Can my infected Flash Drive from my Windows 7 computer infect my MacBook?

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Probably, you will get the viruses but they won't affect to your Mac. However, to check this, I recommend you to install ClamXav and run a scan.

Note that Windows viruses doesn't affect to OS X, so you won't be affected by viruses even if you transfer them, but it's better to make sure there's no OS X virus in it

Windows viruses won't infect a Mac - I'm sure that you can safely plug in the flash drive and copy your music with no ill effects.

No need, really, for AV software on a Mac.

Clinton

It's unlikely anything from a Windows PC will infect your Mac, but you could pass it on to other PC users via email of file exchange.

I would recommend you install some AV software on your PC, disinfect your files, reformat your flash drive, recopy your files to it, then transfer them to your Mac.

Can my infected Flash Drive from my Windows 7 computer infect my MacBook Pro?

Yes it can if the Trojan is in one of the new family of cross-platform malware making the rounds.

The clue will be if OS X gives a warning about running the app for the first time and it's written completely backwards.

If you see this, then cancel. OS X's Gatekeeper will not protect you from this malware as it's signed with a Apple Developer ID.

Ideally you should wait a month or so, then install or update your ClamXav definitions and run a scan on the infected drive before transfering files, this allows time for security researchers to update their malware definitions.

Any malware on infected files that you later transfer to Windows users will infect them, but most will not likely infect a Mac.

If your getting your music from P2P sources, just be warned that a Mac can't protect you 100% from software from malicious and untrusted sources, but is less vulnerable as most are targeting Windows users.

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Good Luck 🙂

Collegekid18 wrote:

I have recently switched over to a MacBook because my windows computer was infected with a nasty Trojan and not to mention a bunch of Malware.

What were these? Your OS should have protected you against all currently known malware unless you did not keep it fully up-to-date or failed to heed a warning. BTW, Trojans are a form of malware.

I saved all my music on a flash drive about a week or two before I noticed I was really infected. My question is if I plug it into my Mac will it get a virus from my Windows 7 laptop.

The only cross-platfom malware are some very old Microsoft Macros and those don't even run with the current version of Office.

MadMacs0 wrote:

The only cross-platfom malware are some very old Microsoft Macros and those don't even run with the current version of Office.

OSX.Janicab.A

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/07/equal-opportunity-malware-targets-macs-a nd-windows/

ds store wrote:

Can my infected Flash Drive from my Windows 7 computer infect my MacBook Pro?

Yes it can if the Trojan is in one of the new family of cross-platform malware making the rounds.

Huh? I know that there are cross platform command and control servers that are capable of delivering different version of malware, depending on the platform detected, but as far as I've been able to determine there are no Trojans that will run in Windows and OS X using the same code base. For instance, the Windows version of Janicab is totally different in almost every aspect except the end result. About the only way I can think of that something like that could happen is if the first stage of a drive-by Java applet was somehow copied to a USB drive or e-mailed to the other platform and run there. Possible, but IMHO, a very remote possibility.

It looks like it's an app, so it shouldn't affect OS X. As I told you, install an antivirus like ClamXav, that will run a scan on the USB drive and will tell you which the infected files are. I recommend you to delete them

ds store wrote:

OSX.Janicab.A

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/07/equal-opportunity-malware-targets-macs-a nd-windows/

I already covered that one. Neither version will run on the other platform.

Plus, the OS X version has been disabled as far as I can determine.

Collegekid18 wrote:

The virus that I had was "Internet Security Pro". It messed my windows up bad.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were saying that your Mac had been infected.

Is that one that can be transferred to Mac?

No, as I said before there isn't any malware on your Windows computer than OS X can run.

As mende1 suggested, if you want to check to see if there is either OS X or Windows malware on the USB then download ClamXav and scan it before you copy anything to your Mac.

but as far as I've been able to determine there are no Trojans that will run in Windows and OS X using the same code base. For instance, the Windows version of Janicab is totally different in almost every aspect except the end result.

So it's the family of malware that's cross platform and not the trojans themselves.

Couldn't both platform payloads be included in the same Trojan file or is this theoretically impossible?

ds store wrote:

Couldn't both platform payloads be included in the same Trojan file or is this theoretically impossible?

Theoretically it could be done, just as a Universal Binary will work with both a PPC and Intel mac, but the biggest hurdle is that, as far as I know, there isn't a Win / OS X compiler available to do that. I suppose you could also write it in machine code that would run directly at the chip level since there are common architectures there, but who does that any more, beside graphics manufacturers.

The closest thing we've seen is the Java applets that have been written recently, but those are limited to figuring out what platform they are on, communicating that back to a C&C server, downloading and installing the unique malware capable of dealing with the specific platform API's they need to be able to anything harmful. The real hurdle is what I just referred to. Java doesn't seem to be able to interface with the functions needed to exploit the computer. The Trojan really has to work with the Operating System to accomplish it's goals.

It should also be possible for some Unix / Darwin "root kit" malware to work cross-platform. I seem to recall someone finding an OS X rootkit in the last year or so, but I don't think anything ever came of it.