Security Groups Discover Second Mac OS X Worm - OSX/Inqtana-A
A second worm attacking the Mac OS X has been discovered over the weekend. The OSX/Inqtana-A worm spreads between Apple Macintosh computers via a Bluetooth vulnerability. The new worm has appeared within days of the discovery of OSX/Leap-A, the first virus for Mac OS X.
The Inqtana worm, which may start at boot up, attempts to discover Bluetooth devices that will accept a file via the OBEX Push service (typically requiring user intervention). It exploits a vulnerability known as CAN-2005-1333 to spread itself to other vulnerable Mac OS X computers. Apple, however, had released a patch against this vulnerability in mid 2005, meaning the worm is highly unlikely to spread successfully. Users of Mac OS X, however, have been advised to keep their software updated against the latest security vulnerabilities in Apple's code.
"It's disturbing to see a second worm for Mac OS X so soon after the first, but it should be remembered that this is only two compared to well over 100,000 viruses for Microsoft operating systems," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The good news is that Inqtana is not going to spread successfully in the wild, but this announcement will still be a shock to those in the Mac community who thought hackers were not interested in their operating system."
