Thread: Can Apple Computers get viruses?

Any computer can get a virus. The Mac OS is a UNIX based system and in basic terms is far less able to pickup a virus from web browsing or email scripts due to the security model.

The other thing is most viruses target Windows systems.

NOD32 have software for Linux, Solaris, Windows and Apple Intel based computers

It is a bit of a stretch to say that Apple Computers cannot get viruses.

But in practical terms it is pretty accurate. Along with other unix-like systems (linux, BSD, solaris etc) it is inherently a lot more resistant to viruses than Windows. Add to that the fact that in combination with this the relatively small number of Apples makes it almost impossible for a virus infection to spread. A telling fact is that as far as I know all Apple anti-virus programs are intended, not to protect the Apple, but to prevent them from passing on Windows viruses.

While it is extremely unlikely that your Apple will ever get a virus that affects it, a Windows virus may well arrive on an email you get or something you download, and although it does not infect your computer, may well be stored unchanged and sent on to someone with a Windows computer, for example as an email attachment.

Without exception, viruses that are circulating "in the wild" affect only Windows computers, and this is likely, but not absolutely certain, to continue in the future.

Note however, that your Apple can be infected by other things that are not strictly viruses, but can affect programs that run above the O/S, such as Word macro viruses, but this only affects the particular program (and the documents it produces!)

John

As others have said, they are intrinsically more secure. There is always a chance that a user can install malicious software, but it's much harder to do on a mac. There is only so much you can do to save people from themselves..

They do have considerable numbers though (In 2007 it was 22 million +) but no one has managed to write a virus capable of spreading in the wild yet.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdF5IsyOxU4"]YouTube - Get a Mac - Viruses[/ame]

A virus, or whatever you want to call it, is just program code. As with any compiled code, they are platform dependent so a virus compiled to run on Windows will not run on MacOS of any version. However, if it is ported to the MacOS then yes, it may run. However the strategies that many modern viruses employ involve ingenious uses of the OS and are designed to exploit weaknesses in each OS. As it has been pointed out there have been many weaknesses publicised on the MS platforms and these have resulted in exploits being distributed. These exploits will not work on other OSs because they do not share the same weaknesses. This does not mean that other OSs have no or fewer weaknesses, all it means is that fewer have been found and publicised.

Having said that, the *nix operating environment uses approaches that make it less easy for unauthorised applications to gain control over the system but that is not guaranteed, for example a stack overflow can be triggered from a poorly written application running on a *nix OS which could give a rogue application access to various parts of the system. So this problem is not related necessarily to the OS but the applications running on it.

The reality is that anyone with the right skill set can create a virus at any time. You need to take whatever precautions you deem necessary to protect your system from attack. That means updating buggy software that can allow exploits, apply security patches when they come available, run virus protection/detection software (I use Sophos because that is what work gives me), be careful on the Interweb because platform independent exploits can travel with file formats like flv, swf, jpeg, etc. and not to mention cookies that capture and transmit your personal information through the use of javascript or java applets.

Alan

IMHO me thinks you need to settle on how you define "virus".

in the classical sense, no, there is no virus for osx.

trojans and other forms of malicious software are another thing.... they exist on all platforms.

the big difference between windows and nix operating systems is that userland is much more secure than windows and that bsd based nix variants are way more secure than those nix variants that dont support a "wheel" account.

Originally Posted by incisor

the big difference between windows and nix operating systems is that userland is much more secure than windows and that bsd based nix variants are way more secure than those nix variants that dont support a "wheel" account.

Ayup.

And so it also depends on what a person thinks they need to protect: their personal data, system configuration, other users' data,... or whether by protecting themselves they are also protecting the wider computer using environment from the spread of malicious software.

The thing is, as I said above there are at least 22 million osx users in the world. Yes, I know that is a much smaller number than MS have. However, Apple sell premium hardware so by the nature of the beast people who buy Apple products are as a group perhaps a little better off than is normal in society (they certainly have better taste than average ).

I believe that this would not have been lost on the nefarious souls of the world. So while it's a smaller target than windows it could be lucrative for them. However, they haven't managed to do it so far (ever) so I'd suggest it's far far more difficult than with MS. To be honest it wouldn't surprise me if MS have there best people on it!