Check the Symantec link in my reply to Michael for a rational assessment
of the risk. What I found interesting was the way in which the trojan
is implemented.
-------------------------------------------
The Trojan embedded itself into a crack in the application that
serialized the program, Intego said. When users downloaded the pirated
version of Photoshop, the application extracted an executable from its
data, and then installed a backdoor with root privileges in a file
directory.
The application then opened a disk image hidden in its resource folder
and proceeded to crack the Photoshop program, allowing it to be used as
a vehicle to spread the malware and further incorporate machines into a
botnet.
-------------------------------------------
Mentions of "a backdoor with root priveleges" and "a disk image hidden
in its resource folder" sound pretty damned devious and downright scary.
.. things that is shouldn't be possible to do without explicit user
approval for such level of privelege. It strikes me that it could be
done from any application, it wouldn't require one of the two currently
infected pirated apps. It seems to me that counting on the pirated apps
is just a means of speeding the spread.
Of course, a Windows user is subject to the same sort of high risk
whenever installing a device driver... which can run with system level
priveleges. And I assume the same is true of a Mac.
Chuck Norcutt
Chris Barker wrote:
> Thanks for that, Chuck. I think I've heard that story before, from a
> reputable source, but for some reason it looks like another scare
> story. It must be the way it's worded.
>
> Chris
>
> On 18 Apr 2009, at 14:14, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>
>> <http://www.crn.com/security/216700006;jsessionid=TDRYJJT1VO3HKQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN
>>
>> Chuck Norcutt
>
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