Idea to improve Mac OS X security against trojans
As I'm sure you all have seen there have been various baseless attacks against the security of our beloved operating system as of late due to things that are incorrectly labeled "viruses" by the media that are in fact trojans that need your admin password to even do any real damage. Of course this is a social engineering issue, not an actual computer security issue but I feel more could be done about it.
Oftentimes I will download a new system utility or preference pane, for example, that I'd like to try out upon clicking on the installer I am asked for my password and gladly enter it so I may use the software, then when I run the software it may ask for the password again, so I enter it again! Unfortunately, I have no idea wether this utility really is a utility or wether it wants to use my password to maliciously attack my system.
What I'd like to see is an addition to the admin password prompt that shows you which file(s) the program is trying to gain access to that it does not have the permissions to have access to, this way it would be much easier to judge the intent of the program and it could very easily prevent trojans from occurring in the future. I know you're thinking "but I can tell wether or not a program is legit or from some back alley on the internet" but as these attacks become more advanced people will spend the time to set up very legitimate looking websites describing the "software" that look just like the website of a real software vender. Apple, please get on this fast!
Oftentimes I will download a new system utility or preference pane, for example, that I'd like to try out upon clicking on the installer I am asked for my password and gladly enter it so I may use the software, then when I run the software it may ask for the password again, so I enter it again! Unfortunately, I have no idea wether this utility really is a utility or wether it wants to use my password to maliciously attack my system.
What I'd like to see is an addition to the admin password prompt that shows you which file(s) the program is trying to gain access to that it does not have the permissions to have access to, this way it would be much easier to judge the intent of the program and it could very easily prevent trojans from occurring in the future. I know you're thinking "but I can tell wether or not a program is legit or from some back alley on the internet" but as these attacks become more advanced people will spend the time to set up very legitimate looking websites describing the "software" that look just like the website of a real software vender. Apple, please get on this fast!
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