July 18th, 2007
New worm for Mac OS X?
Rape.osx is an alleged worm that targets Mac OS X. According to Slashdot:
“Controversy is slowly building over the development of a claimed new worm that targets OS X systems, dubbed by its inventor Rape.osx. Using a currently undisclosed vulnerability in mDNSResponder, the worm is said to give access to root as it spreads across the local network. As with a number of recent Apple-related security discoveries, the author, InfoSec Sellout, is delaying reporting the vulnerability to Apple until after completing full testing of the worm.”
SecurityFocus claims that Mac OS X is prone to an unspecified remote code-execution vulnerability via an mDNSResponder variant.
Successfully exploiting this issue allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary machine code with superuser privileges, facilitating the complete compromise of affected computers. Failed exploit attempts likely result in a denial-of-service condition.
I guess that we’ll have to see how Apple responds to find out if it’s legit.
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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