A Trojan horse that exploits a vulnerability in Apple
Mac OS X has appeared, security experts have warned.
Although the Mac platform has been far less vulnerable to
security threats than Windows, security firm Symantec has warned in
the past that the Mac OS operating system is increasingly prone to
security exploits.
The OSX.Exploit.Launchd Trojan exploits the vulnerability to
give attackers root access to Macintosh OS X version 10.4.6 or
earlier. It opens a shell with full root privileges that an
attacker can control.
In an advisory notice, Symantec described the threat from the
exploit as “low”, and containment as “easy”.
The vulnerability – which could allow denial of service attacks –
was patched by Apple last week in its Mac OS X 10.4.7 update, which
also includes operating system improvements and fixes to minor
problems in the Mail, Finder and iChat applications.
Mac OS version 10.5, codenamed Leopard, is set to be launched in
August.