Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: mac trojan in-the-wild


From: "Steven Adair" <steven () securityzone org>
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 23:21:13 -0400 (EDT)

--On November 1, 2007 10:14:50 PM -0400 Jay Sulzberger <jays () panix com>
wrote:

On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu> wrote:

--On November 1, 2007 6:31:39 PM -0400 "Adam St. Onge"
<adamst.onge () gmail com> wrote:

So if i put a picture of a naked girl on a website and said to see
more
you must open a terminal and enter "rm -rf".


Would we consider this a trojan...or just stupidity?

I would consider it stupidity to think that that is comparable to a
trojan.

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)

I think, under the standard Unix system of permissions, this is a
Trojan.  Under the standard Unix system of permissions, every
application running in my home directory can issue an
'rm -rf /home/me' and, without proper near in time backup, cause
me much annoyance.  The defect lies in the system of permissions.
There exist systems of rolling off-machine backups and minimum
privilege permissions systems, but they are not yet standard.

Perhaps you don't understand what a trojan is.  Its purpose is to take
control of a machine to use it for purposes other than those to which its
owner would put it and without the owners knowledge or permission.
Destroying the machine is contrary to the design and purpose of a trojan.


Not really.  Remember that the term trojan, as it applies to a computer
program, comes from the large horse from the trojan war.  The point of the
program as it that it appears to have a use/functionality other than what
its real purpose is.  You let your guard down thinking its something else.
 It will generally also remain stealthy to a degree but what it does is up
to the designer.  Install an IRC back door, echo funky text to your
win.ini, or rm your whole file system... well that's up to the _trojan_.




Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Senior Information Security Analyst
The University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/
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