Inqtana.B was a variant of OSX/Inqtana.A - a Java based proof of concept bluetooth worm that affects older versions of Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger).
Sophos Anti-Virus is another popular tool that has succumbed to its own flaws in an attempt to "protect" users against a malware threat.Ī previous version of Sophos' AntiVirus software generated false positives for the "OSX/Inqtana.B worm", invoking users to delete critical application and system files and causing serious issues.
This was a temporary file that Norton AntiVirus created when scanning archives on your computer to help determine the amount of free space available on the disk before it begins unstuffing and scanning archives. Version 9.0 of Norton Antivirus spawned a file appropriately named "spacesuckingfile.xxxxxx" after it completed a virus scan.The company also recommended that users 'Scan Compressed Files' to 'Off' in the Norton Auto-Protect pane of System Preferences to mitigate this vulnerability.
Symantec posted an antivirus based protection signature to LiveUpdate on December 20, 2005, providing a heuristic detection for potential exploits of the Symantec decomposer RAR archive vulnerability.
These vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely without user interaction in default configurations through common protocols such as SMTP. The vulnerability was as follows: During decompression of RAR files Symantec is vulnerable to multiple heap overflows allowing attackers complete control of the system(s) being protected. Ironically, a "highly critical" flaw was found in Norton AntiVirus.While this circumstance doesn't negate the potential utility of having anti-virus software installed, and won't let the cautious rest easier should the currently mythical Mac OS X attack horde materialize, it should give pause to users who feel coerced into purchasing anti-virus software.įirst, let's look at some of the problems that have been caused, on a widespread basis, by Symantec's Norton AntiVirus: However, what the virus software companies aren't telling users in their barrage of press releases and dire statements to publications that dutifully pass claims of a rising threat onto readers as fact is that, to date, more problems have been caused by anti-virus software on Mac OS X systems than actual vulnerabilities thwarted. With scare tactic statistics like "a 228 percent increase in malware attacks over the past three years" - even though no single piece of Mac OS X malware has yet managed to successfully cause significant system damage or reliably spread - it's easy to see why some users are taking the bait.
If you have a suggestion, or have solved this problem in a more elegant manner, I'd love to hear from you.With dubious reports of a nascent malware menace threatening Mac OS X's current status as (for all intents and purposes) a virus-free platform, many readers have inquired about the need for installation Mac OS X anti-virus software.Īsk McAfee or Symantec and you'll be met with an implore that users purchase, install and regularly use their Mac OS X virus scanning software. I prefer to virtualhost my dev site with Apache and it just wasn't working out. While I agree that this is a less than optimal workaround, I didn't want to eat up hours, days, or weeks chasing a better solution.I have tried using Jared Rypka-Hauer's CFMXLauncher to no avail. sudo rm CurrentJDKĬreate a new symlink to the 1.4 branch. cd /System/Library/frameworks/amework/Versions If you have updated and are currently seeking a fix, my temp fix is to change the CurrentJDK symbolic link under /System/Library/frameworks/amework/Versions back to 1.4.2 (which, by the way was also update, but at least still works!).If you haven't messed with symlinks much, run the following commands in a terminal window.Ĭhange directory to where Java frameworks are installed.
Normally, I don't go hunting down the next version of Java to install, I simply neglected to uncheck this install during a recent Software Update. Updating Java to J2SE Relase 5 will cause a "CFCServlet must be initialized" error when you use Application.cfc.