"Permissions Differ on "usr/lib/ruby" ?!

Question

I'm using Leopard. After a recent startup problem with a Macbook I ran Disk Utilities, Verify Disk Permissions, and got the following message:
"Permissions differ on "usr/lib/ruby", should be lrwxr-xr-x, they are drwxr-xr-x."
1) What does this mean?
2) Is it a serious security issue (i.e. malware)?
3) What do I do about it?
Thanks
Message was edited by: Cowfreek

Answer 1

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"If you use the menu item "Go" and select the "Go to folder..." option, you can type in:
/usr/lib
and check to see if ruby is an alias or an actual folder. It should appear as an alias in the Finder,"
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Ok, did that so I'll give you an long list of stuff I found, if you have the patience to go through it all.
Finder > Go > Go to folder > /usr/lib. There are 4 Ruby aliases (with arrow symbol) there: "libruby.1.dylib" , "libsvnswigruby-1.dylib" , "libsvnswigruby-1.0.dylib" and "libsvnswigruby-1.0.0.0.dylib".
AND, yes, there is also an ACTUAL RUBY FOLDER (blue, no arrow) in usr/lib.
This Ruby folder breaks down into the following subfolders: (Finder>Library>)Ruby Folder (blue)> site_ruby > 1.8 > osx and powerpc-darwin 8.0 (two folders). In this "osx" folder there are 9 .rb files called active_record.rb, addressbook.rb, appkit.rb, cocoa.rb, coredate.rb, foundation.rb, NMOSXDockHelper.rb, qtkit.rb and webkit.rb. In the powerpc-darwin8.0 folder is a rubycocoa.bundle icon (like a lego brick).
The followinig actual folders (blue, no arrow)) are also present in usr/lib: dtrace, groff, java, mecab, openmpi, pam, php, pkgconfig, podcastproducer, sa, samba, sas12, sqlite3, system, and zsh.
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"and the original folder is supposed to be in
"/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby"
You might also check that location to see if the ruby folder is there."
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Yes, it's also in this location. There are 2 main Ruby folders (blue, nop arrow) in System/ Library/Frameworks: one called 'RubyCocoa.framework', the other Ruby.framework. Ruby.framework > 1.8 > usr > (here there are three more folders 'bin' , 'lib' and 'share') lib > ruby. Here, in this ruby folder are aliases (site_ruby' and 'user_gems' as well as actual folders called 'gems' and 1.8. In 1.8 there are further subfolders named bigdecimal, cgi, date, digest and such which are NOT in the Ruby folder in usr/lib.
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I have no idea whether anything in the Mac OS actually uses ruby stuff or not. Ruby is a programming language, and Ruby on Rails is used in web development.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder
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By the way, I performed the Safari 3.1 update, Garageband Update 4.1.2 , iPhoto Update 7.1.2 , and Airport Utility 5.3.1 update two days before this all happened. I rebooted after the updates were fully installed, used the macbook (starting and rebooting 2 or 3 times duringthe course of the day, after which everything seemed fine). Two days later when I tried to start the Macbook I got a very long blue screen (in excess of 7-8 minutes) and had to try starting several times before I could log on. Then I ran the disk utility and got the Ruby permissions message. I've performed all the disk repair stuff and the message remains.
I searched the Internet and could find no other examples of this happening. So, questions remain:
1. Is there ANY possible way this could be malware, spyware, etc.?
2. Any ideas as to how this change could have happened on my system?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Cowfreek