Replies

But...but...but...Apple’s are immune to viruses!!!!

Why do people hate America? It’s the worlds big dog. Why do people target Windows for viruses? It’s the computer world’s big dog.

Linux is succeptible to viruses, but has two things going for it: 1. it isn’t a big target, 2. there are tons of developer eyes looking at it, so vunerabilites get found and corrected quickly.

I suspect at some point Apple is going to get bitten bad by a virus. Because it is a closed OS, nobody really knows what vunerabilities have been found, but haven’t been publicised by Apple.

> Linux is succeptible to viruses, but has two things going for it: 1. it isn’t a big target, 2. there are tons of developer eyes looking at it, so vunerabilites get found and corrected quickly.

What you say is true (and it's one reason I like open-source stuff). But I would wager there are at least as many developer eyes just at Microsoft, who have access to the proprietary code, than there are really watching the open-source inner guts of Linux.

We can't know, of course, since Microsoft won't say, and open-source developers are spread all over the place.

Point being, while I agree with you, there's no excuse for EITHER party being slow about response to vulnerabilities.

> I suspect at some point Apple is going to get bitten bad by a virus. Because it is a closed OS, nobody really knows what vunerabilities have been found, but haven’t been publicised by Apple.

Here you are mistaken. The Apple-written applications are closed, but the OS itself is quite open -- it's BSD Unix, and the sources are readily available all over the internet.

Any virus would have to attack a weakness in the BSD Unix core -- attacking an app typically doesn't gain control over the machine. The memory address space randomizing feature should be strengthened, no argument there. But it's not a gaping hole the way this writer claims. Read the fine print about how it's exercised -- the attacker has to already have direct access to a compromised machine. Yawn.

Anyway, BSD Unix is not a closed OS. Apple writes a lot of proprietary code, yes; but the strength of OS-X is due to the Unix core.

I do agree that Apple should be a lot more forthcoming about vulnerabilities in its apps, and patch them quicker.

Why do people hate America? It’s the worlds big dog. Why do people target Windows for viruses? It’s the computer world’s big dog.

False. Windows gets the most malware because it's the easiest to write exploits for. OS X gets the least malware because it's the hardest to write exploits for. In fact, there is no actively propagating OS X virus, trojan, or spyware in the wild. The only known way to compromise OS X is through social engineering.

Because it is a closed OS...

False. OS X is based on BSD, which is based on UNIX; both are open source. OS X itself is largely open source through the Darwin project. OS X's kernel, called the Mach kernel, is also open source. Grand Central Dispatch, OS X's CPU thread allocation technology, is open source. Safari, Apple's homebrew web browser, is based on Webkit, an open-source code base.

nobody really knows what vunerabilities have been found, but haven’t been publicised by Apple.

False again. Apple is not the sole and primary discloser of vulnerabilities. If someone discovers a vulnerability, then there's nothing really stopping them from releasing information about it. When system vulnerabilities are reported to Apple, they're usually prompt about issuing patches. (Note: in security parlance, a vulnerability is different from a virus.)