Bluetooth Worm for Mac Surfaces

Feb 20, 2006
Security company Sophos, has issued protection against a second worm for Mac OS X. The worm, called OSX/Inqtana-A spreads between Apple Macintosh computers via a Bluetooth vulnerability. The new worm has appeared within days of the discovery of the first ever real virus for Mac OS X.

The Inqtana worm exploits a vulnerability (known as CAN-2005-1333), to spread itself to other vulnerable Mac OS X computers. However, Apple released a patch against the vulnerability in mid 2005, meaning the worm is highly unlikely to spread successfully.

Users of Mac OS X are advised to keep their software updated against the latest security vulnerabilities in Apple's code.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos, said, "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. 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."

A report issued by Sophos revealed that 79 percent of people believed that Apple Macintoshes would be targeted more in future, following the discovery of the first Mac OS X worm.

"This means two real viruses have emerged for the Mac OS X platform in less than a week. The question on everyone's lips is - when will we see the next one, and will it have a more malicious payload? Apple Mac users need to be just as careful about protecting their computers with anti-virus software, firewalls and security patches as their friends and colleagues using Windows," said Cluley.

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