s Reynolds looks to be confusing current quarterly market share with installed base. Many more people use Macs than most people would think, but you need to look at installed base, not quarterly market share to see just how many Macs are really out there. See “More people use Apple Macs than you think; 8-12 percent of homes use Macs.” A quick trip to BoingBoing.net’s publicly-available stats page for a real world example, backs the installed base figures up by revealing an interesting figure: 14.9 % of their visitors so far this month are using Macs.
Kotadia continues, “‘Although it is almost nonexistent on the Mac platform today, problem spyware could emerge. Spyware that exploits vulnerabilities can establish itself more deeply in the system, becoming both harder to detect and harder to remove. Don’t assume that your Macintosh systems are immune from viruses and other malicious-code attacks,’ said Reynolds.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Spyware is “almost nonexistent” or just plain nonexistent on the Mac OS X platform? We haven’t seen any. This is not to say that there couldn’t be spyware in the future for Mac OS X, but a bit of realism would be welcome. Or how about some relativity, at least? Even if there were 100 cases of Mac OS X spyware, comparing that to the Windows spyware mess would be like comparing a grain of sand to Rob Glaser. This warning to Mac-based businesses to “guard against ‘spyware infestations'” is basically a load of malarky. Gartner’s warning basically is saying that “Mac OS X users have no problems, but don’t think that the threat doesn’t exist. Nobody bought Symantec’s load of —- last week, so we’re going to have to try to scare everyone about the potential for, ummm, let’s see… ‘Mac OS X spyware infestations,’ yeah, yeah, that sounds good… before people go get crazy ideas like dumping their porous, insecure Windows boxes for Macs.” More FUD. And the more FUD you see, the more Apple’s Mac platform is denting the Wintel-centric universe.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Symantec details flaws in its antivirus software – March 30, 2005
If Mac OS X viruses increased 2000 percent, there’d still be zero Mac OS X viruses – March 29, 2005
Motley Fool writer: ‘I’d be surprised if Symantec ever sells a single product to a Mac user again’ – March 24, 2005
Symantec cries wolf with misplaced Mac OS X ‘security’ warning – March 23, 2005
Symantec’s Mac OS X claims dismissed as nonsense, FUD – March 22, 2005
Symantec warns about Mac OS X security threat – March 21, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X is virus-free – March 18, 2005
68,736 Microsoft Windows viruses vs. zero for Apple Mac’s OS X – March 12, 2005
Microsoft tries to turn its own security flaw into commercial gain – February 25, 2005
Cybersecurity advisor Clarke questions why anybody would buy from Microsoft – February 18, 2005
Microsoft’s Gates espouses homogenous operating system environments for better security – February 07, 2005
Windows’ mounting security problems make some consumers eager to purchase Macs – January 03, 2005
Windows Media songs and videos found to carry Windows malware payloads – December 30, 2004
Anzae/Inzae worm affects all Windows versions after 3.1; Macintosh unaffected – December 28, 2004
Unlike Windows users, Mac OS X users surf the Internet without a care in the world – December 28, 2004
Multiple unpatched Windows holes crop up; Windows systems compromised within minutes in experiment – December 24, 2004
Windows spyware mess is out of control, get a Mac and surf with impunity – December 21, 2004
New Microsoft Internet Explorer exploit spoofs Web sites on fully patched Windows XP systems – December 17, 2004
Microsoft may charge extra for Windows spyware protection software – December 16, 2004
Detroit Free Press: Windows malware problem getting worse, it’s time to get a Mac instead – December 16, 2004
Sick of spyware, adware headaches? Get a Mac and surf the Internet freely – December 13, 2004
Mossberg: Windows PCs plagued with problems, Apple’s Mac is ‘rock solid, elegant and affordable’ – December 09, 2004
Security expert: Don’t use Microsoft Windows, Office, Outlook, Internet Explorer – December 09, 2004
Security test: Windows XP system easily compromised while Apple’s Mac OS X stands safe and secure – November 30, 2004
Sick of spyware, adware infecting your PC? Don’t fret, just get a Mac – November 01, 2004
Microsoft: The safest way to run Windows is on your Mac – October 08, 2004
Spyware plagues Windows users while Mac users surf Net with impunity – November 01, 2004
Ballmer blames Windows users for not upgrading systems as Microsoft’s biggest security problem – October 22, 2004
Windows users line up to pay for spyware removal; Mac users surf Web with impunity – October 18, 2004
Microsoft: The safest way to run Windows is on your Mac – October 08, 2004
Windows users’ security woes spark interest in Apple’s secure Mac OS X – October 06, 2004
Windows desktop monopoly threatened by secure, safe Apple Mac OS X – October 04, 2004
Even Bill Gates can’t avoid Windows malware; Mac users surf the Web freely – October 03, 2004
Cyber-security adviser uses Apple Macintosh to avoid Windows’ security woes – September 27, 2004
Information Security Investigator says switch from Windows to Mac OS X for security – September 24, 2004
Mossberg: Apple iMac G5 ‘powerful, affordable, virus-free with better, more modern OS than Windows XP’ – September 23, 2004
USA Today: people are switching from Windows to Mac because of security issues – September 21, 2004
Windows besieged by hackers; number of Windows viruses soars by more than 400% – September 20, 2004
USA Today columinst angry about Windows viruses, adware, spyware – September 15, 2004
University of Chicago recommends all students patch Windows at least once a day – September 14, 2004
Windows XP worm speaks to users as it deletes their files; Macintosh unaffected – September 13, 2004
Security is top priority in Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2004
Millions of Windows PC’s hijacked by hackers, turned into zombies; Macintosh unaffected – September 08, 2004
Mossberg: Dump your Windows machine and get an Apple Macintosh to free yourself of spyware – August 25, 2004
Tired of patching patches to patch Windows patches? Writer suggests getting a Mac – August 03, 2004
Windows ‘Scob’ virus designed to steal financial data, passwords; Macintosh unaffected – June 26, 2004
Gartner: Worms jack up the total cost of Microsoft Windows – May 07, 2004
Spyware, adware plague Windows users online; Mac OS X users surf freely – April 19, 2004
SmartMoney: Long-suffering Windows users can only dare to dream of Mac’s ease-of-use – February 12, 2004
Mac OS X has no viruses; what’s wrong with Windows? – February 11, 2004
Gates: Windows ‘by far the most secure’ system; tries to use ‘Mac OS X secure through obscurity’ myth – January 27, 2004
Columnist tries the ‘security through obscurity’ myth to defend Windows vs. Macs on virus front – October 1, 2003
New York Times: Mac OS X ‘much more secure than Windows XP’ – September 18, 2003
Wall Street Journal’s Mossberg on making the switch from Windows to Mac – September 18, 2003
Fortune columnist: ‘get a Mac’ to thwart viruses; right answer for the wrong reasons – September 02, 2003
Shattering the Mac OS X ‘security through obscurity’ myth – August 28, 2003
Is Mac OS X really inherently more secure than Windows? – August 26, 2003
Chicago Sun-Times columnist: Windows ‘many holes in its security’ but ‘none of my Macs have ever been affected – August 26, 2003
Sick of worms and viruses? ‘Move to Mac OS X’ suggests Chicago Tribune columnist – August 25, 2003
Virus and worm problems not just due to market share; Windows inherently insecure vs. Mac OS X – August 24, 2003
Truth Detector
Like I said, it ain’t worth it to write virii or spyware for your little Mac toy. No one does anything worthwhile on them anyway. But they do have purty pictures on ’em, huh huh!
Wha?
You are right. I guess complacent was too kind a word.
And, I’m not referring to the Google ad but the fact that MDN used a link which requires a paid subscription to access on Windows IT Pro.
Oh, and all it takes is one virus to wreak havoc. Lest we forget what one virus (like Blaster) did to the Windows world. Comparing a grain of sand to Glaser is probably accurate – neither are really relevant in their respective environments and certainly the comparison isn’t.
Don’t be quite so sure, Buffy. Little Snitch cannot detect the use of Raw sockets.
If “just one exploit” that doesn’t even exist is trouble… I’d hate to see what thousands that DO exist could do!
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Jon E Wunnut
I think we have a full blown troll in here. Please don’t feed the troll. Next he will start some political crap and see how much more he can stir this up.
The Dude abides.
I gotta put my $0.02 in here. My guess is that there are hack-jocks out there who would dearly love to be the first to punch a hole in osx. The OS has been set up as the holy grail of targets, and the “safety through obscurity” idea just dosen’t hold water for me. I don’t claim to understand the virus/trojan/whatever writers mindset, but my suspicion is that any number of people want to be the first to climb the osx mountain, obscure or not.
The macweb is constantly awash in “proof of concept” exploits that amount to nothing. SOMEBODY is producing these, and probably with the hope that the end result will more than a simple proof of concept.
Everest is a pretty bloody obscure hill, but there are still quite a few attempts to get to the top.
Wunnut-boy:
“Like I said, it ain’t worth it to write virii or spyware for your little Mac toy”
Right on, it is just too hard to get it to work. It would take real brains, but then real brains find something constructive to do. They also know that “virii” is not a word, just like “virius” is not a word.
“No one does anything worthwhile on them…”
Right again. Obviously, making a superb medical imaging system is not worthwhile. Determining biological structures is not worthwhile. Creating movies, music or graphical art is not worthwhile. Putting together a major supercomputing system is not worthwhile. Teaching a child to read is not worthwhile.
On the other hand, writing Windows malware benefits everybody. Producing FUD as do Symantec and Gartner is splendid service to mankind. Even spouting nonsense as does Wunnut-boy enriches us all, even if he is just out to bait us.
The security through obscurity myth is really quite pathetic. Being one of 70,000+ who have written a successful Windows virus can’t possibly be as rewarding as being the FIRST to EVER write a successful OSX virus.
Why aren’t they telling users to stop using Windows, which is known to be vulnerable to countless viruses, spyware, adware, trojans, etc.?
If they’re going to warn users about something that *might* happen with Mac OSX, we better see something declaring Windows as unsafe and to stop using it immediately. Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll have to question their integrity.
Unfortunately, there is a local root exploit in the wild right now that can give any application installer root without a password. This is how spyware or other malware could get into the system.
Read this: http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/000512.html
I can provide a compiled version of the exploit to anyone who doesn’t believe me or the article. Local exploits aren’t as bad as a remote exploit but if someone wants to install malware on your Mac without your knowledge, it is currently possible to do it. Apple needs to fix this problem soon. Unlike what some other posters have been saying, Apple hasn’t fixed this quickly. They’ve known about it for more than 2 months and it didn’t get fixed in the latest security update.
If you want to fix it yourself, do the following:
1 Navigate to /System/Library/SyncServices/
2 Control click on SymbianConduit.bundle and choose Show Package Contents
3 Navigate to Contents/Resources
4 Archive (zip) the file mRouter (i.e. keep a copy so you can undo)
5 Delete the original mRouter
This fix isn’t undone by Software Update or Repair permissions like the other suggestions in the article.
If Apple wants to insure that OS X users never have malware, they need to be more proactive about security holes like these. It is ridiculous that a trivial buffer overflow exploit like this has been allowed to fester for months. I don’t know what Apple’s security people have been doing, but they haven’t been doing their jobs. We’ve been lucky so far but this is a very troubling sign.
LOL – since they don’t have any ‘real’ problems to talk about they are reduced to talking about ‘potential’ problems to make ‘news’.
Isn’t all this speculation just the tech equivalent of “you could get knocked down by a bus”…
don’t reply to trolls
you’ll go blind
Im less worried about someone walking up to my computer and putting spyware on it than them actually stealing the thing. Every time I here “the virus must have root privledges first” I LOL
Thanks, Bainbridge, for the smile… excellent use of the English language.
Isn’t it a bit early for April fools?
LOL
“…problem spyware could emerge.”
Really?? WOW!
Longhorn ‘could emerge’ one day too – where are the warning articles about that?
Magic Word: Paper – as in this ‘warning’ isnt worth the paper its written on…
“MacDailyNews Note: The Macintosh installed base is closer to 10 percent than 3 percent. “
This is wrong. It’s actually physically impossible for this to be correct, given the number of Macintoshes sold since 1985 and the number of PCs during same. You would have to do something silly like include every Mac ever sold (including 128k Classics) and throw out all PCs older than three years for this to even remotely become close to a correct value.
Google put the Mac installed base at around 4.3% and I think this is a more accurate figure.
Question of installed base is impossible to calculate. What about Schools, offices, people not connected to the internet? Are we talking US or Europe or World totals?
As long as there are enough of us around to make Apple profitable, Apple will continue to innovate and bring some of the greatest products. The only that that marketshare will bring is games faster, but since I have a gamecube, the only game I am planning to buy is SIMS 2, otherwise my Mac is all about work and iPhoto and iTunes.
I wont spend $3000 to make Doom run above 30 fps, but I will spend $3000 to do work 3x as fast
These are worldwide totals, but the point isn’t that installed base is hard to calculate (it is) but that 10% is an impossible figure. Sales figures for both Macs and PCs are known. The numbers just don’t add up– you can’t get to 10% by any means! You just can’t!
This has nothing to do with whether Apple is doing well or has a viable business or is a hot stock or is your favorite company or feels warm against your soft skin. It’s just a fact.
To quote Buffy: “I wont spend $3000 to make Doom run above 30 fps, but I will spend $3000 to do work 3x as fast.”
Spot on! Exactly the way I feel. I don’t care if Apple’s market share is 1% or 100%. Getting work done is what is important. And, no, not “it could be done faster on the PC”. First it has to work! Not just the day after you buy it, but tomorrow, the next week, month and year. Dependability is where the PC sucks. My Mac does it’s job, and crunching through Photoshop as fast as possible gets me home sooner. I’d never waste a single cpu clock cycle on a PC!
Mac 4 eva!
BTW, why is it the jerks who call the Mac a “toy” are the ones who are most interested in how high a frame rate they get in their video games? Whose using the toy here?
/Not usually this grumpy.
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montex, indeed there are lots of jerks who call the Mac a “toy” and invariably the main reason is that there are not enough games for the platform or that it has a one-button mouse. ROFLMAO.
So, if you play an FPS on your computer then it is a real machine, but if you use it for physics simulation, climatology, genome research THEN you must be using a toy.
If your computer supports all possible mice in the world AND the only one to support a one-button mouse then it is a toy while those that can only support a subset of all possible mice in the world are real computers.
Is it Windows that melts brains and generate idiots or is it that idiots flock around Windows. Still an open question.
iPodder,
So 5 out of thousands of corporations/institutions use them for something. That’s pathetic. But if a sixth joins in, the Mac presence in Academia has increased by 20 percent! Wow.
You guys are worse than the Amiga crowd. Or was it the BeOS crowd?
Whatever.