[delman78]

hi,

just now I went to a site to copy lyrics of a song. suddenly safari quit and I got a message from the site in a safari dialogue window saying that my computer was infected with spyware and that they had software that would scan windows xp to find such spyware. now I know with windows you get these messages and most of them are to scare you into clicking on there message to download what they want you to. but, my question/concern is is that when I went to cancel the window that popped up it took me to the software site and started running what seemed to be a scan and then I closed out that window. how can I see if anything was downloaded onto my iMac if something was downloaded?

Thank you

[albloom]

No.

[ShermanHoman]

What you saw was a Safari graphic that only 'looks' like it is scanning your drive. Nothing happened, it is just a marketing scam.
Nothing can get downloaded to your Mac without your permission. At the risk of repeating albloom: no.

[mdawson]

The “scan your PC” scam goes way back and is in actually a means to infect your computer. For now, like most malware 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 percent of these scams can only impact Windows. I have heard of one, possibly two, of these pop-up cams that now target Macs. When you close out that type of window, never click anything within the window. Regardless of what any of the buttons in the scam page state, they will all lead you to the malware site. The only way you should ever dispense with those windows is via the OS by clicking the red button on the title bar.

[smax013]

albloom said:

No.

In practical terms at this time, that is true. I would say that it may not always be true in the future. I would suspect that there is a theoretical possibility that something that can harm a Windoze computer could harm a Mac. There just is no known such thing at this time. Generally, speaking, however, viruses/malware tends to be platform specific (i.e. Windoze stuff will not harm a Mac and vice versa)...but does not mean it is not possible.

[mdawson]

OS X and Windows are two completely different operating systems with completely different origins and APIs. Code written for one platform will not work on the other except through some form of cross-platform macro environment. Even in the latter case, the macro language would have to be one like VBA that can also access the system. No macro viruses have ever appeared in OS X and Microsoft’s attitude toward the Mac market has precluded the possibility in the future.

Should cross-platform malware become a truism of the future, it will be because code has been specifically twice written for each OS; at the very least cross-platform malware must be authored in a platform neutral language, compiled and made into the appropriate platform-specific executable. Even then, it would need to be distributed to the correct machine. In any case, OS X does not recognize and cannot execute .exe files and the same goes for .app files in Windows.

[smax013]

mdawson said:

OS X and Windows are two completely different operating systems with completely different origins and APIs. Code written for one platform will not work on the other except through some form of cross-platform macro environment. Even in the latter case, the macro language would have to be one like VBA that can also access the system. No macro viruses have ever appeared in OS X and Microsoft’s attitude toward the Mac market has precluded the possibility in the future.

What you say is true...but are you 100% sure that there is no "cross pollination" ANYWHERE between the Mac OS and its accompanying technology/"attachments" and Micro$oft Windoze's? And even if you are sure that there is no "cross pollination" now, are you 100% sure that will always be the case? After all, the Mac OS underwent a MAJOR overhaul which resulted in it being nominally based on a flavor of Unix. Are you 100% sure that Micro$oft might not do the same type thing at some point in the future? And are you 100% sure the future convergence of OSs due to more prevalent use of the Internet might not cause some "commonality" issues in the future?

My point was NOT to imply that there is some definite threat (whether severe or minor) at this point, but rather to offer that a blanket "no" was potentially a hair too absolute. You are 100% correct that there is certainly no known malware that can realistically effect both a Mac and Windoze PeeCee (especially with Micro$oft hosing Mac users on the whole VBA thing), but I would argue it is a bit presumptious/assumptious to state that can NEVER be the case. But, if you can see into the future to KNOW that, then more power to you.

[mdawson]

What you say is true...but are you 100% sure that there is no "cross pollination" ANYWHERE between the Mac OS and its accompanying technology/"attachments" and Micro$oft Windoze's?

Yes, I am 100 percent sure that there is no “cross pollination” anywhere between the Mac OS and Windows. They are completely different operating systems and one cannot execute code written for the other.

And even if you are sure that there is no "cross pollination" now, are you 100% sure that will always be the case? After all, the Mac OS underwent a MAJOR overhaul which resulted in it being nominally based on a flavor of Unix. Are you 100% sure that Micro$oft might not do the same type thing at some point in the future? And are you 100% sure the future convergence of OSs due to more prevalent use of the Internet might not cause some "commonality" issues in the future?

No one can be 100 percent sure of what the future holds, but that has no bearing on delman78’s inquiry. Even if the things you bring up were to happen at some time in the future and there were to be some OS convergence as such, that scenario is far from being on the horizon so it is not even a matter of consideration at this point. Even if it were on the drawing board, such a move would require both Apple and Microsoft to pretty much dump their current operating systems and develop something completely new together. OS X and Windows are far too dissimilar for any type of real convergence. Apple could not do such a thing with the original Mac OS and OS X; Classic needed to run atop a compatibility layer and that layer was not portable to the x86 platform without resorting to emulation.

but I would argue it is a bit presumptious/assumptious to state that can NEVER be the case. But, if you can see into the future to KNOW that, then more power to you.

Where in my post did I ever use the word “never”? What I stated are the current facts. FACT: the only possible way to create truly cross-platform malware is to write a macro virus that in a cross-platform macro language that can impact the system. FACT: OS X and Windows now and for the foreseeable future cannot run executables compiled for the other. FACT: In order for the same malware to infect both platforms the author would need to write or compile two versions of the malware just as the legitimate software developers currently do for their cross-platform applications.

I in no way attempted to predict the distant futures of either OS X or Windows. Whatever that future may be, it is completely non sequitur in terms of what delman78 wishes to know. The answer it his question is for now and the foreseeable future a definitive, ?no.?

[smax013]

mdawson said:

Yes, I am 100 percent sure that there is no “cross pollination” anywhere between the Mac OS and Windows. They are completely different operating systems and one cannot execute code written for the other.

So, there is no possible way that say someone could use some cross-platform scripting evironment like say Javascript or application evironment like say Java to do something "malicious" on a Mac? Personally, I don't know if it possible nor do I know if there is anything else that might fall into a similar category as the VBA cross-platform stuff. That is what I was referring to.

mdawson said:

Where in my post did I ever use the word “never”? What I stated are the current facts. FACT: the only possible way to create truly cross-platform malware is to write a macro virus that in a cross-platform macro language that can impact the system. FACT: OS X and Windows now and for the foreseeable future cannot run executables compiled for the other. FACT: In order for the same malware to infect both platforms the author would need to write or compile two versions of the malware just as the legitimate software developers currently do for their cross-platform applications.

I in no way attempted to predict the distant futures of either OS X or Windows. Whatever that future may be, it is completely non sequitur in terms of what delman78 wishes to know. The answer it his question is for now and the foreseeable future a definitive, “no.”

You actually didn't in your original post. You talked about it being 99.9999999999999% unlikely, which I agree with. My original response was in to another posters simple, unequivical "no", which then you took issue with my general premise (whether stated well or not can be debated) that an unequivical "no" might be a little too strong.



I agree in principle that for the forseeable future that the answer appears to be "no", but then I don't KNOW it with certainty. Thus, I agree with your original 99.999999999999% statement (that .0000000001% or whatever leaves open the room that maybe our "future vision" might end up being wrong, which while extremely, highly, stupendiously unlikely is still possible...at least for me).

[mdawson]

> {quote:title= smax013 wrote:}{quote}
>
> So, there is no possible way that say someone could use some cross-platform scripting evironment like say Javascript or application evironment like say Java to do something "malicious" on a Mac?
I already stated, twice that a cross-platform script could be written to achieve the goal of platform agnostic malware if in fact that scripting language used can access the system. Javascript does not have the type of direct of system control capability that is inherent in VBA, but it can exploit bugs and security holes to allow remote access to the system, which can be worse.
In either case, scripting potential has nothing to do with the “cross pollination” that you have coined. That term implies an inherent ability for OS X to natively execute code explicitly written for Windows, vice versa or both. That situation is and shall, for the foreseeable future, remain impossible. Neither Apple or Microsoft have any vested interest in including such a feature in their respective operating systems. Microsoft cares little about playing nice with others—Microsoft refuses to even natively support HFS+ in Windows to enable their OS to manage Mac volumes—so, the probability of such a capability appearing in Windows is p≈0. While cross-platform compatibility is a boon and necessity for the Mac, Apple fully understands the need to keep Windows executables in a bubble to protect the integrity of OS X. So again, p≈0 for implementing native support of .exe files in OS X.
> {quote:title= smax013 wrote:}{quote}
>
> My original response was in to another posters simple, unequivical "no", which then you took issue with my general premise (whether stated well or not can be debated) that an unequivical "no" might be a little too strong.
Actually I did not take issue with your original post but instead expounded upon it. My original post does not negate yours so much as it explains how such a cross-platform attack could be attempted, as they had before OS X. Nowhere in that post do I state or imply that anything you posted is incorrect.

[Martian]

I assume that the cross-class biological virus that causes the bird flu, must have one or more genes that enables it to infect birds but is totally dormant when it’s infecting mammals…and vice versa.



Could a computer virus follow the same principle?