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driven · Mar 10, 2005, 09:30 AM

Intercepted from the Internet .... I was beginning to wonder if this program did anything ... It did it's job and it did it well.

The downside is that when it deleted this virus from the Safari cache, it crashed Safari. A minor annoyance fixed by restarting it.

(See attached JPEG ...)

Randman · Mar 10, 2005, 09:49 AM

Macs can carry Windows viruses. It won't hurt the Mac but it could be passed on.

zizban · Mar 10, 2005, 10:30 AM

Mac's carry Internet Explorer without harm.

driven · Mar 10, 2005, 12:12 PM

Originally posted by zizban:
Mac's carry Internet Explorer without harm.

ROFL.

Mithras · Mar 10, 2005, 12:34 PM

A little reading indicates: as you might expect, this is a Java applet designed to exploit a Microsoft security flaw.

So yeah, some nefarious website or email directed your browser to that file, which it downloaded, and it didn't do anything. But if you were running an unpatched Windows system you would have been! So in a sense it's nice.

That would be a neat Mac OS X feature, actually: An alert that says, "Congratulations! If you had bought a PC, you'd be infected right now. But you bought a Mac, so you're fine."

Buck_W · Mar 10, 2005, 05:25 PM

Originally posted by Mithras:
That would be a neat Mac OS X feature, actually: An alert that says, "Congratulations! If you had bought a PC, you'd be infected right now. But you bought a Mac, so you're fine."

driven · Mar 10, 2005, 05:40 PM

Can anyone handy with a graphics tool (and some free time) superimpose that message on my virus dialog screen shot?

That would be a hoot.

Diggory Laycock · Mar 10, 2005, 07:07 PM

Urgh - JPEG screenshots burn my eyes.

theolein · Mar 10, 2005, 08:03 PM

Actually, I don't know if most users with WinXP don't have the Microsoft Java VM installed. Microsoft stopped updating it some 5 years ago, and it wasn't installed by default with WinXP. I suppose those that visited Java enabled sites might have downloaded it, but I think the majority of Java VM's on Windows these days are the Sun one's. The Microsoft VM has had lots of exploits and the Sun ones have had only one or two.

ericssonboi · Mar 10, 2005, 08:12 PM

Quick (Newbee) question...

Did you use a virus removal program or did Mac OS X pick that up?

Randman · Mar 10, 2005, 08:16 PM

Originally posted by ericssonboi:
Quick (Newbee) question...

Did you use a virus removal program or did Mac OS X pick that up?

Virex. Comes free with .Mac.

ghporter · Mar 10, 2005, 08:42 PM

Originally posted by theolein:
Actually, I don't know if most users with WinXP don't have the Microsoft Java VM installed. Microsoft stopped updating it some 5 years ago, and it wasn't installed by default with WinXP. I suppose those that visited Java enabled sites might have downloaded it, but I think the majority of Java VM's on Windows these days are the Sun one's. The Microsoft VM has had lots of exploits and the Sun ones have had only one or two.

Microsoft and Sun have gotten over their kindergarten spat over Java. I use the Java package from Sun on my PCs, and it's performed quite well. It also autoupdates, so those vulnerabilities are taken care of pretty much as soon as some script kiddie finds them.

One reason that OS X is so secure against such things is that, like much of the Linux world, it is based on a number of independent (or relatively so) packages that, by themselves, can be evaluated and tightened up as needed. Windows has so much baggage and legacy code that NOBODY understands all of it, and most of the coders at Microsoft don't really understand the part they're working on. It doesn't mean that there aren't ANY flaws in OS X, just that it isn't worth the script kiddies' time to look for them. Stupid Windows users (and sysops and managers...) give them plenty of play room.

driven · Mar 10, 2005, 11:05 PM

Originally posted by Diggory Laycock:

Urgh - JPEG screenshots burn my eyes.

Classic! Thanks!
(Sorry about it being JPEG ... I was trying for smallness)

historylme · Mar 11, 2005, 04:56 PM

That's awesome! Possitive reenforcement is always welcomed.

Boondoggle · Mar 13, 2005, 05:55 AM

Originally posted by zizban:
Mac's carry Internet Explorer without harm.

without harm to the Mac at least... personally I get phisically ill whenever I have to launch it..

bd

driven · Mar 13, 2005, 08:27 AM

Originally posted by Boondoggle:
without harm to the Mac at least... personally I get phisically ill whenever I have to launch it..

bd

And you are from Seattle? For shame! <GRIN>

Isn't it like a requirement in Seattle to adore Microsoft and it's products?

eatinwokout · Mar 13, 2005, 11:27 AM

Originally posted by driven:
And you are from Seattle? For shame! <GRIN>

Isn't it like a requirement in Seattle to adore Microsoft and it's products?

no.. the only thing we in seattle need to adore is starbucks.

bmedina · Mar 13, 2005, 12:34 PM

Originally posted by Randman:
Virex. Comes free with .Mac.

So what constitutes what comes free and what you have to pay for with .Mac?

Boondoggle · Mar 13, 2005, 05:30 PM

Originally posted by eatinwokout:
no.. the only thing we in seattle need to adore is starbucks.

I thought that was more of an addiction, personally...

edit: wow 3 posts in a row from 3 different Seattlites... Got to be a record.

Boondoggle · Mar 13, 2005, 05:35 PM

Originally posted by bmedina:
So what constitutes what comes free and what you have to pay for with .Mac?

That is easy. Whatever you really need/want you pay for. All the rest of it comes free!

A bargain!

ps I love .Mac.

bd

driven · Mar 13, 2005, 08:49 PM

Originally posted by Boondoggle:
That is easy. Whatever you really need/want you pay for. All the rest of it comes free!

A bargain!

ps I love .Mac.

bd

I love it too!
Well worth the $99 for me at least.

UFOff · Mar 14, 2005, 03:32 PM

This is a newbie question, please bear with me.

Can a PC virus affect a Mac running Virtual PC? Would VPC even have to be running in order to be affected?

PurpleGiant · Mar 14, 2005, 04:46 PM

Originally posted by UFOff:
This is a newbie question, please bear with me.

Can a PC virus affect a Mac running Virtual PC? Would VPC even have to be running in order to be affected?

The copy of Windows inside VPC can be affected by a Windows virus, however that will have no effect on operation of the Mac OS.

ghporter · Mar 14, 2005, 05:10 PM

Originally posted by PurpleGiant:
The copy of Windows inside VPC can be affected by a Windows virus, however that will have no effect on operation of the Mac OS.

That means "Yes it can." A virus that infects the version of Windows under VPC can screw it up so badly that you'll have to reinstall Windows to fix it. Since that is a MAJOR pain, you might want to use at least one of the free PC virus protection software packages when you run VPC.

genevish · Mar 14, 2005, 06:15 PM

Originally posted by PurpleGiant:
The copy of Windows inside VPC can be affected by a Windows virus, however that will have no effect on operation of the Mac OS.

Not entirely true. If you get a Windows virus that "hijacks" your Internet connection, it would slow down your Internet access on the Mac side.

JKT · Mar 15, 2005, 08:51 AM

Originally posted by ghporter:
That means "Yes it can." A virus that infects the version of Windows under VPC can screw it up so badly that you'll have to reinstall Windows to fix it. Since that is a MAJOR pain, you might want to use at least one of the free PC virus protection software packages when you run VPC.

Out of interest, what free anti-virus packages are available for the PC?

TIA

Wiskedjak · Mar 15, 2005, 08:58 AM

Originally posted by JKT:
Out of interest, what free anti-virus packages are available for the PC?

TIA

AVG is a nice one
www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

Scifience · Mar 15, 2005, 09:56 AM

Originally posted by ghporter:
That means "Yes it can." A virus that infects the version of Windows under VPC can screw it up so badly that you'll have to reinstall Windows to fix it. Since that is a MAJOR pain, you might want to use at least one of the free PC virus protection software packages when you run VPC.

I disagree about running virus software under VPC. A real-time scanning engine would slow down the virtual machine to the point of being unusable. That is the same reason I haven't installed any security patches under VPC - I only use it for one or two applications, not for web browsing, and it would take more time (years?) to install the hundreds of patches than to just re-install the image from the VPC CDs and the two programs I need if something gets screwed up.

ghporter · Mar 15, 2005, 10:17 AM

Originally posted by Scifience:
I disagree about running virus software under VPC. A real-time scanning engine would slow down the virtual machine to the point of being unusable. That is the same reason I haven't installed any security patches under VPC - I only use it for one or two applications, not for web browsing, and it would take more time (years?) to install the hundreds of patches than to just re-install the image from the VPC CDs and the two programs I need if something gets screwed up.

The extra workload is a valid point that I hadn't thought of. I'd suggest finding one that exerts the least loading on the processor, or that you install one and customize it to just monitor important system files, but I don't know exactly how you'd research that.

Now being the security-minded person I am, I can't say "don't bother" since there will be a lot of people who interpret that as "there's no threat at all." I guess I need to start the research...

msuper69 · Mar 16, 2005, 07:39 AM

Originally posted by Scifience:
I disagree about running virus software under VPC. A real-time scanning engine would slow down the virtual machine to the point of being unusable. That is the same reason I haven't installed any security patches under VPC - I only use it for one or two applications, not for web browsing, and it would take more time (years?) to install the hundreds of patches than to just re-install the image from the VPC CDs and the two programs I need if something gets screwed up.

I make a copy of the VPC image file after I've created it, installed the few programs I need and before connecting to the Internet. Then if the VPC image gets infected, I just shut it down, delete the infected image and reload from the backup copy. BTW, it's also a nice way to run "demo" or timed trials of programs indefinitely. Reload the image and reinstall the demo. The demo never knew that it had been installed before.

ghporter · Mar 16, 2005, 10:28 AM

Originally posted by msuper69:
I make a copy of the VPC image file after I've created it, installed the few programs I need and before connecting to the Internet. Then if the VPC image gets infected, I just shut it down, delete the infected image and reload from the backup copy. BTW, it's also a nice way to run "demo" or timed trials of programs indefinitely. Reload the image and reinstall the demo. The demo never knew that it had been installed before.

Clever. While I do pretty much the same for Windows machines I support, I hadn't thought of doing that with VPC ('cause I don't use it).