Big Yawn Alert!
Well, there had to be a first:
Mac OS X users visiting malicious porn sites are told to download a special codec that will let Apple’s Quicktime player to play the porn flicks, but instead of adult treats, users get a malicious trick, according to anti-virus vendor Intego.
The OS X Trojan, which infects a computer after a user chooses to download a proprietary codec, hijacks the infected computer’s DNS settings. Internet-connected applications use DNS settings to figure out how to translate URLs, such as Wired.com, into the physical address of a server, according to Intego’s alert. By hijacking the DNS, the Trojan is able to redirect visits to sites such as banks, eBay and PayPal to fake websites that attempt to harvest user’s logins and passwords to commit financial fraud.
Of course, it ain’t exactly the first, and you still have to be something of a dumbass to catch the bug at all.
Intego says it has written a signature for what it is calling OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse and that its software will protect users. Since many Mac users don’t use anti-virus software out of the fairly realistic belief that Macs are safer than Windows machines, they should avoid installing software from unknown sources. While this is largely true, Mac users aren’t immune from malware (including one to-remain-anonymous scribe here at Wired who got infected this week).
Nope. Nobody is. Clicking on forum-spam links that take me to some unknown porn site, where I then have to choose to download a disk image, unzip it, mount it (yeah, I know; sorry), and go through several steps to install software merely to watch “free” movies? Woo, scary!
Sorry, but I think I’ll save my hands for wringing over something way more worrying – like “anthropocentric global warming,” or whether House and Foreman will become friends in the end.
(Via Hot Air)
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