iPod Has Virus, Apple Knocks Windows
Apple’s got a bit of egg on its collective face today; the company announced that there’s a minute number of Video iPods that have shipped with an unwanted bonus — a worm. The worm is called RavMonE.exe and Trend Micro describes what it does thusly:
“This worm propagates via mapped drives. It lists all mapped drives on an affected system and drops several files in the root folder. It also propagates via removable drives such as flash disks and floppy disks. It has backdoor capabilities. Using random ports, it connects to a remote user. Once a connection is established, the remote user issues commands on the affected system.”
Strangely, Apple used the opportunity to take a potshot at Windows, saying that they are “upset” about the OS’ lack of hardiness against these sort of viruses.
We recently discovered that a small number - less than 1% - of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.
Instructions on how the virus can be removed can be found here.
