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Inqtana Worm Targets Mac OS X Bluetooth Software

6:00 am on February 20, 2006 | Category: Wireless Technology

Only one day after reports of a Trojan attacking Mac OS X-based computers, a new worm has been detected, which exploits a vulnerability in the operating systemâ€™s Bluetooth software.

The newly discovered Inqtana worm uses a security flaw in Appleâ€™s Bluetooth software, and can spread wirelessly to other Bluetooth-enabled devices in your computerâ€™s vicinity.

F-Secure and Symantec have both called Inqtana a â€œproof-of-conceptâ€ worm, saying that it is just an example of a potential attack code, and probably wonâ€™t be any treat to users. Symantec Security Response director, Vincent Weafer, however, believes that this could be the beginning of a trend.

“We have speculated that attackers would turn their attention to other platforms, and two back-to-back examples of malicious code targeting Macintosh OS X this week illustrates this emerging trend,” Weafer warned. “While this particular worm is not fully functional, the source code could be easily modified by a future attacker to do damage.”

Security experts say that users can easily protect themselves from this particular flaw by downloading Apple security update 2005-006. More importantly, Mac users are being advised to keep their antivirus and firewall programs active and up-to-date, in order to protect against whatever new problems might emerge.

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