Mac OS X hit by second virus through Bluetooth

Stan Beer
Monday, 20 February 2006 23:53

Business IT - Security

Mac OS X computers, once considered impervious to viruses, have suffered their second virus attack within days, after it was revealed today that a new worm can wirelessly hop between Apple Macintosh computers via Bluetooth connections.

Experts at internet security provider, Sophos, have identified and issued protection against the worm, called OSX/Inqtana-A, which 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.
 
"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."
 
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."