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| A second worm has been written for Mac OS X. |
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have issued
protection against a second worm for Mac OS X. The OSX/Inqtana-A worm
spreads between Apple Macintosh computers via a Bluetooth
vulnerability. The new worm has appeared within days of the
discovery
of the first ever real virus for Mac OS X.
The Inqtana worm exploits a vulnerability (known as CAN-2005-1333) to
spread itself to other vulnerable Mac OS X computers. However,
Apple released a patch against the vulnerability in mid 2005,
meaning the worm is highly unlikely to spread successfully.
Users of Mac OS X are advised to keep their software updated against the
latest security vulnerabilities in Apple's code.
"It's disturbing to see a second worm for Mac OS X so soon after
the first, but it should be remembered that this is only two
compared to well over
100,000 viruses for Microsoft operating systems," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "The good news is that Inqtana is
not going to spread successfully in the wild, but this announcement
will still be a shock to those in the Mac community who thought
hackers were not interested in their operating system."
Sophos customers have been automatically protected against the
worm since 01:15 GMT, 18 February 2006.
A report issued
by Sophos yesterday revealed that 79% of people believed that Apple
Macintoshes would be targeted more in future, following the
discovery of the first Mac OS X worm.
"This means two real viruses have emerged for the Mac OS X
platform in less than a week," continued Cluley. "The question on
everyone's lips is - when will we see the next one, and will it
have a more malicious payload? Apple Mac users need to be just as
careful about protecting their computers with anti-virus software,
firewalls and security patches as their friends and colleagues
using Windows."
Sophos advises all computer users, whether running PCs or Macs,
to practise safe computing and keep their anti-virus software
updated.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.