Symantec has issued a warning to Mac owners about a new malware software that exploits a vulnerability in the "launchD" service. The software could let an attacker get administrator or root access on any Macintosh system running OS X version 10.4.6 or earlier. Apple released a patch in version 10.4.7 this Wednesday.

Symantec has initially called the program a trojan horse, but the code hasn't yet been seen spreading in the wild. Kevin Finisterre, a security researcher at Digital Munition, created and released the code. Earlier this year, he also released the Inqtana worm which also targets Mac OS X.