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iPods Come Complete With Windows Virus

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tue Oct 17, 2006 07:29 PM
from the nyah-nyah dept.
Businesses Security Apple
kaufmanmoore writes "Cnet is reporting that some video Ipods made after September 12th have the RavMonE virus loaded onto it. In Apple's announcement they take a swipe at Windows security and encourage Windows users to install anti virus applications."
+ -
story

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[+] IT: Malware Distribution Through Physical Media a Growing Concern 141 comments
twitter brings us a story about the increasing number of digital devices reaching consumers with malware already installed. In this case, digital photo frames from three different Sam's Club stores were found to contain the same type of malicious code. We discussed a similar problem with iPods a while back, as well as a more recent situation with Maxtor hard drives. Quoting the Register: "While a compromise at the manufacturer is the most likely scenario, ISC's Sachs also pointed to retailers as a possible point of infection. Returned products, which could have been infected by the consumer, are frequently put back on the shelf, if they are in sale-able condition, and attackers could take advantage of a store's poor digital hygiene, he said. 'Trying to (infect a product) all the way back at the factory — getting it through all the checks and balances — would be pretty hard to do,' he said. 'But doing it at the store, where there might be loose return policies, and (where) they put it back on the shelf - you are not going to get a million infections, but you might get a person from an investment bank next door.'"
[+] Hardware: Digital Picture Frames Infected by Trojan Viruses 174 comments
CR0WTR0B0T writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is running a story on viruses loaded into digital picture frames, similar to the ones we discussed at the end of last year. The difference is in the virus used: 'The authors of the new Trojan Horse are well-funded professionals whose malware has 'specific designs to capture something and not leave traces ... This would be a nuclear bomb of malware.' Apparently, a number of regular folks have hooked them up to their home computer and loaded the virus. And if you think you're too smart to be fooled, apparently the Anti-Virus software makers have not caught up to the threat quite yet."
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iPods Come Complete With Windows Virus 25 Comments More /

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  • Just goes to show. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ayanami Rei (621112) * <[rayanami] [at] [gmail.com]> on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:31PM (#16477971) Homepage Journal
    Apple's products are made (and to some degree, designed) in China just like everybody else's. I wonder how many other memory products (that is, USB mass storage devices) have similar issues.

    • Also shows... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:37PM (#16478063)
      The class of Apple to complain about Windows being susceptible to viruses that Apple Quality Control fails to catch. Maybe Apple QC should install AV as well when they develop for windows?

      • Re:Also shows... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by udderly (890305) * on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:52PM (#16478285)
        Why is this a troll? I'm a serious Mac fan, but that little "jab at Microsoft" *was* pretty classless.

        WARNING: OBLIGATORY CAR ANALOGY!!!
        When I was a kid we were firing a golf ball out of homemade cannon and broke the neighbor's windshield. Crap, what was I thinking? I should have blamed Ford for not making their windshields stronger!

      • Re:Also shows... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2006, @08:05PM (#16478461)
        "Maybe Apple QC should install AV as well when they develop for windows?"

        I heard (from a reliable source inside Apple) that the virus was preinstalled from the disk manufacturer when they formatted the drives. *shudder* You can see where this can go.

          • Re:Also shows... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Trillan (597339) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @08:43PM (#16478929) Homepage Journal
            If it really did come on just a few of the blank hard drives, in order to catch this with testing they'd have to test every single freshly formatted drive. Granted, I'm sure they'll do that now, but not doing a virus scan on freshly formatted disks hardly qualifies as "no testing."

  • Uhh, What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aweraw (557447) * on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:33PM (#16477997) Homepage Journal
    I'm not one to try and defend Windows security with a straight face, but this is apples fault for shipping infected ipods. They failed to protect their customers, regardless of windows lack-lustre security

  • Windows Security? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AvitarX (172628) <me AT brandywinehundred DOT org> on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:33PM (#16478001) Journal
    If I just distributed a device with a virus on it I would not be throwing stones at the security practices of another company.

  • This sounds a bit suspicious... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by msauve (701917) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:39PM (#16478099)
    "it was traced to a particular Windows machine in the manufacturing lines of a contract manufacturer " and "Very few units actually went through that particular station"

    Why is a Windows machine ever connected to an iPod during manufacturing? I'd think for a high volume product like the iPod, there would be dedicated disk duplicators to format/populate the drives, and testing would likewise be done with purpose-designed hardware. Using a Windows PC to do either seems like a crude, inefficient way to do things.

  • Worst...apology...ever (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BeeBeard (999187) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:42PM (#16478129)
    From the article:

    "As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it," Apple said on its site.
    (emphasis added)

    It's nice that they're "upset with themselves for not catching it" in the last part of that statement, but what's that first part in bold all about? Oh yeah, it's the part where they shirk complete responsibility for this by half-blaming Microsoft for the virus Apple introduced in its own hardware. It's the most half-assed way of apologizing imaginable.

    In other news, rapists who blame their victims will now be in charge of issuing Apple's PR statements on their website.

    • Re:Good job, Jobs! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Odin's Raven (145278) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @08:23PM (#16478687)

      Next PC vs Mac commercial, the Apple version:

      PC is wearing a "boy in the plastic bubble" suit, wandering around with a bottle of Formula 409, obsessively wiping down everything he sees. Mac casually strolls up from behind and taps PC on the shoulder of his bubble suit. PC shrieks and starts spraying and wiping the suit. Mac asks what's up, PC starts babbling "Viruses...viruses are everywhere. Anything I touch might kill me. Never clean enough...never...clean...enough". Mac sadly shakes his head and wanders off.

      Next PC vs Mac commercial, the Microsoft version:

      Mac walks over to PC and offers to let PC listen to Mac's iPod. PC puts on the headset, starts tapping his feet and snapping his fingers, then suddenly flops onto his back, goes into convulsions, and dies. Mac slinks off the stage, looking embarassed and guilty. James Earl Jones voiceover grimly intones "iPods kill - buy a Zune".

    • Re:Come again?? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mr_matticus (928346) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:49PM (#16478249)
      They didn't blame Microsoft for their failure to stop the iPods from shipping, but there is a certain element to truth to the statement. If you take away the fact that Apple is involved and look at it--a technology product was infected with malware because a Windows PC on the production line was infected and it wasn't caught in time.

      The number of Windows machines on production lines in China is staggering--and if Windows had better security, the spread of viruses and malware wouldn't represent such a massive threat. Simple acts like requesting permission to install new software, etc. would go a long way toward cutting this off. Windows, left to its own devices, happily installs crapware without user intervention or notification, and that makes it harder to KNOW when your computer has been compromised.

      So yeah, Microsoft is dumb in this capacity, but it's still Apple's responsibility.

    • Re:Come again?? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by flithm (756019) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:55PM (#16478319) Homepage
      I agree with you, although... I have to wonder, how did it get on the iPod in the first place? If you look at the W32/Rjump worm [nai.com] you can see that it spreads itself by copying itself to mounted removeable storage drives.

      Perhaps someone tested a prototype on an infected windows machine, to make sure some minor manufacturing change didn't bork the device. Then after working on it a bit they got it to work, copied the image over, and all of a sudden you have iPods being pumped out of the factor with a virus on them. Clearly just a guess, but if something similar to that happened and I was Apple I'd sure as hell be pissed that Windows lack of security caused my hardware devices to get factory shipped with a virus on them.

      Note that this scenario is supported by TFA: "Joswiak said it was traced to a particular Windows machine in the manufacturing lines of a contract manufacturer that builds the iPods for Apple."

      In that context, Apple has every right to be irritated. Either way though you're right, it's a pretty stupid PR move to make a comment like that. They should just apologize, fix the problem, and move on.

    • Re:Cue the... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sl3xd (111641) * on Tuesday October 17 2006, @07:52PM (#16478287) Journal
      I'd prefer to think along the lines of "why you can't get anybody at Apple to care." It doesn't affect Macs, after all.

      Still, it does give food for thought. I can easily see it as an act of malice as much as a QA failure.

      I recall a *brand new* Sandisk flash drive that loaded & installed its own software (including Skype, its own little menu system, utilities, etc.) onto my computer the moment I plugged it in.

      How much would it be worth to a spammer/botnet group to infect the image that gets copied to all these devices? Enough to pay sufficiently large sums of money to subvert employees at the manufacturing plant?

      It's still inexcusably sloppy of Apple, but my real concern isn't in the companies involved: It's that it will likely happen elsewhere as well. Flash drives, DVD's with 'extended' PC content... stuff like that.

      Anywhere media with readable content is replicated can be a vector for viruses.

    • Re:How is it Possible to be Elitest AND Stupid? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Grishnakh (216268) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @08:03PM (#16478429)
      That's like MacDonald's importing meat infected with Mad Cow Diease, then blaming the FDA for not catching it.

      Bad analogy. It's like McDonald's (no a) selling burgers infected with MCD, and then blaming the humans for being vulnerable to it. Except that unlike humans in the real world (who are all susceptible to MCD), the humans in this crazy analogy universe have a choice between different bodies: one that's not only vulnerable to MCD, but every other disease out there, and has to be constantly immunized against them, and even then performs terribly, stops breathing and loses conscienceness occasionally, and is ugly to boot; and a few other bodies that are naturally immune to every known disease, are stronger and live much longer, don't need sleep, and are very attractive. Only the idiots who chose the ugly, disease-infested bodies get MCD so McDonald's justifiably tries to assign them some of the blame for making a bad choice.

    • Re:Upset with Windows? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2006, @08:06PM (#16478467)
      There is no such thing as autorun on OS X. If you really have managed to get a script to run automatically as soon as the volume that contains it is mounted, you are exploting a bug somewhere. Please file a bug report.

    • Re:Upset with Windows? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mincognito (839071) on Tuesday October 17 2006, @08:18PM (#16478607)
      Your script will not propogate itself; will not use up my computer's resources; will not open a backdoor to allow others access to my information, bandwidth and/or processor cycles. How come people always cite an unintended "rm -rf /" as the most terrifying and catostrophic event ever? I backup my data. I'd rather suffer your script than have an undetected MS virus, worm or rootkit.

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