Viruses On Os X

Virex 7.6 does kill the cpu, I took it straight off, but Virex 7.2 is okay, I now use that and have no problems with it.
 
I wouldn't flame anyone for using a Mac antivirus program.

But, as I understand it, there are NO Mac viruses that affect OS X. The pre-OS X viruses would require Classic if they worked at all. And they'd have to be well behaved (no protected memory violations, for example) or they'd crash and burn. Does anyone have experience with pre-OS X viruses in OS X?

As far as Word macro viruses, well, don't use the macro unless it's from a trusted source. And Word is set for macro virus protection by default.

I haven't run antivirus software since I sold my Compaq _four_ years ago. And I haven't used anti-spyware software for the Mac at all. Anyone know the best anti-spyware software for OS X? (wink, wink, just a joke)

Doug
 
I used to run Virex 7 on start-up, but after a year of habitually quitting it as soon as I logged in, and only bothering to get the definitions about once every three months, I figured I might as well remove it. I remember once it found one suspicious object and I looked it up and it was about as worrying as being threatened with a water pistol.
 
I used Virex on OS9 and it kept crashing Eudora so I gave up.

As for reasons of having AntiVirus apps to protect Windogs friends when forwarding email is a point. I am lucky as my ISP is covering that with their own antivirus scanning for incoming and outgoing mail. But I guess they've probably over looked scanning any MacOS files but couldn't really say if they do or not. (I should ask them I guess)

A Windogs traitor friend keeps telling me if Microslop losses the market and Apple and Linux takes the leed, then we'll be the targets. (it's one of those PC's are easier to get parts for arguments, never ending thing) But anyhow we seem to have more control of what can happen to our computers. Anything that wants installing or unstuffing, it needs our permissions first. And that's cheaper then buying a $200 a year subscribtion to antivirus programs. So in the long run PC's are disadvantaged in that way.

But to deny a Mac Virus is not right. It's possible and the most damage it could do is the system, and that's why we have system install discs isn't it? To recover from system damage and how long does it take to reinstall? Not long aye. You could download a legit program from macupdate or somewhere and it may cause havoc in your sytem so you simply remove it. So any Virus, as long as you can locate it, you could move that too.

I love the Mac in it's many easy ways of not spending hours fixing problems like those "other" computer users do. It wasn't important for me to update from 10.4 to 10.4.1 immediately, but XP users they run to the update page as soon as they've done a reinstall to get their security patches and updates and then their antivirus and spyware apps. I did my Tiger update when I wasn't doing much else on the net

Well that's my 2 cents
 
I personally dont think there is much of a point using antivirus on a Mac just yet. I'm a PC user and only really started using antivirus in '2000 when things really started to spread. Until there are enough Mac viruses floating around, I wouldnt bother.

Also for Sirstaunch, I have to say that I've been using a G3 B&W as my second box for some time...had OS9 and then I went to 10.2 then 10.3 and now its up to 10.3.9. I have to say that I actually find maintaining a windows box and repairing any problems easier. Usually for me, any repairing might have to do with a Word Template problem... or possibly a Codec problem but never the system itself. I think as long as one knows how to use the computer (what ever platform) well, then you can take care of any problems fairly easily as well.
 
at first my comp wouldn't go to sleep, so i reset, then it started and desktop image was gone, my documents folder contents are gone and my dock icons some have ? marks.- now my comp goes about 10,000 slower than normal- it has the blue screen during start up- but like an hour later it loads osx and goes mad slow like tandy 1000 slow. It also likes to make loading noises. There are no hardware poroblems with my computer- i checked.-


(my comp imac snow g3 550* power pc- 500 mhz.)* - running partition os9 and jaguar, was using adobe software last. - jared
 
furedman said:
at first my comp wouldn't go to sleep, so i reset, then it started and desktop image was gone, my documents folder contents are gone and my dock icons some have ? marks.- now my comp goes about 10,000 slower than normal- it has the blue screen during start up- but like an hour later it loads osx and goes mad slow like tandy 1000 slow. It also likes to make loading noises. There are no hardware poroblems with my computer- i checked.-


(my comp imac snow g3 550* power pc- 500 mhz.)* - running partition os9 and jaguar, was using adobe software last. - jared
Click to expand...

Try creating a new user account and login as that account and see if the same things happens. You might have to repair permissions as wel as run Disk Utility or something like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro to repair any hard drive problems. WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T USE NORTON PRODUCTS!!!

Good luck.
 
furedman,

If you actually have a Mac OS X virus, you might soon be famous, because at this point, none has been discovered.

You may possibly have a permissions problem. If you can get to /Applications/Utilities (click on the desktop / Finder and press Apple-Shift-U), run Disk Utility. Select your boot drive from the left pane and press the "Repair Permissions" button near the bottom middle.

Also, check to see how much available hard drive space you have available.

Let us know what you discover.
 
what about this 'Mac/Cowhand" trojan? im having some porblems with my mac that would make me think I might be the victim of this.... Any suggestions on how to do a manual fix? (ie: remove the offending files?)

I tried to follow along with the posts up to now, but alot of them are too tech for me. Explanation in layman's terms pls??
 
It appears unlikely anyone is affected by the Mac/Cowhand.

1. Check your Startup Items first:

Click the Apple Menu, click System Preferences, and then click Accounts. If you're using OS X 10.4, click the lock icon at the bottom of the window and type in your password. Then click the "Login Items" tab and look at each program in the list to see if you find anything unfamiliar.

For example, I have my printer program (HP), the Microsoft database daemon (for MS Office), the iTunes Helper, and System Events.

2. Check your Preferences folder:

The problem here is that I'm not sure what you'd look for. From what I can find, Sophos is the source of this announcement (and they tend to be sensationalist and to stretch the truth), and they haven't divulged filenames. I guess look for anything that does not have a file extension of ".plist" (without the quotes).

To see filenames, you'd have to go to Finder, click the Finder menu at the top of the screen and click Preferences. Make sure "Show All File Extensions" is checked.

**My opinion: Skip both 1 and 2. At least skip #2. This is another "Sophoax."***


Sophoax = Sophos + hoax = an instance where Sophos "warns" Mac users about a new security threat that turns out to be no threat at all

I made that up! ;)

Doug
 
claire_elis said:
what about this 'Mac/Cowhand" trojan? im having some porblems with my mac that would make me think I might be the victim of this....
Click to expand...
What kind of problems, specifically? 99.9% of Mac problems aren't due to viruses... what kind of specific problems are you having that lead you to believe you are the victim of a virus/trojan?
 
Not to be a buzzkill on the abscence of Virii from our humble world of Macdom, but with the comming x86 based systems, we are going to become vulnerable to all of the low-level memory resident virii out there. The ones that don't need an operating system to run.

Also, in theory, if you have DarWINE installed, and a windows virii is written to use just those libraries that DarWINE implements, it could in fact cause a problem, at least I think it could.
 
Hm. What are "low level memory resident viri out there" which "don't need an operating system to run"? In my not so humble opinion, those don't exist, really. And to catch one, they'd still have to "attack" OS X in the first place.
 
No kidding -- plus, any virus meant to wreak havoc with a Windows partition simply will not work, since, even though we'll be using the same processor, the format on the hard drive will be completely different.

Viruses are very much dependent on an operating system -- that's what they're written to cause harm to: operating systems. The only way around this is to use a PC's BIOS to infect the computer, and, unless the virus can teleport itself into the BIOS, needs an operating system in order to be able to install itself. Show me a virus that can exist and infect a computer without the help of an operating system, and I'll show you a forum member eating his leather belt.

The truth is that this neither opens Mac OS X on Intel up for more viruses nor makes it more prone to getting a virus. People may be more enticed to write a virus after we gather a few more percentage points of market share, but that doesn't make us less secure. Why doesn't Linux have more viruses written for it, then? It's been running on x86 hardware for a decade or more and commands a decent share of the market -- possibly more than OS X. I think it's just proof that viruses are written specifically for operating systems by exploiting shoddy coding (which Windows has a lot of) and would be useless without an operating system -- after all, they are software, and require an OS to execute.
 
Ok, I know there are no known viruses but my iBook is exhibiting what I was alwats told were the classic symptoms of a virus attack. The icons on my desktop constantly rearrange themselves and in the last couple of days I've noticed that the icons on my files have been changing - so basic txt file now display a photo of my cousins birthday cake among others.

I installed and ran Virex but with no known viruses it came up with 4 noncritical errors and that was all.

I used my install disk to run disk utility - which claimed there was nothing wrong with any of my partitions.

I have just noticed that when I empty the trash can the normal message icon (for 'Do you really want to empty - can't undo' message) that the icon has been replaced with the garage band file picture.

Has anyone else ever experienced similar issues?
 
just either relaunch the Finder or reboot. I have never seen this on 10.4, but also experienced similar problems with the Finder confusing icons on 10.3 and earlier
 
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