Macworld UK has learned of a dangerous malware that deletes the Home folder on a Mac. The file is cunningly disguised as a Word 2004 for Mac demo ? from the forthcoming Office 2004 for Mac suite.<\/p>\n
A Macworld reader alerted the magazine to the malware after he downloaded the file from Limewire. The reader told Macworld: “I downloaded the file in the hope that perhaps Microsoft had released some sort of public beta. The file unzipped, and to my delight the Microsoft icon looked genuine and trustworthy.”<\/p>\n
However, he added: “I clicked on the installer file, and to my horror in 10 seconds the attachment had wiped my entire Home folder!”<\/p>\n
Mac malicious<\/p>\n
Macworld has been able to acquire the file from Limewire, and has received confirmation from Internet security company Intego that its contents appear to be malicious.<\/p>\n
Intego was initially criticized for exaggerating the threat of the concept Trojan Horse identified last month.<\/p>\n
Microsoft responds<\/p>\n
Microsoft has issued no official public beta of Microsoft Office 2004, which has not yet shipped.<\/p>\n
A Microsoft spokesperson said: “Security is a top priority for Microsoft, and we are committed to ensuring a safe and reliable computing experience for all of our customers. Microsoft does not currently offer any Web downloads for Microsoft 2004. The best way to ensure you have a legitimate copy of any Microsoft products is to ensure you purchase it from any licensed reseller or VAR.<\/p>\n
“Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac should only be installed from retail or site-licensed media purchased through authorized resellers or VARs, where the authentic install icon will be found in the product install wizard.<\/p>\n
“When looking for product enhancements from Microsoft customers should always download from [url=http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/mac]www.microsoft.com\/mac[\/url] or use the new auto-update tool in Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac.”<\/p>\n
Unix under attack<\/p>\n
Macworld had previously warned that malware writers are showing renewed interest in Unix systems. Sophos senior technology consultant anti-virus expert Graham Cluley told Macworld: “A small number of virus writers are showing an increased interest in Unix, and there have been Unix worms which have spread in the wild.”<\/p>\n
He added: “For this reason Mac OS X users should not think they have nothing to worry about moving into the future.”<\/p>\n
Macworld is speaking to all concerned, and will publish more information as it becomes available.<\/p>\n
from [url=http:\/\/www.macworld.co.uk\/news\/main_news.cfm?NewsID=8664]MacWorld[\/url]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mac under fake Word 2004 attack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bBYZ-2T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepquest.code511.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}