Help with iMac

[Jobydrone]

I read about this trojan that masquerades as an Adobe Flash updater to fool Mac users into installing it and then taking control...here's part of the article I read:

A few weeks ago Intego discovered a new Trojan horse for OS X that poses as an installer for Adobe Flash. The Trojan attempts a somewhat complex attack that involves disabling security features and inserting into existing applications code that attempts to send personal information to remote servers.

This Trojan, called OSX/flashback.A, is one of a few new malware attempts on the Mac platform that have surfaced in the past few months (others being a PDF-based malware attack and another fake Flash installer).

As with any malware attempt, we expect there will be future revisions as the criminals developing the software try to refine their code, meaning new variants are likely to crop up. We have been seeing this for a couple of these packages, and today security companies have found that the latest fake Flash Installer Trojan has undergone another revision.

According to F-Secure, the new Trojan variant (called OSX/Flashback.B) now tries to inject code into areas of the system that require administrative access, such as within Application packages like Safari and Firefox. When it is run, the new version of the installer will ask for a password so it will have access to these components of the system, which in fact makes it slightly easier for an alert user to detect.

Now last night while I was browsing around I got a message saying my Flash player was out of date.  How can I tell if I legitimately need to update my flash player or if I am being targeted by this trojan?  I am hesitant to do anything that requires me to enter my administrative password to make changes.

[Jobydrone]

Never mind I figured it out...just don't update or download Flash from anywhere but the Adobe site.  Duh.  There's a command line I'll run when I get home to make sure I haven't been infected, but I'm pretty sure I am fine.

[QuadShot]

Yeah, I don't do any updates unless they come from me when I run the Apple Updates...bastard hackers! I personally feel that ANYONE who creates ANY type of malware or virus should be tried as a terrorist. Let's be completely honest - the future of terrorism WILL be computer based.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Yeah, this has been running around for a while now, and is probably one of the reasons why Apple hates flash so much ;).  But yeah, its easy enough to avoid.

King

[Jobydrone]

I was seconds away from entering my administrative password to update last night...then remembered reading the article about the trojan.  I found another article today that showed the difference between the legitimate Adobe updater and the fake one, and mine was definitely real, so no worries anymore.

[QuadShot]

Has anyone downloaded the Airport firmware update? I'm reading some very disturbing things about it, like it's not working right and preventing people from having complete functionality. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3488429?start=0&tstart=0

[Dangelus]

Has anyone downloaded the Airport firmware update? I'm reading some very disturbing things about it, like it's not working right and preventing people from having complete functionality. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3488429?start=0&tstart=0

Don't have one myself and I haven't looked into the advantages of updating but if the device is doing everything you want it to then I'd hold off from updating. I have heard a few people have had problems and if these are genuine problems with the new firmware then Apple will issue a bug free update at some point and you can update straight to that one.

[QuadShot]

Dan, sage advice, thanks bud. I'll hold off for now. Thanks!! :)