Virus Found in Pirated Copies of iWork'09

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hellwig

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Oh My God! An Apple Virus! Oh no! Now, if only Apple users weren't so smug about their "Secure OS", maybe some of them would have had a virus scanner installed.

And since when is a virus in a pirated copy of anything news? I guess only Mac users are ignorant of this fact. People, pirating IS stealing. Therefore, people who offer "stolen goods" will probably be willing to do other less-than-reputable things, such as install virus's in the pirated software. It's kinda like buying a stolen Rolax on the street. No, that 'a' isn't a valuable misprint.
 

ryokinshin

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"The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that the iWork '09 installation package does not contain the Trojan but rather acts as the catalyst for the Trojan to be installed."

Learn to read.
 

Pei-chen

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Why would Apple user that already overpaid for their hardware pirates software? It is akin to putting firestone tires on a Volvo/Saab.
 
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Ah, no. A trojan is a malicious program that masquerades as an innocent one. (Example: a pirated game that really contained spyware, or a keystroke logger) Trojans require malicious intent on the part of the entity distributing the software, in this case Apple.

Are you trying to say that Apple did this intentionally? No, of course not. So that makes this merely an infected program, not a trojan.

I hate to be pedantic, but as a technology professional, it drives me up the wall when people just use the wrong terms to describe things.
 
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@Douglas Muth:
Malicious program = check
Masquerade = check (renames itself to "iWorkServices")
Distribution with intent = check (pirates are the distribution, as stated, iWork doesn't contain the virus, but is the catalyst.

Sorry but it looks like a trojan to me.
 

Tedders

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Before you start thinking that all of us Mac users are stupid and take everything for granted, you might want to think about how all Mac users are not the same. Yes, a lot of us think they we cant get a virus, but most of know its not true. Whether you like it or not, the statistical chance of a Mac getting a virus is much lower than a Windows machine. Will the chances get better in the future? Of course they will. Just because some of them act "smug" doesn't mean the rest of them are. There are just as many "smug" Windows users out there.
 

nekatreven

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[citation][nom]Tedders[/nom]Before you start thinking that all of us Mac users are stupid and take everything for granted, you might want to think about how all Mac users are not the same. Yes, a lot of us think they we cant get a virus, but most of know its not true. Whether you like it or not, the statistical chance of a Mac getting a virus is much lower than a Windows machine. Will the chances get better in the future? Of course they will. Just because some of them act "smug" doesn't mean the rest of them are. There are just as many "smug" Windows users out there.[/citation]

I don't know that I've ever seen it phrased better than that. I'll bash the smug mac users all day, but I love mac users with some sense. Well said.
 

igot1forya

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The definition of a virus is any program that tries to replicate it's self... even if it does not have a payload or purpose. A Trojan is any program that deploys a payload under false pretense. Semantics :)
 
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A lot changes over time. Especially in a very dynamic computer era.

there was a time when people thought a Rolls Royce car and a Harley motorcycle was the best to have!
And indeed perhaps 20/30 years ago this was the case.

These days the standard for cars, motorcycles and software has increased a lot.
What's good yesterday, doesn't necessarily mean it's still good today.
I think, if Windows 7 is an improvement over Vista, and even XP are very stable Operating Systems that easily can be placed next to MacOs.

Since it's easier to program a Windows program, then a MacOs program, more programs (as well as worms and virusses) had been created for Windows.
Of course, Windows was more affected by lousy programming, since many programs to date on the internet are created by hobby programmers (not so much by large companies).
While the majority of the Apple Software is created by apple programmers.

Windows has more programs than MacOs, which also means it has to have more 'bad' or 'lousy' encoded programs; and has to have more 'errors'and 'bluescreens' than MacOs.

But I think XP is a very stable system!

So it does not impress me if MacOS can be affected by trojan and virusses. It can!

It's just a good way of telling the world that the myth of MacOs doesn't need a virus scanner or firewall is but that.. A Myth..
 
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