Help, My Mac Has a Virus! Huh?

Intego announced today that there is an actual virus threat to the invincible Mac: HellRTS.D Backdoor. Yep, that's right, a Mac virus just waiting to take control of your iThis and iThat. It would have been funnier if the virus had a better name, but hey, virus writers aren't necessarily all that clever. But it's a real virus and a real threat so you'd better watch out Mac addicts lest some evildoer takes over your iThingy and surfs over to some naughty site while your girlfriend is updating her Facebook page.

Of course, you can protect yourself with signature files from Intego's antivirus program. And, I know you have that don't you? No? Oh, that's right, you didn't think your Mac was virus vulnerable. Darn it.

I'd like to write a virus for a Mac that makes the single Mac mouse button emulate a two or three button mouse. Now that would be funny. Apple stores all over the world would be flooded with Mac nerds wondering how their Mac bling kept messing up with multiple clicks and right-click menus. Ah, the pandemonium that would ensue.

I would love to see a mall parking lot filled with Priuses sporting rainbow stickers and the Apple store all abuzz with granola-filled, sandal-wearing vegans in an uproar over the whole thing.

Sorry, just had a Mac fantasy there.

So, if your Mac seems like it has a mind of its own, don't assume it's just another uber-awesome Mac application with built-in intelligence; it's actually a virus.

Welcome to Hell Mac users. Roll down some Windows, if you get too hot.

[ZackPollard]

I find this amusing, Macs have been able to get virus' for years! They're just as vunerable, if not more vunerable to attack than Windows, due to the fact most big company who earn alot of money with design and manufacture use mac based systems, when will we learn, that linux is one of the only operating systems which don't get infected...Anyone ever had a virus on a Linux distro?

[bluejeanbaby]

Hi. My lingo won't be that correct, but here it is.
My friends imac had a virus come through his machine before xmas. Pretty sure it came through an email, anyways, the end result was this Islamic crap that just bombarded all over the screen. Just for a minute. Then poof. Gone. Never to be seen again. No one even ever saw it but for me.
Then, and oh, THEN. The machine has slowly deteriorated over the months performance-wise. Then I plugged in a cable from my mobile to the comp, I heard a few cute musical sounds, and then.. the machine just crashed. Sad mac, whirling planet, reload and load arrow, blue screen. You name it. Not matter what I try, I can't get the thing moving beyond the arrows. I'm sitting here this afternoon making a bootable usb flash drive in the hopes that it may read that since it's not even comprehending the installation disks not matter what bootup keys i use. Don't people have anything better to do in life than be malicious? Life's just too short. I can't afford this... if my flash doesn't work I'll be lost as to what to try next. Thanks for listening.
P.S. And yeah, I've seen viruses come through mac before over the years. Thank gawd they're few and far between. :)

[ZackPollard]

Ever thought of just running Virus protection? Although saying that...I haven't run virus protection for atleast 4 years of using computers, I've had one virus, which was from my flatmate going on a porno site on my laptop.

I reguarly download stuff, music, videos, from certain torrent websites, I've NEVER had a virus that I've got from my own activity.

[bluejeanbaby]

It wasn't my machine... altho i must confess... I haven't checked my owned lately :( So. My scathlingly brilliant flash drive idea didn't work. So I guess my last and final option is to run off to some store to pay some outrageous price for a crossover cable. I'm G5, he's G4. Depending on the price, which I haven't researched yet and am afraid... it may be another two weeks til I can tackle this problem again. What a pain in the youknowwhatsy :)

[Jkirk3279]

"I'd like to write a virus for a Mac that makes the single Mac mouse button emulate a two or three button mouse."

Actually Macs have been multi-button mouse capable for about ten years.

[Jkirk3279]

"Anyone ever had a virus on a Linux distro?"

Check Wikipedia ... 14 weak Linux viruses that hardly amount to a threat.

Still, that means OS/X is out ahead even of Linux.

Viruses aren't about market share alone: OS X has more market share than Linux.

Yet Linux has 14 viruses.

It's about platform loyalty.

Mac Users are the least likely people to sabotage our platform than anybody:

Compare that with Windows users, who dominate the world in Virus writing.

I guess they don't feel any loyalty to the brand.

[Jkirk3279]

"My friends imac had a virus come through his machine before xmas. Pretty sure it came through an email, anyways, the end result was this Islamic crap that just bombarded all over the screen. Just for a minute. Then poof. Gone."

No, that was a Kernel Panic. Very rare, and it almost always means you have a hardware problem.

Five languages? Korean, Japanese, Portugese, English, all saying "your computer must be restarted".

I had a bad Logitech mouse once... I saw two of these Panics, a week apart.

I threw out the mouse, no more problems.

Your friend might have defective RAM, for example.

[dgroyer]

Hi
I had a virus on a flash drive if I put it in a Mac I would have a kernel panic formatted it on a PC and then every thing was fine. :)

[da8iwr]

Amazing that a virus software company should find a virus... not of course a marketing ploy to try and worry people enough into buy their special software and open a new market that for years has been closed.

ESET have provided a virus software for Mac’s for years, in all the time I have been using it, with all the dodgy sites I have visited (as most of us do), it has never once flagged up or tried to stop anything as it has never come across anything that it needed to stop.

I really don’t understand the need of the venom in this story; it is purely anti MAC from somebody who has obviously never used a Mac, hence the 2 button mouse comments. Windows users are so PLEASED if they find an issue and cant wait to throw it in the faces of a Mac user, but for what reason?

I love Macs, but I don’t have any need to slag of Microsoft, even though there are a huge amount of security and usability issues that Mac have solved.

Macs are not perfect, but I use both a Windows7 desktop and a Mac Book Pro. Both have good and bad points, but there are a LOT more bad points in the PC and the usability of a Mac is amazing.

Also the fact the full version of OSX costs £29 from Apple, but Windows7 Ultimate from Microsoft cost me £230 on the day of its release and then I have to pay £39 per year to secure it is another reason not to use windows.

Can you imagine buying a BMW, and then them telling you, due to not building it very well, you will also need to buy extra locks from a third party to secure it... it wouldn't happen would it - so why should Microsoft expect it us to do it when buying their products?!

[Jkirk3279]

It wasn't my machine... altho i must confess... I haven't checked my owned lately :( So. My scathlingly brilliant flash drive idea didn't work. So I guess my last and final option is to run off to some store to pay some outrageous price for a crossover cable. I'm G5, he's G4. Depending on the price, which I haven't researched yet and am afraid... it may be another two weeks til I can tackle this problem again. What a pain in the youknowwhatsy :)

" My scathlingly brilliant flash drive idea didn't work"

Booting from Flash RAM is a recent trick, as in later than 2006, so his G4 won't consider the Flash drive as a boot volume.

One of the tricks most Mac users don't know about is FireWire Mode.

Say you have a Mac that won't start. You get a Firewire cable, switch off the problem Mac and plug the cable between that Mac to another Mac with Firewire (post B&W G3).

Start the healthy Mac and once it's booted up, you start the first one while holding down the letter "T" on it's keyboard.

It will start up, basically, as an external hard drive. The screen will come on with the FireWire Logo and nothing else.

That will let you copy off the data from the hard drive on the affected Mac, and let you wipe and reinstall it.

But from what you describe, your friend's Mac had a Kernel Panic, almost always caused by a hardware defect.

I mentioned the bad USB mouse I had to chuck. Bad RAM will do it too, and I suspect the hard drive is the culprit in this case.

If you have a local Apple Store, you can take the Mac in.

If it's way out of warrantee, and you're handy, you could replace the hard drive yourself.

[Lizz77]

To Jkirk3279- are you sure it was a kernel panic if it was there only for a moment? Kernel panics aren't able to go away without reboot. Perhaps a different error message with multiple languages?

[Jkirk3279]

I searched, but can't find any other error message that would match the description.

It occurs to me that a glitch could have forced a restart if "restart after power outage" was enabled.

At any rate, with the cheap prices on 500 GB drives these days, I'd replace the HD, reseat the RAM, and reset the NVRAM.

[operation108]

lolz
windows=1337 system way better and more customizable
mac=n00b system that cant play any good games

and any virus comes up i just use system restore cause i have external hard drive for backup and as bonus i have avast! antivirus FTW

And if you play MW2 I will kill all you ****ing CAMPERS!!!

all of you mac users are FNGz ☺

[foo_fighter]

Just FWI Macs do have, and have had for years, a virus. Its just preloaded when it leaves the factory and goes by the clever nickname OSX. Plus don't even try bringing up cost. After paying over 1k for your piece of white trash your OS upgrades should be free. $700+$66 is still WAY less than $1000+$45.

[Jasonraces]

Actually there has been a mac virus and it has nothing to do with loyalty to "the brand". It has everything to do with the amount of people using that os, and how quickly apple can secure the situation, there are way more people on pc's still then there were in 95 and until the day that mac starts to fill everyones homes hackers and virus writers alike will not target them because its not worth their time. Its like saying your gonna steal a candy bar when the golden necklace is already in your hand. Oh and im not being bias i just wrote this on my iphone which is starting to dissapoint me just as much as my mac did when the cd drive and wireless went out 4 times last year. The day will come when they focus on mac and everyone will freak and try to find some technicality where they wont have to call it a virus

[totalapps]

really funny story, thanks!
I believe that antimalware mac apps will keep our computers protected