This is topic Why No Worms or Viruses for the Mac? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-23-2001, 03:21 AM:
I have a Mac, and as such, I feel very neglected and left out from the worm and virus scene. I get the e-mail attachments, but when I try to run them nothing happens! I have to corrupt my own files and erase my own hard drive. There was a recent worm called "Code Red" that would infect some Cisco DSL routers, but the worm happened right AFTER I cancelled my DSL! The gods are laughing at me.
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-23-2001, 03:38 AM:
There are some viruses for Macs - if you go to
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html and search under 'Mac', you'll find several of the little darlings. I think the real answer why there aren't very many is that if you're a nasty, spotty virus programmer who wants to ruin as many people's days as possible, then you will hit a lot more people (and thus get a lot more satisfaction) going for PCs than for Macs.
IMHO the PC/Mac analogy I once heard - that if Macs were cars, then they'd do 200 miles per gallon, never need any servicing and never depreciate, but could only be driven on 5% of the world's roads - applies just as much to viruses as to everything else.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-23-2001, 03:44 AM:
Very funny Joe. I just got this friendly little bitch of a virus from my good friend Gary Stanley. You can read about it here This program will repair your computer if you get to it quick enough.
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-23-2001, 03:57 AM:
This one's even worse (or better, depending on your point of view):
even nastier virus Distribution is pretty much the same, but this one will erase the boot sector of your system disc, erase the CMOS RAM and flash-wipe your BIOS. I've been emailed with it twice in the last three months - suddenly, spending that £60 on Norton Antivirus seemed very worthwhile...
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-23-2001, 05:17 AM:
Well, Joe, I guess I could hunt up a copy of Sevendust for you if you really wanted to.It'll install an extension in your System folder that will REinstall itself if you try to delete it. From there it will progressively scramble your menu bars in several applications until they become completely unusable. After that it'll start messing up files on the hard drive. The only way to get rid of it is to erase and reinstall, from scratch, all the applications on your hard drive because it appends it to the resource fork of each file.
I say there are two reasons why there aren't that many "good" viruses for the Mac. One is, just as you said, there aren't enough machines out there for Macs to be a good target. The other reason is that it's just that much harder to write them for the Mac. Those programmers that are willing to jump through all the hoops necessary to become a good programmer are probably the ones with the moral judgement to know that writing viruses is bad. Even if they don't have higher moral standards, you can look at it from the standpoint of, "I spent all this time and energy to learn the Mac OS so I'm not going to waste my time dicking around writing viruses when I could be making money." (Good Mac programmers can pull down some serious cash! 
)
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-23-2001, 06:01 AM:
Joe -- just wait until MacOS X gets popular, and I'm sure that you'll see some nasty exploits for it. Since it's based on the BSD kernel, there are some pretty well-known exploits and, as more come out, the typical Mac user will probably not be likely to patch the OS (and how many Mac users read the Bugtraq list, anyway?). What doesn't help things is that OS X apparently ships in an insecure configuration out of the box (supposedly it runs RPC services by default, which is a well-known security issue...yeah, I run NFS, etc. at home on Solaris, but I have installed lots of patches and block that traffic at the router).
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 07-23-2001, 09:29 AM:
Hey Joe.....
You have just received the Amish virus. Since we have no electricity or computers, you are on the honor system. Please delete all of your files on your hard drive. Then forward this message to everyone in your address book.
Thank Thee------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 08-01-2001, 04:01 AM:
Just thought I'd give this topic a bump.>>BUMP!<<
Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 08-01-2001, 07:38 AM:
Joe, I am glad Randy brought this back up. I didn't get the virus either, but this morning when I got to work my computer had been replaced by a big Nostril. Do you nose who might be responsible for this?
Achoo!!
Posted by Joshua Voorhies (Member # 824) on 08-01-2001, 07:52 PM:
Joe- You have to be the only Mac user wanting a virus for your mac. If it's any consolation, there was a short lived Mac email virus that just went around.
It was sent as an AppleScript attachment to an email that contained a link to an episode guide for "The Simpsons." When you started the AppleScript, it went through your address book and fired off emails to everyone in it with you as the sender.
With Mac OS X, we should see some nice Unixy viruses soon.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 08-01-2001, 08:26 PM:
To date there appears to be still no OS2 virus out there thankfully
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-02-2001, 03:23 AM:
Are there any viruses for the Palm OS? How about Amiga? Commodore 64? 128? Everyone should have at least one virus on their systems at all times. I'm sure everyone agrees. 
Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 08-02-2001, 08:02 AM:
What about a virus for cinema hardware. Have a distributor include a virus in the Dolby Digital soundtrack of a film that up'loads to the SRD processor.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-02-2001, 02:37 PM:
I wonder if Digital Cinema can get a virus? Bet it can if someone was really crafty.
Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 08-02-2001, 04:14 PM:
Of course theres a virus for the Amiga its called the "workbench" oh wait no... im sorry thats the operating system...
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 08-02-2001, 05:10 PM:
Well windows is considered by some a virus
I saw a poster once at a OS2 meeting that read
"Wanted Win95 for impersonating an operating system"
Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 08-03-2001, 12:38 AM:
quote:
I have a Mac, and as such, I feel very neglected and left out from the worm and virus scene.
Try eating some raw pork.