Mac virus fears grow

A number of vulnerabilities have been identified in the Mac OS X operating system recently, including a buffer overflow in the file-sharing system that could allow a remote attacker to take over control of the system. This has encouraged the media to question whether Macs are open to virus attacks. According to eWeek, these vulnerabilities could make Macs vulnerable to virus attacks. "Based on this vulnerability, you really could build a Sasser-type worm, one that travels from computer to computer without the user having to do anything stupid such as launch an attachment," says the report.

It continues: "The overflow is in the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), which provides file-sharing services for both clients and servers similar to SMB/CIFS on Windows and Samba. It's true that AFP is not enabled by default, but it's enabled on anything sharing files.

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