Pirated iLife '09 Seemingly Clean of Malware So Far

Last week, we reported that around 20,000 users of file-sharing web sites were pirating copies of iLife '09, the latest version of Apple's multimedia-focused suite of Applications. While the software is evidently more popular than Apple's iWork '09 suite, it seems that iLife '09 has somehow evaded the Trojan doing the rounds in recently pirated copies of iWork '09 and Photoshop CS4 Mac.

On January 22, Intego discovered a new Trojan horse, OSX.Trojan.iServices.A. The malware was reportedly circulating in copies of Apple’s iWork '09 found on BitTorrent trackers and other sites containing links to pirated software, according to the security firm. “The version of iWork 09, Apple’s productivity suite, are complete and functional, but the installer contains an additional package called iWorkServices.pkg,” Intego explained in its security note.

Similarly, not too long after finding the iWork Trojan, Intego stumbled upon another version of the same malicious package doing the rounds in pirated copies of Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Mac. The new variant of the iServices Trojan horse was called OSX.Trojan.iServices.B. Companies like SecureMac even offer free tools to rid your Mac of the malwarre. Intego, for its part, has updated the virus definitions for its software, VirusBarrier.

As such, you may see why it comes as a surprise that no reports of iLife '09 containing the Trojan have been publicized yet. With 20,000 users pirating the suite on January 28 (Wednesday), last week, the number of illegal copies of iLife '09 could only grow to twice that number in the meanwhile.

This doesn't mean that every pirated copy of iLife '09 is clean. While no such reports have been filed, potentially infected users may not even be aware of the Trojan, or other kinds of malware possibly being distributed with the suite. As usual...


Softpedia doesn't encourage downloading non-approved / pirated Apple software via torrent sites. This article has a purely informational purpose and doesn't, in any way, suggest that Mac users should go forth with downloading pirated copies of iLife '09 via means of file sharing services like BitTorrent.