RSSMac malware poses as popular freeware PDF viewer
By Tim Conneally | Published August 25, 2009, 4:07 PM
Foxit Reader, a free, lightweight PDF viewer and printer popular in our FileForum, has an evil twin.
Today, the Foxit Corporation warned that a malware claiming to be Foxit Reader for Macintosh has been perpetrating attacks on users thinking they were downloading an official version of the free PDF reader. The thing is, there is no Foxit Reader for OS X. The software is available for Windows, Windows Mobile, Embedded Linux, Desktop Linux, and U3.
"While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, we are not happy about the recent malware attacks masquerading as our Foxit Reader," said George Gao, Vice President of Marketing and Sales of Foxit Corporation. "Foxit has always strived to insure that our solutions are secure for our users, and remains committed to address any Foxit product security issue in a professional and timely manner."
Trend Micro researcher Ivan Macalintal found the malware on Sunday and classified it as a variant of the JAHLAV DNS trojan, a Mac malware discovered earlier this summer that prompts users to download a bit of software or a codec (earlier this month, it pretended to be MacCinema) which, once installed, would reroute users to phishing sites and suchlike.
Foxit has not yet returned Betanews' requests for comment.
In Leopard if you download something from the internet before you can run it - it goes something like, this was downloaded from the internet are you sure you wish to continue...Sounds like they just enhanced what was already in Leopard
Score: -3
|Vista does that...
Score: 0
|LOL. About 2 Mac users will get infected from this! Oh my, call the National Guard. :-)
Score: -8
|So then the other one will be fine, good to know :D
Score: 7
|Hah good one.
Score: 0
|well at least those with SL will be protected, in late 2009, Apple finally decided, hmm maybe nows a good time to include a anti-virus scanner lol
http://www.theregister.c...pard_malware_protection
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=4104
funny, never heard of this problem in their latest Ads
Score: 5
|Two things.
BetaNews - 10 Years.
Last Mac Infection - 10 Years.
Sure, lab guys and others will find these but in real life? We have a built in PDF reader called PREVIEW (that also edits and saves PDF - don;t have to buy a $200 version like on the WIN side) so who's going to download a PDF reader on the Mac side. That's like creating a trojan for stickies or a mouse pointer.
But for PC users confused.
PC Infection:
Turn on PC.
Mac Infection.
Turn on Mac.
Launch Browser.
Go to Porn Site.
Download malware (as app).
Launch Installer.
Click YES you want to install app you downloaded from internet.
Type in ADMIN password.
Launch app.
Click YES you want to run app you downloaded from internet.
that is why after 10 years of OSX, there are no non-lab malware, viruses, trojans, etc ...
Score: -8
|Your last two steps don't typically occur on OS X. We've been safe so far - though my in my opinion it's been more security through obscurity. If someone is hell-bent on developing malware for OS X then it will happen. But most malware writers are in it for the money and targeting MS will yield a 10x greater payoff. Oh, and your smug attitude will almost guarantee that you'll get infected in the future.
Score: 3
|Turn on PC, you suck at trolling...There are many people who run without any A/V on a PC and have no problems, they check it by running a web based a/v that confirms they have no viruses
Score: 0
|Funny I have never been infected by turning on my PC... or from surfing the web... and vista seems to ask me if I want to execute something too...
Score: 2
|It's about time! Mac's are highly susceptible to viruses and malware. I can't believe Apple didn't add this much needed feature eons ago. It is nice that by doing this Apple essentially created a much improved version of Vista's UAC feature. Now people know why their computer is asking if they really want to do what they've asked their computer to do.
Score: -2
|"t's about time! Mac's are highly susceptible to viruses and malware."
Oh yea? Name one virus for OS X. This article was about malware. I don't know why anyone would download a PDF reader, OS X does not need one, so it's unlikely many people were affected.
Score: -1
|Why don't you read the articles you post? Neither one mentions anti-virus protection. Do you even know what malware is?
Score: 0
|*laughing*
Pedantic. Nice.
Score: -1
|@veggiedude - There are several different types of malware. Malware is software that damages a computer. This could mean a virus or it could mean spyware. There are probably several other types of malware as well.
Score: 0
|It's just as easy to infect a Mac with malware as it is Windows Vista or 7. Nobody has really tried very hard to infect a Mac. Yet.
Score: 0
|"Yet."
Don't hold your breath. No payoff. The money is in Windows Users.
Score: 0
|So you use everything that comes with OSX? You really HAVE been completely programmed.
See, in the world of Windows, we don't HAVE to use everything shipped with Windows. Some people don't like Windows Media Player so they download VLC or Winamp, etc.
They don't like IE, they get Firefox. They don't like Outlook Express/Windows Mail/Windows Live Mail they get Thunderbird, etc. you get my drift.
So, if someone doesn't like Itunes or the built in PDF viewer, fu%$ them for getting something else online?
Wow.
Score: 0
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