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