Apple security Ping!
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Posted on 07/27/2011 10:03:15 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
A company that makes password recovery tools has released one that can snatch passwords from a locked or sleeping Macintosh running Mac OS X Lion by plugging another computer into the Mac's FireWire port. The attack technique is several years old and the only way to defend against it is to turn the Mac off.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
ping
For me personally, I’m not too worried about any of this. Apple has taken extremely good care of me for over 3 years.
My wife has the PC.... LOL
Disk encryption won’t help, once they get your password you’re toast. The only thing that could work would be individual file level encryption with a memorized key.
The Thunderbolt interface is just as vulnerable as Firewire.
After doing some research i5 - i7 cpu’s have a protective, OS controlled, layer from this sort of DMA attack.
I’m not aware if OSX is providing this protection. It would be one hell of a marketing coup if they do? But then they would have to admit their older hardware was vulnerable.
I’m not a PC fanatic. I don’t go around preaching that PC’s are “better than Macs”. I don’t go around preaching “PC’s are more INTUITIVE than Macs”.
That last comment I’ve heard for over 10 years, going back to to the days of OS9 and even OS8 and even earlier. Yes, even back in those days, I used to hear that crap from MAC FANATICS... that Macs are “more INTUITIVE than PCs”.
In fact, Max OS X is definitely more INTUITIVE than Mac OS9 or OS8... because it now runs on an intel chip and is a lot more like a PC.
My primary computer at home is an iMac. My wife doesn’t use anything else (although she’s not a “fanatic” because she doesn’t go around preaching about it).
I’ve been around computers a long time and this is my assessment of PC users and Mac users:
1. There are PC only users... who don’t preach
2. There are Mac only users... who don’t preach
3. There are people like myself who know both systems very well and appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of both systems.
4. And then there are the Mac FANATICS. And they PREACH.
If you say you don’t know any #4... well, you should get out more.
Again. I know you’re going to misquote me so here it is again:
My primary computer at home is an iMac and I love it and I am actually one of the most adept users of Mac’s in my office (more adept than the 2 Mac Fanatics that we have, who preach Mac-primacy all the time). So please, don’t misquote me.
And if you say I’m preaching now, about the virtues of PC’s, then you didn’t read my post. I’m not saying PC’s are better than Mac’s. I have never in my life said that.
I am saying that I have met, over the years, many people who I would consider Mac FANATICS and this post is about THEM... not about PC’s or Mac’s or any comparison between the two.
Yawn. You need physical access. If you’ve got that all bets are off.
Small correction: "LightPeek" was the development name. "ThunderBolt" is Intel's trademark for the production version of the technology.
My goodness, you should try decaf and quit those heart killing power drinks...seriously. LOL
I didn’t misquote you, I copied and pasted your exact words.
It looked to me that your intent was to insult those of us that have Macs, as such, you deserved a shot over your bow.
Your instant post was clear and suggests that you are not the jerk I was thinking you were.
I have a 27” iMac at home and I love it. I use it for personal use only. I am not a computer geek, mostly because I have never bothered to become one... I have far too many other interests that keep me occupied. For only $168 I get to all of the techs I want, just about anytime I want for 3 years.
Heck, if we still had a VCR, I would need to call my son for help in reprograming it to make the blinky lights stop.
This is what I have:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.59f2
Serial Number (system):
Hardware UUID:
I have a few other gizmos®, wizbangs® and thingies® to go with it. Apple don’t make a whatchamightcallit® or I’d have one of those too.
I do very little... it just runs itself.
I had a 24” iMac for almost 3 years. It was my first Mac and my first Apple product, it was nice, but I kept having a slight issue with the screen darkening in a couple of places. You had to know they were there to see them, but it bothered me.
Apple Extended Care (I think that’s what it’s called) sent a tech and parts to my house to fix the issue. The tech had to drive for 3 hours, one way, to get here.... I paid nothing. Unfortunately, the same problem showed up a few months later. It was repaired again. As it turns out, the tech hadn’t discovered the real issue that was causing the issue, so I complained to Apple... a simple phone call.
Now remember, this was a 3 year old computer. Their resolution was simple. Without even asking, they gave me my new 27” iMac at absolutely no cost. It was at my house the very next day. This was 30 days after the warranty had expired.
The point of all of this is this... I have good reason to be very pleased with Apple. The product helps a stupid guy like me dob anything I want on a computer. I don’t have crashes, I haven’t had any viruses, the techs don’t cost me a dime—are a phone call away and they are very helpful. This company has treated me like a customer, not a sucker that needed to be bleed dry.
From my personal experience, I can’t say any of that about PC’s.... the entire experience was a screw job.
My wife has my old PC. It went toast a few of years ago. I have a friend that is a computer geek for a living. He replaced the hard drive, saved all of my important content, added memory, made it wireless and it only cost me $100.
Perhaps most important is that even after owning Apple products for over 3 years, I still hate Gore and I have not turned gay.
BUT, I might be a one of those spooky FANATICS, because if Apple keeps putting out products that I like and customer service that I want, I will never own anything except an Apple.
It seems to me that it all comes down to what a guy is happy with. Heck, I’ve had the same beautiful woman for 40 years and she still spoils me rotten. LOL
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I plead guilty to hyper-caffination at the time of my post. Sorry for the extreme rant.
Your post was quite interesting and it appears you know your stuff!
True.
But if you are logged out, your password, the decryption keys derived from it, file system caches, and the page frames allocated to your processes should have all been zeroed out. If they are not, that's a separate hole on top of Firewire's ability to do unrestricted DMA. So, even if they can read the RAM, they won't be able to read the disk unless they can recover the password for your previous logon from the RAM.
No problem and I do hope you enjoyed my humor in my second post.
Cheers.....
Geese are great and so are donkeys.
No, your thread is a joke. Physical access to ANY computer more or less guarantees a break-in. Even AT HD locking has been broken. Physical access security is not news, and hasn't been for 40 years.
When did you discover computers, last week? :)
Seriously, no personal offense intended, this is a garbage article, intended only for the purpose of bashing Apple. Aren't you tired of that cr@p by now?
I’ve seen those signs... thank for reminding me that I need to get one.
I have loved many dogs in my life, but my GSD has turned into a once in a lifetime friend. Yes, they rock.
I need to add a pic of my boy to my profile page.
I bet he is a beauty.
I’d be more concerned about a laptop being accessed and not knowing about it.
Not every Tom/Dick will steal the hard drive. Even if they did Bitlocker isn’t bad protection.
DMA hack is just too easy.
I’ve been developing software for 25+ years, what do you do sell computers, talk about them, or worse yet write Java Script.
I have been designing, building, programming, and maintaining computers since a decade before you started. You picked the wrong guy to try to insult by claiming 25+ years. Oh, and no, I've never sold computers; I do like to talk about them; and I write most of my code in straight ANSI C, thank you.
Since you wish to make it personal, please take a moment and read this before you make a bigger fool of yourself.
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