A Trojan horse aimed at Apple’s Mac OS X operating system has appeared, purporting to be screenshots of the company’s forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” operating system. Although the Trojan, dubbed “OSX/LeapA” by antivirus firms, can spread itself via the iChat instant messaging program and damage applications on a Mac OS X computer, unlike many Windows Trojans, it spreads by fooling users into launching it manually, rather than by leveraging security flaws in the operating system.
The Trojan was uploaded earlier this week to the MacRumors Forums site under the filename latestpics.tgz. Longtime Macintosh developer Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software has posted a detailed analysis of the malware, which he initially dubbed “Oompa-Loompa.” When executed, the Trojan attempts to send itself to the user’s iChat contacts and damages applications on the user’s computer in attempts to spread itself. The trojan appears to attempt to spread itself through other applications as the user launches them, but, due to a bug, winds up damaging the applications, which then fail to launch.
The overall thread from OSX/LeapA is low. In order to be infected, users must:
The Trojan cannot spread between computers using a security loophole or other automatic mechanism: to be “infected,” a user must manually unarchive the file and deliberately open it.
Mac OS X users can easily protect themselves by simply not opening any archive they’re not expecting (especially via email or iChat, or if it’s called latestpics.tgz). Sophos and Symantec have already updated their virus definitions to detect OSX/LeapA, and are collecting information about the Trojan.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.