McAfee joins doomsayers on Mac security

Stuart Corner
Friday, 05 May 2006 19:34

Business IT - Technology

McAfee Avert Lab has added its voice to those claiming the security of the Mac OS X operating system and its applications is much weaker than many users believe.
According to McAfee Avert Labs, Macintosh platform vulnerability discovery rates have increased by 228 percent in the past three years alone, from 45 found in 2003 to 143 in 2005.

"Many believe that using an Apple operating system is a form of security in itself, believing that they are far less susceptible to malware than Windows users," said Stuart McClure, senior vice president, global threats at McAfee. "And while the threats targeting the Mac operating system are low in volume, the use of Apple products does not provide an invisibility cloak from malware, and users need to be more vigilant about security as adoption rates soar and attacks on Apple operating systems increase."

McAfee Avert found that from 2003 to 2005, the annual rate of vulnerability discovery on Apple's Mac OS platform increased by 228 percent. It notes that Microsoft's products saw only a 73 percent increase. The number of vulnerabilities discovered in 2003 was, for Mac OS 45 and for Windows 92. In 2005 the figures were 143 and 159 respectively

McAfee contends that Apple's low market share more than anything else has protected it from virus attacks.  Since 1987 McAfee has documented just 76 viruses targeted at the Mac OS compared to 100,000 viruses targeted at Windows.

According to McAfee, "As demonstrated with their recent patches, Apple's Mac OS platform is just as vulnerable to targeted malware attacks as other operating systems."

"Apple appears to be in the earlier stages of malware evolution, where exploits are written and spread as proofs-of-concept to demonstrate authors' technical prowess and to garner notoriety. McAfee believes that this incentive, coupled with the easy availability of Mac exploit code on the Internet, will make the Mac an open target for malware."

McAfee predicts that the growing number of Macintosh vulnerabilities will attract more and more talented hackers over the course of the next year and beyond.

Its report also details two recent viruses targeted against Mac OS, OSX/leap and OSX/Inqtana.a, which appeared just days after OSX/LEAP, and the report notes that on one day alone, Aprll 19 six vulnerabilities were discovered by one researcher.  "Though all require some kind of user interaction such as opening a zip file or viewing a web page with graphics these vulnerabilities are considered very dangerous and rated 'HighlyCritical'."

The McAfee report can be downloaded here.