Simple oneline Badware... works on a mac

spannerotoole

type this in a terminal

){ :& );:

Can some of you please try this and report back please.
Smiley should be : ( without space

Sad Professor

What's the point of this?

Padgeman

Sad Professor wrote: »

What's the point of this?

It's a mad Terminal command. I can't remember what it does at the minute, but I definitely recall reading this on the Ubuntu forums a while ago, along with the words "DO NOT EVER TYPE THIS COMMAND" or some such.

spannerotoole

Sad Professor wrote: »

What's the point of this?

The point is to prove that Unix/Linux is not unbreakable, This could be added as a script to someone's startup and the machine would be rendered unusable until such a time as the operating system was reinstalled, thereby wiping a users data.

My point is also to warn users on here that such an idea from a social engineer who asks you to do the above is a bad idea, as a white hat to warn others of the dangers of black hats who may try this on unsuspecting users. The fact that you questioned my motives shows that you are vigilant on here against these users, well done sir!.

But add this to a list of bad things to do to a mac or linux machine. It would help newbies not get frustrated. In this case, all this does is force you to do a reboot, no biggie, but it will keep people on their guard and increase badware awareness.

conor.hogan.2

You could also tell them to pour water on the computer to cool it down.

or tell them to sudo rm -rf /

etc

Sad Professor

spannerotoole wrote: »

The point is to prove that Unix/Linux is not unbreakable, This could be added as a script to someone's startup and the machine would be rendered unusable until such a time as the operating system was reinstalled, thereby wiping a users data.

My point is also to warn users on here that such an idea from a social engineer who asks you to do the above is a bad idea, as a white hat to warn others of the dangers of black hats who may try this on unsuspecting users. The fact that you questioned my motives shows that you are vigilant on here against these users, well done sir!.

But add this to a list of bad things to do to a mac or linux machine. It would help newbies not get frustrated. In this case, all this does is force you to do a reboot, no biggie, but it will keep people on their guard and increase badware awareness.

So it's a fork bomb? Well after looking it up, I decided to type it in for a laugh. And guess what? Nothing happened. So either you have to be root or sudo for this to work, or Apple removed this particular command from OS X.

But I'll spare you have to go googling for another malicious code, so lets assume it did work - what was your point again? That OS X isn't unbreakable? Whoever said it was? It certainly wasn't anyone in here, because anytime the issue of malware comes up the place is flooded by people such as yourself telling us about how potentially vulnerable OS X is. We know, thanks very much for issuing yet another reminder.

And it should be noted that OS X is not true Unix/BSD, so I'm not sure why you automatically assumed this would work in OS X.

Odaise Gaelach

The problem is not the malicious script; it's executing it on the machine that's the problem. Once you can do that then there is the potential for all kinds of malicious activity.

Padgeman

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

The problem is not the malicious script; it's executing it on the machine that's the problem. Once you can do that then there is the potential for all kinds of malicious activity.

Yep. But all it takes to run something like:

sudo rm -rf /

is putting the script into an executable bundle and telling people it will upgrade their machines. Someone, somewhere will try it.

muggyog

Touch of the old format :C here.
or maybe 'your Mac has a virus and I will remote into it and fix it'.

On a more general note there are lots of things to try here

Love this quote

[SIZE=+1][SIZE=-1]'Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.' --Elbert Hubbard[/SIZE][/SIZE]

babypink

nasty behaviour from the OP .... closed