Aldus FreeHand
Aldus FreeHand disk shipped with MacMag virus.
Master copies of a promotional/training disk for Aldus FreeHand, a commercial graphics program, were infected with the MacMag virus by a contractor before duplication. Aldus unknowingly distributed thousands of infected disks, notably via Macworld magazine, marking an early commercial software supply chain compromise.
- Date
- 1988-01-01 to 1988-03-02
- Category
- Commercial
- Target Surface
- Distribution
- Insertion Phase
- distribution
- Impact
- Nuisance
- Cause
- Insider threat
What Was Affected
Package
Aldus FreeHand
ComponentApplication
Artifact typefloppy disk
Domain typeproject download host
Domain
Aldus Corporation
Compromised Versions
- Aldus FreeHand promotional/training disks distributed around Feb/March 1988
Incident Context
- Motive
- Vandalism / Publicity
- Attribution
- Individual Hacker
- Transitive
- No
- User Impact
- 5000
- Observed Duration
- 61 days
Evidence
Compromised Artifacts
- Aldus FreeHand promotional/training 3.5-inch floppy disks distributed in February/March 1988.
- Macworld magazine March 1988 issue included some of the infected disks.
Current Artifacts and Analysis
Source Data
Source record: proprietary/freehand/meta.yaml