If you are having a Mac, then you may be aware of the recent Flashback scam which has hit the Mac OS X platform. This threat initially installed as a fake Flash Player installation and many people installed this application. If that was not all, then the threat has also learned to take advantage of unpatched security holes in Java, which according to the company has been addressed by releasing an update of Java. According to the reports, Flashback has infected more than 600,000 Mac systems worldwide.
How to check if Mac is affected by Flashback by using web based utility
If you are a Mac user then there’s a reason to be concerned about this. The good part is that now there is a web app that can check whether your Mac is infected by Flashback or not.
Dr. Web which is a security firm has offered an online tool that doesn’t requires any installation in your Mac. All you need to do is to just run this web-based utility and this utility will tell you if your machine has been compromised or not. Basically Doctor Web will check if there was a connection from your computer to the botnet control server. This is done by cross checking your Mac’s hardware UUID with its own database.
After visiting the website, you need to your enter your Mac’s unique hardware ID which is known as UUID to the online form. To know your UUID, follow these three simple steps:
- Click on the Apple logo at the top left corner.
- Click on About This Mac.
- Click on the More Info button.
Now copy and paste your Mac’s UUID number into the web form, enter captcha and then hit the Check button.
Note that this tool will only check and determine if your Mac has been affected by Flashback. This tool would not remove this threat. If you want to remove Flashback malware from OS X, then here is a nice tutorial for that.
Also its recommended to always use latest version of Java and Mac.
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