[...] Most of the security features have been added on -- and
certainly all the hardening has been added on, and all of the
security-consciousness. Such security as there was in the original
Unix was designed mostly to prevent accidental data loss. [...]
It is interesting that so many think of security only in terms of
firewalls, strong encryption, chroot jails, et cetera. We are quick to
forget the simple things such as file and process permissions and
account rights which prevent users from destroying each other's data
and viruses from infecting critical OS files (as in the case in
Windows).
The first worm that spread over the Internet was a Unix worm, in 1986
-- using a text editor that ran with super-user privileges. I've had
one of our Linux systems penetrated successfully -- caught a few
minutes after the penetration, so I got to watch the result on a
network monitor. The fun part was calling the guy's ISP while the
attack was in progress, and actually getting a Unix admin who could
work with me to roll the guy up. But it was a Unix attack, not a
Windows attack.
Right. Again, a worm is not a virus. Your Linux box was not infected
with a virus; you were hacked. (Nice work nabbing the attacker
though.)
Any of the social-engineering techniques that work to spread email
worms on PCs will work on Macs, and probably better, since the Mac
community hasn't been repeatedly challenged with such techniques. An
email worm doesn't need admin privileges to spread. [...]
Okay, I will stop now, since this has simply become a squabble over
semantics. In my first message I simply disagreed with a proposition
that it is inevitable that OS X will be plagued with viruses. I should
not have to defend that statement against arguments posed about every
possible type of system and network security.
The fact is that there are no know viruses on the Mac OS X platform.
That statement is a fact. To call this script (opener)--which must be
installed, knowingly or unknowingly, by an administrative user--a virus
is factually incorrect. Yes, OS X has and will be effected by bugs and
security holes (every operating system is), but I contend that it will
be a very long time before a true virus will make its way onto the
platform.
