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Posted on 03/06/2006 1:45:50 PM PST by Panerai
One hacker was able to gain control of a Mac OS X machine within 30 minutes, according to a new report. ZDNet Australia reports that Mac OS X was hacked within 30 minutes using an unpublished security vulnerability. The "gwerdna" hacker, who was able to quickly gain root access to the Mac, was responding to a "rm-my-mac" challenge issued in late February by a Sweden-based Mac enthusiast. While the hacker said that the Mac could have been better protected, he said that it would not have made a difference, as he exploited a vulnerability that has not yet been made public or patched by Apple, according to the report. "Gwerdna" said that Apple's OS--often touted as more secure than its Windows counterpart--is "easy pickings" when it comes to vulnerabilities and that relatively low marketshare leaves most hackers uninterested in the platform. Although Apple has quickly responded to new virus and security threats published in the past month, other researchers still believe that old flaws in Mac OS X leave the OS vulerable to attacks.
ping
Unpublished security vulnerability = Admin password provided to hacker upon request.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
seriously. Search is our friends.
AFTER giving them an account with unspecified permissions AND opening up SSH on the machine.
"gwerdna" = "Andrew G" spelled backwards.
I hope the operating system was more secure than that.
A REAL "Hack my Mac" challenge:
http://test.doit.wisc.edu/
What about the word 'password' for all your passwords. Pretty sneaky and secure, huh?
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