Intel-based Macintosh owners have little to fear from Macarena
malware.
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have advised
Mac OS X users not to panic following the discovery of a new
proof-of-concept virus.
The worm, dubbed OSX/Macarena, has caused headlines in the press
because new Macintosh malware is so rarely encountered compared to
malicious code designed for Windows PCs. At the time of writing
Sophos has received no reports of any customers who have
encountered the malware, and only source code versions have been
uncovered.
The Macarena virus, which is only 672 bytes long, infects by
appending itself to infected host files. Every infected file
contains the strings "MachoMan - roy g biv" and
"26/10/06". The virus only works on Intel-based Apple
Macintoshes.
However, Sophos experts believe that the malware is unlikely to
ever spread successfully, a view apparently shared by the virus
writer who included the following comments in his code:
To build this thing, I use Xcode, but it is really very
buggy, and it needed lots of help to produce working code
and
So many problems for so little code.
"This is a proof-of-concept virus with very limited spreading
ability. Frankly you're more likely to be struck by lightning than
troubled by Macarena," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "No-one should panic, and while
this is an indication that hackers are showing an increased
interest in targeting the Mac OS X platform it is still a lot safer
place to be than Windows."
A report issued
by Sophos earlier this year 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.
Sophos advises all computer users, whether running PCs or Macs,
to practise safe computing and keep their anti-virus software
updated.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.