Security Experts Flag Art Project as Malware Threat to Mac Users

By Lonnie Lazar (9:45 pm, Nov 03 2009)

Security software developers must think Mac users are quite daft. Tuesday afternon Symantec sent out a press release flogging its ‘discovery’ of a new trojan horse targeting Apple’s OS disguised as a ‘space invaders’ style video game in which killing invading aliens results in the program deleting files from the user’s hard drive.

Ooo.

The game in question is an art project called Lose/Lose that first appeared on the web back in September, created by digital artist Zach Gage and featured in Electrofringe’s current exhibition of online art, Electro Online 2009.

The idea behind the project is to use game mechanics to call into question the idea of mindless killing for fun. Are gamers so obsessive they must kill aliens at any cost? In the game, each alien is based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted.

Gage asks, “Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?”

The game has a clear warning at start-up that says, in scary red letters: killing aliens in this game will delete files from your hard drive.

Now Symantec is sending out an alert flagging the art project as malware.

“A new threat cleverly disguised as a classic video game is targeting unsuspecting Mac users,” Symantec said in an email to CultofMac.com. It continued:

The Trojan horse, known as Trojan.Loosemaque, is designed to look like a Space Invaders/Galaga style game. However, for every alien ship the user destroys, the program deletes a file from the home directory. Symantec – the world leader in online security – recently discovered this new Trojan horse targeting Mac users and video of it in action can be seen here. Online games are increasingly becoming a target for virus creators, and this threat shows it’s a possibility regardless of the platform. While the author of OSX.Loosemaque actually informs people on his website that the game deletes files, there’s nothing stopping someone with more malicious intentions from modifying it and passing it on to unsuspecting users who don’t have security software installed.

Symantec is not the first company to flag Gage’s project. Security blockers such as Sophos’ Anti-Virus and Intego’s VirusBarrier X5 also define the game as a threat.

So is it art or is it malware? Are Mac users equipped to know the difference? Seriously, what do security software companies take us for?

20 comments »

About the author

Lonnie Lazar is a writer-musician-web designer-attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

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Posted in Gaming, Macintosh, News |

Charli
wait a second, the game actually tells you that it is going to delete files. so what kind of lame malware is that.
Noob
Malware that thrives on people who ignore warnings :)
Kirk
Seriously? Just because the dude calls it an art project the security companies should ignore it? Seriously? You’ve thought this out carefully?
Heck, let’s call all malware “art projects” in the future.
thanx_al
“Seriously, what do security software companies take us for?”"
Windows users, duh.
fuzzypig
It’s not Malware it’s art. It makes you question and think.
I have been told I will be “hurt” by this, do I still play it? I have been told that guns, knives, cars, lawnmowers kill, do I still want to own own or use one?! You have make the choice based on what you consider to be important.
I have backups of my files, do I still play it? Are my backups good enough? If I get in a knife fight, is there a hospital nearby? Do I care about my safety or my intellectual property?
Art should make you question…
Harden Stuhl
Symantec is just pure evil. The way I found out was when my wife got a new computer. She was required by her work to get antivirus. I was not around so she opted for Symantec. I wish she hadn’t [I must say their latest version is less of a hog but irregardless...] They ask for your credit card and set it up so it automatically re bills your credit card when your sentence is up.[ Pun intended]. I don’t like companies that do that. They are very vague about it and require you to opt out by following another vague link to a website where half the time it doesn’t work correctly. They claim this is to protect you by always having antivirus protection. What a load of bullshit. Biggest purveyors of scare tactics there are. Mac trojan – give me a break.
http://siliconsea.net/ Bryan
This sounds like a port of the game Doom on UNIX, where you could kill running processes by killing a corresponding monster. http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/
I seriously think Symantec is just trying to drum up business for themselves and spreading out FUD. I’m not impressed…
Marcus
it TELLS you that it’s going to delete files, it’s not malware, it’s only malware if you’re stupid enough to run it and get pissed off after the game told you in bright flashy text that it WILL and DOES delete files from you computer
Kirk
Or if you don’t read English, like, dunno, the majority of people on the planet, and a very large number of Internet users. (Ok, it’s Mac-only, and Mac users are better, but still…)
Steve
But what if it DIDN’T tell you it was going to delete the files…
Leonard
It would have to do more than NOT tell you that it was going to delete your files to be considered malware. The whole point of the game is to challenge the preconception many of us have that being rewarded for doing something makes what we did inherently good. Now if the game presented itself as a regular run-of-the-mill game and randomly deleted your files, then a case could be made that it’s intentions are nefarious, but that’s not the case.
Kane
So is it art or is it malware? Are Mac users equipped to know the difference?
I guess that depends on how ‘different’ you think.
I think this is a good tool to clean the crap out of your hard drive.
TchmilFan
Sorry but I’d estimate that 50% of the Mac users I have on site would run the program. Of them, half would play it not taking any notice of the warnings and the other half would play it despite the warning.
Richard
Who cares – Mac users don’t run anti-virus software anyway, right? It’s not like there’s any viruses or security vulnerabilities that affect Mac OS, are there?
http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/tp/macvirusfaqs.htm
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/96/?task=advisories
Daddy
Intego reported this game weeks ago? Why would we care if Symantec finally noticed it? Usually, the company who finds it last wouldn’t want this publicized?
http://dylanbaxter.com Dylan Baxter
“Seriously, what do security software companies take us for?”
Mindless consumers with high-end equipment and no concern for learning to use it properly. Seriously, the way Apple obscures the underpinnings of the platform and applies resource-gobbling visual effects its unlikely that most Mac users would even know if they were infected. That is, of course, without the aid of some overbearing anti-virus product to remind them that their expensive platform is susceptible to the same threats as the rest of the computing world.
Vincent Hayden
I think it’s quite probable the anti-virus companies not only generate the threats, also are developing the virus infections themselves!
Shayne
Richard, your sarcasm and the piss-weak links you offer are only matched by your ignorance and obvious lack of experience with Macs. 10+ years of experience with Macs and the Mac community and I am yet to meet a single person who has had a confirmed virus attack on a Mac. Are there security vulnerabilities? Sure. There are vulnerabilities inherent in all platforms. But, can you demonstrate just one wide-spread vulnerability that has been exploited? Your confidence above suggests you can…but I doubt it.
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