Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Security alert for iWork'09 users


As a matter of principle I only publish articles which are based on my own work with Pages. However, because there are reports of serious security flaws in unlicensed copies of iWork'09, the new version of Apple's popular suite released earlier this month, I thought readers of this blog should also be alerted. And of course the safest course of action is to use only authorised copies of the programme.

This is what Magnus Lewan, publisher of the Pages FAQ blog, writes:

The new version of iWork has a few issues with security that previous versions did not have. Note that I have no personal experience of any of the issues below, but I rely entirely on other sources. Please, use your own judgement when you use the information.

A Trojan called iServices.a has spread with an unofficial version of iWork that can be downloaded from other places than Apple.com. According to Intego, 20000 people have already downloaded the Trojan, but that sounds exaggerated. Once the Trojan is installed, it listens for instructions from a remote server. The remote server could for example ask for your personal address book or other private data, which would be sent without your knowledge.

To see if you have the Trojan, go to /System/Library/StartupItems. If there is a folder there called iWorkServices, the Mac is infected.

To read the article in full please click here


Please read the official Intego press release about a similar problem with Photoshop CS4 here

Please note that I myself have not experienced this problem and have not checked Magnus Lewan's solution. So take it on 'as is' basis.

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