If you’ve been paying attention to general computer news, you may have read about the Conficker worm, and what may (or may not) happen to Windows PCs that are infected with Conficker on April 1. The worm has received a lot of attention, leading more than a few Mac users to ask about the worm’s impact on OS X. Mac security maker Intego received so many inquiries that the company added a Conficker entry to its blog.
So, as a Mac user, how worried should you be about Conficker? The short answer to the question is that, unless you’re running Windows inside a virtual machine or via Boot Camp, you really don’t have much to fear from Conficker. It’s a worm that takes advantage of Windows systems with unapplied security patches—a population that may be as high as 30 percent of the Windows machines out there. Conficker won’t work on OS X at all, so most Mac users have nothing to fear from the worm.
The tool allows IT administrators to easily and centrally remove the Conficker worm from business networks without the need to run a local removal tool on each machine, thus avoiding the risks of the worm spreading throughout the network again.
- Best Answer: Conficker isn't a mac worm. It only infects Win2k, WinXP, Vista, and Win7 along with some of the windows servers. It only infects Win2k, WinXP, Vista, and Win7 along with some of the windows servers.
- In the last week or so there has been a resurgence in the Conficker worm (called W32/Confick by Sophos's anti-virus products, and also known as Downadup) that we first saw in November.
- Remove Conficker virus and get your computer fast and stable again in one click Get rid of Conficker virus infection (also known as downadup and kido) and revert back its malicious changes in one click with this automated Removal Wizard.
If you do use Boot Camp and/or Windows inside a virtual machine, however, you should make sure your system has the latest Microsoft patches, and may want to use a third-party anti-virus utility to check to see if your installation has been infected by Conficker. Microsoft also offers a free Conficker removal tool.
What exactly does Conficker do? At the moment, nobody really seems to know. Symantec’s security researchers, for instance, theorize that the network of Conficker-infected machines will be “rented out to criminals who want to send spam, steal IDs and direct users to online scams and phishing sites.” The reality is that, because Conficker isn’t active at the moment, nobody knows how it may be used. What is known, however, is that on April 1, certain variants of Conficker will take some active steps to further protect themselves from detection and removal. Infected machines are effectively under control of those who wrote Conficker, and they can install malicious code at their discretion.
If you’re using Windows—either on your Mac or directly on an Windows PC—I strongly recommend you take the necessary steps to make sure you haven’t been infected. If you’re only using OS X, you’ve got nothing to worry about, at least relative to the Conficker worm.
Malwarebytes Removal Tool For Mac
Adware Removal Tool For Mac
Conficker Worm Removal
(Uninstall Instructions)
Thanks to Grinler for the instructions !
What this programs does:
The Downadup, or Conficker, infection is a worm that predominantly spreads via exploiting the MS08-067 Windows vulnerability, but also includes the ability to infect other computers via network shares and removable media. Not since the Sasser and MSBlaster worms have we seen such a widespread infection as we are seeing with the Downadup worm. In fact, according to anti-virus vendor, F-Secure, the Downadup worm has infected over 8.9 million infected computers. Microsoft has addressed the problem by releasing a patch to fix the Windows vulnerability, but there are still many computers that do not have this patch installed, and thus the worm has been able to propagate throughout the world.
When installed, Conficker / Downadup will copy itself to your C:WindowsSystem32 folder as a random named DLL file. If it has problems copying itself to the System32 folder, it may instead copy itself to the %ProgramFiles%Internet Explorer or %ProgramFiles%Movie Maker folders. It will then create a Windows service that automatically loads this DLL via svchost.exe, which is a legitimate file, every time you turn on your computer. The infection will then change a variety of Windows settings that will allow it to efficiently infect other computers over your network or the Internet.
MORE: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-downadup-conficker