Researcher claims to have developed OS X worm

Apple users sure do love to crow about how secure their platform of choice is but if recent developments offer any indication, the Mac might not be seen as a secure environment for much longer. As Apple's marketshare continues to increase, so does the number of vulnerabilities found in OS X. And now, with a highly visible target like the iPhone in pockets across the country, a major exploit can't be too far off. In what could be a taste of things to come, a security researcher going by the handle of "InfoSec Sellout" claims to have found a previously undocumented bug in the OS X mDNSResponder. Sellout allegedly developed a worm (fittingly named "Rape.osx") which he unleashed in a closed environment, successfully infecting 1,500 PPC and Intel Macs on a local network and opening up root access to all of those machines. Allegedly, the hacker in question is waiting for a ransom payment before he releases information on the vulnerability to Apple. Let's hope they pay up, or we could have the first major Mac worm on our hands.

For more on the worm:
- see this Slashdot story

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