Symantec, in a blog post today, uncovered a new Macintosh exploit. Named "OSX.Loosemaque," the malware is unique for two reasons. First, it is targeting Mac OSX, which for years has been a savehaven from hackers and internet scofflaws. Second, it is disguised as a Space Invaders-eque video game. Recent upgraders will be happy to know that it is fully Snow Leopard compatiple.
The game is fully functional, and quite enjoyable actually; a throwback to the simple alien shooters of the early 1980s. The malicious part is quite clever. For every alien ship that the user destroys a file is deleted from their home directory. Definitely not worth the fun.
On the game website it does note in the description that the files will be deleted, however this could quite easily be modified into a malicious virus passed along to unsuspecting users. Currently the threat is limited, but this does open the door to new types of Mac exploits, which are expected to grow as their userbase continues to do so.
