Intego Spots Malware Blocker in Snow Leopard

August 25th, 2009 at 5:40 PM - Snow Leopard by Bryan Chaffin

Snow Leopard contains a malware blocker, according to Mac antivirus software developer Intego. The company posted a screenshot of a warning dialog box on its blog that it said was from Snow Leopard, the Mac OS X 10.6 upgrade Apple is shipping on Friday.

"We're not sure yet exactly how this works," the firm wrote, "but the above screen shot shows this feature working with a download made via Safari, detecting a version of the RSPlug Trojan horse in a downloaded disk image."

If the screen shot is legit, it would suggest that Apple has added some form of malware scanner into the operating system. Malware is typically used to describe applications that either tag along with otherwise legit downloads (or in pirated software), or are simply not the download they are purported to be.

The news coincides with the introduction of two new commercials from Apple that tout the Mac platform as being the answer for people tired of dealing with "thousands of viruses" and other hassles on their PCs.

While there are no known Mac viruses in the wild, there has been an increase in trojan horse malware aimed at Mac pirates in the last year. Such a tool in Snow Leopard could well further protect Mac users out of the box.

Malware Blocker Screenshot
Screenshot posted by Intego showing Snow Leopard finding malware in a dis image, and recommending it be trashed

6 Observer Comments

Quote Khaled said on August 25th, 2009 at 4:54 PM:

never hurts to have it =)

can’t wait to hear what the haters would say

Quote Dean Lewis said on August 25th, 2009 at 5:20 PM:

I just started using Leopard with a new Mac I just got (my old Mac couldn’t handle Leopard) and I was surprised to see it tell me a file had been downloaded, when, from where, and did I want to run it or not. It even seemed to work whether I had unZIPped the file, moved it from the disk image that was downloaded, and more. It impressed the hell out of me, especially since I hadn’t heard about it, and my Windows using friend thought it looked very useful. Adding on malware detection to give one more reason not to run or install something downloaded is very very cool.

Quote computerbandgeek said on August 25th, 2009 at 6:58 PM:

The ironic thing about this is that one of the only ways of getting this Trojan was by stealing Apple software…

Quote iJack said on August 25th, 2009 at 8:24 PM:

Tell us ComputerBandGeek, what are the other ways?

Quote vpndev said on August 25th, 2009 at 9:22 PM:

The other ways were stealing non-Apple software

I think Adobe CS4 was high on the list

Quote jbruni said on August 25th, 2009 at 9:44 PM:

OS X Server has had ClamAV for quite some time. There is a “clamav” user defined in regular OS X as well. I’d bet that Apple has simply integrated clamav with the same download validation framework already used by Safari/iChat/Mail.

Just like Safari’s parental controls are implemented using the built-in apache web server configured in proxy mode to implement white-listing, Apple seems to figure out how to leverage the open source software already present in really cool ways.

Now if only they would integrate GnuPG with Mail…

Page 1 of 1 pages

Recent Headlines - Updated November 22nd

Fri, 7:07 PM: Games - Soccer Sim Championship Manager 2010 Released for Mac
6:47 PM: Games - EA Publishes Original Monopoly for iPhone
6:15 PM: News - Original Apple I on Ebay for $50K, w/Letter from Steve Jobs
6:11 PM: Games - New iPhone Games: Secret of the Lost Cavern Ep 1, New DJ Nights, More
5:47 PM: Games - Star Trek D-A-C Game Headed to the Mac Next Month
4:57 PM: Product News - TidBITS Releases “Take Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard”
4:26 PM: John Martellaro's Blog - Particle Debris (week ending 11/20) Stationery Pads Go Poof
2:59 PM: Free on iTunes - Musée du Louvre, Art Lite, SketchBook Mobile X and More.
1:50 PM: Deal Brothers - Acer P215H bmid 21.5” Widescreen LCD Monitor: $139.99
11:24 AM: TMO Appearances - Jeff Gamet Shares More Holiday Gift Ideas on MacJury
10:43 AM: Product News - Cocktail 4.5 for Leopard Adds QuickLook Cache Clearing
10:06 AM: News - Hack Enables Mac OS X 10.6.2 on Netbooks

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com
OWC: Mercury On-The-Go FW800+USB2 up to 1.0TB. Bus Powered, no external power supply needed. Macworld Editors Choice, CNET Very Good Starting from $99.97, 500GB $159.99. Click here
If you're using a Mac, then you've gotta check out Full Tilt Poker for Mac. This Full Tilt Poker bonus code does the unthinkable, it actually rewards!
For the latest Apple products use Ciao, a price comparison website, to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate mobile phones like the Apple iPhone.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.