Two new Mac-specific trojans are in the wild and boy-oh-boy do they sound … dull:
Two security firms have reported that two rate[sic] but dangerous in-the-wild trojans are attacking Mac operating system.
Not to undercut the seriousness of any security exploit within a modern operating system, but given that a Trojan requires a user to specifically open and execute a program, they’re not that dangerous. They’re non-viral usually, since infection is not automatic, and easy enough to stop. No real danger here.
The first and more dangerous, is a rare trojan … If a user has turned on Remote Management in the Sharing pane of System Preferences under Mac OS X 10.5, or if a user has installed Apple Remote Desktop client under Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier and has activated this setting in the Sharing preferences, the exploit will not function.
So turn on Remote Management and open strange files at will!
Intego also reported another trojan posing as a poker game. When the user attempts to launch the application, simply titled ‘PokerGame’, a dialog box appears asking for the machine’s administrator password.
Alright, this is not an exploit. It’s just a malicious application. I can write a two-line AppleScript capable of deleting everything on your hard drive. If you’re stupid enough to launch said AppleScript, and provide it your administrative password, you’ve just given my little application everything it needs to do as much damage to your system as possible.
The sky is not falling. There is nothing to see here.
Do not open random files sent to you from untrusted sources. And certainly don’t give those applications administrative access. It’s just common sense folks.