Re: [WinMac] making a mac cd-rom

Daniel L. Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Sun, 19 Dec 1999 21:42:11 -0500

        Dear Christine,

        Sorry, it's a bug Apple themselves acknowledged after the AutoStart 9805
worm spread like wildfire spring & summer last year. In fact, I *think* QT
3.0.2 was where Apple acknowledged their error and changed the default
setting in the QT CDEV.

Please reference http://search.macintouch.com/hkvirus.html and especially
Apple Bug Report 2247482.

        This reminds me of the bug in System 7.5.1 for Workgroup Servers (for the
9150/120, among others), where the General Control default setting was to
warn user that the machine was not shut down properly... Problem was, with
the server set to auto restart after a power failure & restoration, the
boot would hang on the dialog box. [If Greg Jewett is still floating
around, he can confirm I was the one who discovered it!]

        Anyway, back to the autoplay data CD default setting: It's just that: A
default. Experienced users will have antivirus software on their system
already (I use Sophos SWEEP for NT with Mac virus detection enabled); and
as well I always turn OFF autoplay data CD's... But then I'm an experienced
user.

        But what about the newbie - The user Apple is targeting with the iMac?!
New users aren't going to have an antivirus app... But their default will
be set wrong!

        As to the Word & Excel macro virii, they too are dangerous... As is Java &
inActive-X... In general, when I set up desktop machines in environments
without vigorous virus scanning, I disable Office macro's by default.

        Cheers!
        Dan

At 12:39 PM 12/20/99 +1100, you wrote:
>Dan, having the autostart feature enabled is not a
>bug, just an option in the QuickTime control panel
>that many people find useful (myself included - lots
>of the CD's I press have an 'autostart' file).
>However, if you have the autostart worm then this can
>cause problems for you and those you share work with,
>note that with up-to-date virus protection software
>this isn't so much of a problem.
>
>It is not Apple's fault someone wrote a
>virus/worm/trojan horse or any other brain-dead piece
>of software. This is like saying that a word
>processing program's macro feature is a bug, i.e.,
>blaming the vendor for idiots who write macro viruses.
>
>My WinNT, Office97, CD's etc. all use the autostart
>feature on my PC - are you saying we're not allowed to
>have the same functionality on the Mac because you
>don't like it?
>
>Cheers,
>Christine

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Sun Dec 19 1999 - 19:16:59 PST