Posted by unregistered user at 8/2/06 8:59 p.m.

Wow, someone hacked a MAC. Any computer is vulnerable unless it is turned off. So what. Still blows everything else away, only had mine two weeks and never plan on going back to Linux or Windows. Intuitive and usable out of the box, no bull. Plus all the benefits of a Unix command line, this is it, finally a computer done right.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/3/06 3:41 a.m.

I think the problem is that wireless technology is inherently riskier. Anyone can intercept the transmissions and try to crack the encryption. There was a TV show about a guy walking around NY City I think and breaking into all sorts of wireless networks. A lot of people had networks that weren't even encrypted. I expect that's no longer the case though. Still, I prefer connecting my computer the old fashioned way - by ethernet cable - and unplugging it when I'm done.

Posted by number.61 at 8/3/06 7:35 a.m.

Not shocking to me . . . but your right, any computer is vulnerable unless it is turned or at least not connected to the internet/network.

If you really want to keep your files and important documents safe, store them on a machine that never accesses any network or the internet and go back to the old sneaker net if you need to transfer something :)

Posted by unregistered user at 8/3/06 7:41 a.m.

Macs are not special or fool proof to hackers. Hackers just dont want to waste their time hacking into a system which affects less number of users.

The obvious reason for hacking a PC is the impact and devastation that it would create as windows is the most popular OS avail on our planet. Using a MAC doesnt mean that a user is safe...

Posted by Dr. Smoke at 8/3/06 7:41 a.m.

Be sure and set your firewall and other protection. A few years ago when I'd find Macs, I could just walk right in because no protection was set by the user. Then again, I run Debian.

This vuln is not the run-of-the-mill open wireless. Sounds like they're doing a buffer overflow on the driver at a low level on the network stack, as they say this is common to many machines.

If you don't use wireless, turn off your radio. If you do, use AES. AES is secure enough for me.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/3/06 8:37 a.m.

I would imagine true vulnerabilities will not be published. It is idiotic that some people think mac "blows away all others." If it did mac wouldn't have such a small market share. Let me guess.. the person doesnt know what the term means... because perhaps 10 year old kid posted it?

Posted by Dr. Smoke at 8/3/06 9:37 a.m.

This is not an accurate thing to say, UR.

I've run Debian exclusively on all my machines for eight years, and Mac does in fact blow all others away. (including Linux)

Why does it have such a small market share? Because business adopted Winduhs, and people want to run something they perceive as compatible with their job. Of course Mac can interface with Winduhs, and is far more capable, but that is not widely recognized.

Mac's architecture is inherently superior, and it's not worth it to go into the reasons why. And Mac's philosophy is to give you as little or as much complexity as you want. You can have total control, if you are a guru. Winduhs XP I've read, is "big, dumb, and presumptuous".

Posted by unregistered user at 8/3/06 10:03 p.m.

I'll take a linux machine over a mac anyday.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/4/06 5:36 a.m.

Well, let's see. The "demo" could have attacked any machine but attacked an Apple. An Apple which 1) Had a built in WiFi card that they did not use (Hmm Why not?) and 2) did not have a card slot for the USB WiFi card (card designed for PCs, who would by a USB card and adapter for a computer with a built in Wifi card?).

My Questions:
Why use a Mac for demo if the vul is in the driver for cards designed for PCs?
Why did they not use the built in card?
Why not a public demo?

So we have a demo that echos 0 (ZERO) real world situations, showing that if you bought a PC without a WiFi card you could get your PC taken over
OR
If you buy a Mac. and Don't use its built in capabilities, opt to pay for and carry around extra hardware to do what the machine does out of the box, you could get your Mac taken over.

Ask yourself,if you are intellectually honest, why did they use a Mac for a driver/hardware vulnerability? Hmm?

Why is this even shown as a Mac issue?

Posted by Dr. Smoke at 8/4/06 6:02 a.m.

Well, they said so in the article:
"But in part because of the Apple TV spots, they decided to make the MacBook the subject of their demo. The ads are "a little smug," Ellch said afterward."

And the answers to your other questions are in the article above too.

I'm pretty honest.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/4/06 6:58 a.m.

I agree that OS X blows Linux away...the fact of the matter is that this is not an Apple/Mac Software OR Hardware hack...it's not an Apple or Mac hack at all! They hacked the drivers of an unknown external wifi device that they plugged into a MacBook, and could plug into any machine be it Linux or Windows or BSD. SO...what's up with the misinformative titles of these articles?

Posted by unregistered user at 8/4/06 8:25 a.m.

It was stated on the ABCnews coverage of this story that the MacBook was running a third-party card. Hm. Not many mac users are gonna go third-party IMHO,

Posted by Dr. Smoke at 8/4/06 8:33 a.m.

My theory is as I said above: The hack was on a driver at a low level in the wireless stack, so would apply across several product lines.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/4/06 12:52 p.m.

first for everyone knows this is my personal View, and if you have any dissagreements with me email me at mnovick1988@gmail.com.

In all cases like of what was proven at the july 99' 2600 annual show in NYC. every "computer" in general in vunerable to some type of attack, whether it be from using a trojan to force a port open or something the a programmer missed when designing the source code. no OS is failsafe, even mac. if we all havent forgotten MAC Os'es are still 40% based of UNIX. therefore still has some downflaws that are expliotable. also as what has been discussed in previous years at the Black Hat security Descussions is that we all know that nothing is failsafe, Spoofing and making the OS. think were local is always been a problem. Modifying a WNIC driver is nothing new, People have been doing it for years to recover IV's from encrypted networks, what stops you from taking the same base technology and reversing it to use it to hac a mac box? people did it all the time to AD-hoc networks in the 90's. so this is nothing new, just old problems forseen, revamped with new Technology.

Just a little food for thought, has anyone ever forgot. cant control what you cant see. spoof your mac, hide your mac and no data "real" data will be seen.

-Michael Novick, Systems Security Expert.

Posted by DL Byron at 8/6/06 6:24 p.m.

The hack is disenguous as I blogged here and John Gruber called the Washington Post out for his shoddy report.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/10/06 8:01 a.m.

Well guys, this is a demostration of how easy can be to find a bug and exploit it in a prorpietary driver, independently it is a Mac a Windows a Linux or a FreeBSD. The questions that i see are 1: proprietary wifi drivers (without source code and not integrated in the kernel ) are very potentially dangerous 2: there are too losely developed hardware drivers because too many hardware company are makeing there own proprietary chices without including this in a restricted and controlled envireoment like linux-kernel. So, in my opinion: use well tested wifi hardware and with a open-source driver and you will never suffer such kind of attacks. Mac or Pc is not the question.

Bye

Posted by unregistered user at 8/17/06 2:40 p.m.

SecureWorks has admitted that this has NOTHING to do with the Mac Book's wireless card. Nothing. Their statements demonstrate shoddy corporate ethics, at the very least. They wanted to "show up" Apple, so they hacked into NON-Apple hardware and NON-Apple software.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/19/06 9:35 a.m.

Just checking back through articles with headlines and content written by folks who thought a Mac was hacked.

Now that it's clear these dweebs stuck in a 3rd party wi-fi card because THAT was what they were able to hack -- now that it's clear they had to find a away of "hacking" the machine by avoiding the secure drivers built-in -- how about a correction or statement about how they fooled you?