Viruses on OS X

**Captain Code** · #1 February 26th, 2005, 02:26 PM

I've noticed quite a few questions about people thinking that they might have a virus on OS X. Everyone should know that, so far, there are absolutely NO viruses for OS X. There are a few hundred for OS 9, but NONE for OS X.

Strange things occuring with applications are usually the fault of that application.

There are virus scanners for OS X such as Virex and Norton but they are only scanning for Windows viruses and the old OS 9 viruses, so there is not much use for them unless you want to take it upon yourself to protect PCs if you forward strange emails to people.

ElDiabloConCaca · #2 February 26th, 2005, 03:06 PM

Agreed. I think it should also be mentioned that if you think you're experiencing some sort of "spyware" or virus activity to take a look at the environment you're operating in. If you're at work and are being "served" the internet through a Windows server (like a proxy server or similar computer-based router) then the problem more than likely is originating from the server, not your Macintosh.

Application crashes, like Captain Code said, are almost never linked to malicious spyware or virus activity, and there are lots of things (like bad RAM, hard drive problems, external peripherals, system haxies, and system add-ons) that would be more likely than a virus/spyware to be causing system instability.

**chevy** · #3 February 26th, 2005, 03:10 PM

There is a complete article about security on MacOS X in the March issue of MacWorld
http://www.macworld.com/2005/02/feat...home/index.php

Statements:
1) Virus may also come on MacOS X, even if currently there is no known virus infection on our plateform. Therefore it is not a bad idea to have antivirus SW on your Mac with uptodate definitions.
2) If you use VPC you are vulnerable to Windows viruses.
3 _my statement_) There are other risks... the first one being the risk to lose your data due to hardware problems. Therefore it is a very good idea to backup your data on a regular basis.

ElDiabloConCaca · #4 February 26th, 2005, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chevy

2) If you use VPC you are vulnerable to Windows viruses.

...it should be noted that any Windows virii/spyware that you get in VirtualPC will be limited to the VirtualPC operating system, and cannot, in any way, damage or affect your Mac OS X system. At the worst, your Virtual OS will be kaput and will have to be deleted and re-installed, but OS X and your hardware will be absolutely fine.

**chevy** · #5 February 26th, 2005, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

...it should be noted that any Windows virii/spyware that you get in VirtualPC will be limited to the VirtualPC operating system, and cannot, in any way, damage or affect your Mac OS X system. At the worst, your Virtual OS will be kaput and will have to be deleted and re-installed, but OS X and your hardware will be absolutely fine.

The virus can also attack any file that can be accessed from the VPC environment, and this can be your whole Mac if you open it to VPC. Of course the virus will not reproduce on MacOS, but it still can delete files.

Another "agonstic" virus type is made of the M$ Office macro viruses. These are based on Office and not on the underlying OS.

**chevy** · #6 February 26th, 2005, 03:47 PM

You may also considere this article about Mac security
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=335882

Quote:

Macintosh security is built in, not added as an afterthought. The design of Mac's OS X made security a top priority and achieved it in many different ways. Larry Loeb gives you an update on some of the ways security has been implemented.

**Captain Code** · #7 February 26th, 2005, 04:07 PM

You can get the same Windows viruses in VPC but I'd consider that a really rare occurence. For the useage that VPC gets, there's a lot less risk of infection. You don't normally use it all day surfing the net, checking email etc. The usual usage pattern of VPC is to run some niche program for a few hours at a time.

So, the risk is really small.

You can spread the Word macro viruses, but I don't think they are actually harmful on the Mac. From what I've heard they don't usually do anything at all on the Mac.

powermac · #8 February 27th, 2005, 07:44 AM

I downloaded a small clip from a joke web site once, a friend put as a link in an email. I went to the site, pressed the url for the particular video, and Virex popped up, and said it has contained a virus, do you want to delete the file. It was a weird experience. I further investigated to find out it was a windows virus.