[ShaneK]

So, lots of people say how awesome macs are because they have no viruses or whatever. However, an article a friend told me about proves otherwise.

http://www.semiaccur...k-demonstrated/

Turns out macs can have keyloggers stored in their KEYBOARD's memory. Now, imagine that...next thing you know people will be buying mac keyboards, filling them with rootkits and shoving them into ebay, selling them "cheap" and stealing identities easily.

Meh. I'm just tired of hearing how "few viruses macs have."

Anyway, if you're a mac owner, I'd advise you to watch out if you don't buy your stuff from an official mac store...

Yours,
Shane~

This post has been edited by ShaneK: 03 August 2009 - 06:50 AM

[ShaneK]

Lol, wasn't sure which one it went in, thanks for moving it.

Yours,
Shane~

[KYA]

Wow, just wow. That is pretty awesome (in terms of what people think of and can do).

[WolfCoder]

I've been saying this for a long time, the reason there aren't that many Mac viruses is because everyone uses Windows. It's going to be whatever operating system is the most popular.

[Trakker]

There's no computer safer than an unplugged computer.
All computers are vulnerable.
The reason that macs are so "virus-free" is because for the longest time they were almost nearly "marketshare-free". There was simply no demand to exploit the macintosh operating system because there weren't enough people out there using them for the end to justify the means.

Nowadays more people are using mac hardware and software. Everyone knew this day would come ever since Microsoft released Vista.

Oh and by the way, congrats; the media controls your brain.

[WolfCoder]

That's a random statement.

I'm still laughing at that contest where a hacker undid the security on a macbook pretty quickly and got control of it.

[ShaneK]

I never believed any media that said macs are virus free. I'm laughing at the people who believe them and spread the word like they're profits of Jesus

Yours,
Shane~

[KYA]

This highlights another major problem, only using first party hardware for things like mice and keyboards. If people are "forced" to use the same thing, there is a larger security risk. Good luck trying to infect all the PC keyboards, we got stuff from Logitech to Microsoft to [insert some cheeeeeeeep brand].

[Pwn]

KYA, on 2 Aug, 2009 - 02:06 PM, said:

Good luck trying to infect all the PC keyboards, we got stuff from Logitech to Microsoft to [insert some cheeeeeeeep brand].

Which highlights another interesting Mac facet, the Mac Guru. How hard is it to be an expert when everything is the same. Memorizing FAQs (or more realistically, have the FAQ at your fingertips) is all it takes to be a Mac Guru. Knowing how everything really works will let you be a computer Guru.

[Tom9729]

So this either requires root, or physical access to the machine?

[ShaneK]

Or to the keyboard...well, according to the article.

Yours,
Shane~

This post has been edited by ShaneK: 02 August 2009 - 03:03 PM

[RudiVisser]

Trakker, on 2 Aug, 2009 - 11:49 AM, said:

Nowadays more people are using mac hardware and software. Everyone knew this day would come ever since Microsoft released Vista.

Mac's share dropped 6% (relative) since the Win 7 Beta was released/announced.

[syfran]

WolfCoder, on 2 Aug, 2009 - 11:52 AM, said:

That's a random statement.

I'm still laughing at that contest where a hacker undid the security on a macbook pretty quickly and got control of it.

Not sure if this is the one your talking about. http://www.channelre...03/28/mac_hack/

The mac was the first to go out of all three of the operating systems. The guy did it by exploiting a bug in the safari browser.

[KYA]

Tom9729, on 2 Aug, 2009 - 02:30 PM, said:

So this either requires root, or physical access to the machine?

My understanding is that the key is stopping the firmware update to insert one's own code.

[Tom9729]

ShaneK, on 2 Aug, 2009 - 05:03 PM, said:

Or to the keyboard...well, according to the article.

The keyboard is still a physical part of the machine.

KYA, on 2 Aug, 2009 - 05:51 PM, said:

My understanding is that the key is stopping the firmware update to insert one's own code.

Yep, but running a program in a debugger does not magically escalate it's privileges. I'm guessing you probably need root to update the keyboard's firmware. However as I do not have a Mac I'm not sure if this is the case...

---

My point is that virtually any machine can be compromised if you have either physical access, or root privileges.

As peripherals become more advanced we're going to see more and more cases of user upgradeable firmware, which is what "hacks" like this one take advantage of...