iPad users targeted by hackers

August 25th, 2010

Apple iPad owners have been warned not to click on any links that claim to be the latest version of iTunes. Hackers are using the scam to install malware on their Windows PCs Photo: REUTERS

Security experts have warned that Apple iPad users are being targeted by cyber criminals. Hackers are trying to dupe iPad owners in to downloading a fake iTunes update on their Windows computer, which, when installed, creates a backdoor for cyber criminals, allowing them to remotely access the machine or even use the computer to send spam messages.

A dialog box pops up telling the user that a recent iTunes update has been released for the iPad. Users who click on a link are taken to a site that looks exactly like the iTunes download web page, but the file the user downloads is actually a Trojan that installs malicious code on the machine. The Backdoor. Bifrose. AADY virus tries to steal passwords and login details for email accounts and instant-messaging services.

“The trick is pretty simple,” said Catalin Cosoi, a senior researcher for BitDefender, which uncovered the scam. “They’re clever to do it this way. If they were able to target Mac customers, it would have spread like wildfire, but because most antivirus companies detect this Trojan, it’s aimed at Windows users who have bought an iPad and who also don’t run a security product.”

BitDefender has advised iPad owners not to click on any links that appear in dialog boxes or alerts, and to download iTunes directly from the Apple website. The company also emphasised that the iPad itself remained unaffected by the Trojan.

By Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor
Published: 11:43AM BST 27 Apr 2010

Article originally posted here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7638376/iPad-users-targeted-by-hackers.html

Posted in General News | Comments Off

Apple offers free FaceTime test to iPhone 4 owners

June 29th, 2010

While being the first person in your social circle to get your hands on an iPhone 4 certainly gives you bragging rights, there’s a downside to being in such an exclusive club—there’s no way to try out the phone’s FaceTime feature. After all, it takes two to video chat—and in the case of FaceTime, it takes two with an iPhone 4 and a Wi-Fi connection.

But if you bought an iPhone 4 and don’t know anyone else who has one, you are, apparently, not alone. In fact, the situation seems to be so common that Apple has set up a special hotline that allows you to test FaceTime with a company representative at no charge.

All you need to do is call 1-888-FACETIME begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1-888-FACETIME      end_of_the_skype_highlighting from your phone. Once any of the Apple reps at the other end of the line pick up, they will go over some details with you to confirm that you can, indeed, use FaceTime: namely, they will ensure that you are the owner of an iPhone 4 and that you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.

You’ll then get switched over to FaceTime, as the rep spends a few minutes showing you how the technology works, going over its features, and answering any questions you may have.

FaceTime, one of the main new features of Apple’s latest iPhone offering, is designed to provide simple, easy-to-use video-chatting capabilities to cellular users. Although the technology currently requires iPhone 4 and only works over Wi-Fi, the company has stated that it plans on making its underlying protocols an open standard and work with mobile providers to include support for cellular data at a later date.

Article originally posted here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/152365/2010/06/facetime_test.html?lsrc=rss_main

Posted in General News, Mac / Apple | Comments Off

Mozilla Patches 9 Firefox Bugs, Adds Plug-in Crash Protection

June 24th, 2010

Mozilla on Tuesday patched nine vulnerabilities, six of them critical, in Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 3.5.

But rather than highlighting the security fixes in Firefox 3.6.4, the company instead emphasized the addition of crash protection, a move meant to keep the browser alive when popular plug-ins drop dead.

Updates to Firefox 3.6.4 and Firefox 3.5.10 fixed nine flaws for each version, although the total patch count came to 10 because two fixes affected only one of the pair.

Six of the nine vulnerabilities for each browser were rated “critical,” Mozilla’s highest threat ranking, indicating that hackers could use them to compromise a system running Firefox, then plant other malware on the machine.

Two were labeled “moderate,” the second-lowest rating, while one was tagged as “low.”

One of the critical flaws was reported to Mozilla by Nils, a German research who only goes by his first name.

Nils gained fame by winning cash prizes at the last two annual Pwn2Own hacking contests, sponsored by HP TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative bug bounty program.

Last March, Nils took home $10,000 by sidestepping DEP (data execution prevention) and ASLR (address space layout randomization) in Windows 7 to exploit the then-current Firefox 3.6.2.

It was Nils’ second Pwn2Own victory; last year he grabbed $15,000 by exploiting not only Firefox, but also Safari and IE8.

Mozilla also marked a clutch of bugs in the browser and JavaScript engines as critical, although it only assumed the flaws could be exploited.

“Some of these crashes showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances, and we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code,” Mozilla said, using boilerplate language it often inserts into browser or JavaScript engine security advisories.

But Mozilla wanted all eyes on Firefox 3.6.4 for a different reason. “Results from our beta testing show Firefox 3.6.4 will significantly reduce the number of Firefox crashes experienced by users who are watching online videos or playing games,” said Christian Legnitto, who oversees the Firefox releases, in a post to Mozilla’s blog .

“When a plug-in crashes or freezes while using Firefox, users can enjoy uninterrupted browsing by simply refreshing the page,” he said.

Firefox 3.6.4 currently recovers only from crashes of Adobe’s Flash Player, Apple ’s QuickTime and Microsoft ’s Silverlight plug-ins, and is available only in Firefox for Windows and Linux . The company is still working on the feature, which it has dubbed “out of process plug-ins,” or OOPP, for the Mac version.

Mozilla has had an eye on Flash for OOPP treatment because Adobe’s software has been responsible for more Firefox crashes than any other plug-in, according to the company.

It has also worked other features into Firefox to deal with problems in that plug-in, and others. Last year, for example, Mozilla kicked off plug-in checking , a feature that determines whether a user is running an outdated, and possibly vulnerable, plug-in, by focusing on Flash.

A keystone of the “Lorenz” project — a move by Mozilla to quickly add features to Firefox via regular security updates rather than waiting for bigger upgrades — OOPP was designed as a stop-gap measure for Firefox 3.6 when work on the full-scale “Electrolysis” process separation project was shifted to Firefox 4 , a major update currently scheduled to ship by the end of 2010.

The addition of OOPP led to several delays of Firefox 3.6.4, which at one point was slated for an early May release, then pushed to June 1 and beyond.

Mozilla has no plans to add OOPP to the older Firefox 3.5 line, it said in an FAQ on the new crash protection feature .

Users can update to Firefox 3.6.4 by downloading the new edition or by selecting “Check for Updates” from the Help menu in the browser. Firefox 3.5 can obtain the patches by calling up the integrated update tool.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld.

Article originally posted here:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/199602/Firefox.html?tk=rss_news

Posted in General News, Mozilla Firefox | Comments Off

Apple sneaks anti-malware update into Snow Leopard

June 2nd, 2010

Ten months after it debuted rudimentary malware scanning in Snow Leopard, Apple this week quietly added a signature for a third piece of malware, security researchers reported Friday.

According to U.K-based antivirus vendor Sophos and U.S. Mac security company Intego, Mac OS X 10.6.4, which Apple released this past Tuesday, includes an update to XProtect.

Dubbed that because the malware signatures are contained within Snow Leopard’s “XProtect.plist” file, the feature debuted in August 2009 with the launch of Mac OS X 10.6. At the time, Apple included detection for only two pieces of malware, Trojan horses named “RSPlug.a” and “Iservice” by Symantec.

The 10.6.4 update added a scanning signature for another Trojan, which Symantec has labeled as “HellRTS.”

According to Sophos, which calls the same Trojan “OSX/Pinhead-B,” and like Symantec has had protection in place since April, hackers have disguised the threat as iPhoto, the photo management software that ships with new Macs. The masquerade is meant to dupe users into installing the backdoor malware.

Apple did not note the change to XProtect’s signature list in the release notes for Mac OS X 10.6.4, a fact that Sophos’ Graham Cluley found curious.

“You have to wonder whether they’re keeping quiet about an anti-malware security update like this … for marketing reasons,” speculated Cluley, a Sophos senior technology consultant, in a post to a company blog. “Shh! Don’t tell folks that we have to protect against malware on Mac OS X!”

Computerworld confirmed that detection for HellRTS has been added to XProtect.plist.

Not surprisingly, both Sophos and Intego—each sells Mac security software—dismissed the update.

“Although I welcome Apple doing something to reduce the malware problem on Mac OS X, I don’t consider it a replacement for real anti- virus software,” Cluley asserted.

“So Apple’s anti-malware feature now protects against three types of malware,” said Intego on its Web site. “Intego’s VirusBarrier X6 protects against all known Mac malware.”

Article originally posted here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/152153/2010/06/antimalware_snowleopard.html?lsrc=rss_main

Posted in General News, Mac / Apple | Comments Off