8 replies to this topic

[Powermaniac7]

Hey all,

Another theoretical situation.

This time I want to know from the members what and how you would hack a Macintosh computer or infect it with a virus or trojan or whatever you wish.

The point of this is just to be able to explain to someone when they say Macintosh computers don't get viruses in particular but also just for general security risks that exist in Macintosh computers and the OS itself.

So basically come up with anyway to attack a Macintosh computer and explain the steps in detail.

I myself don't have access to a Macintosh computer to test it out with anyway but oh well, still something I find interesting, especially if someone can give evidence to a virus that can infect a Macintosh, supposedly none around that can, or are known to have inffected a Macintosh.

Anyway, any replies are appreciated.

Thanks, Powermaniac.

Edited by Powermaniac7, 31 March 2012 - 04:32 AM.

[serrath]

That should be enough evidence for 'em. Just explain what it all means and they'll get all, "But the Apple person said..." And you'll get all "Yeah, the Apple person is a working schmuck with a sales job, these are security experts. Mac OS is purported not to have viruses because it's been so historically unpopular that it wasn't worth anyone's time to write malware for it. Security flaws exist regardless of whether or not someone's taking advantage of them."
http://packetstormsecurity.org/files/os/osx/
http://packetstormsecurity.org/files/os/apple/
http://www.iantivirus.com/threats/index/query/V/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_(computer_worm)
http://www.macworld.com/article/1135900/antivirus.html

Oh, right. And anything running Java is vulnerable to user stupidity, so basically every platform is a target.

[Afterm4th]

That should be enough evidence for 'em. Just explain what it all means and they'll get all, "But the Apple person said..." And you'll get all "Yeah, the Apple person is a working schmuck with a sales job, these are security experts. Mac OS is purported not to have viruses because it's been so historically unpopular that it wasn't worth anyone's time to write malware for it. Security flaws exist regardless of whether or not someone's taking advantage of them."
http://packetstormsecurity.org/files/os/osx/
http://packetstormsecurity.org/files/os/apple/
http://www.iantivirus.com/threats/index/query/V/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_(computer_worm)
http://www.macworld.com/article/1135900/antivirus.html

Oh, right. And anything running Java is vulnerable to user stupidity, so basically every platform is a target.

apple IS a virus. It's a cult thats spreading. The cult is based on its own in house hardware and its proprietary closed source unix software. And marketing.

If you can make a virus for *nix it surely can be ported to osx

Edited by Afterm4th, 31 March 2012 - 03:56 PM.

[TheFunk]

Afterm4th and serrath said it right. Apple may have it's own proprietary version of Unix (OS X) but the differences between OS X and any modern Linux/Unix OS are negligible at best. In other words, Macintosh computers are just as vulnerable, if not more vulnerable than Windows based PCs. The big difference in number of exploits, and number of viruses, etc, is due to something known as "security through obscurity". Since so many more people use Windows, attackers spend their time targeting PCs rather than targeting Macs.

As far as security holes go, there are plenty. For example Lion is vulnerable to an LDAP exploit.
LDAP Problems Here

Ultimately, it's not that Macs are invincible to malware, it's that there's not much malware out there that was written with OS X in mind.

Edited by TheFunk, 01 April 2012 - 03:08 PM.

[serrath]

"security through obscurity"

This actually means something else. Security through obscurity is where someone doesn't know how you implemented something so they're not sure how to attack it. It's not impossible to attack (usually far from it), but some attacks that would be obvious in open implementations are obscured since you've elected against transparency.

An example of this is classical cryptosystems. There are many classical codes that remain to be broken, however they are still not considered secure! A good cipher requires that an attacker should not be able to break your code just by knowing the method of encryption. (That is, you can tell everyone how to use this encryption system, but they need the key to decrypt messages; the key and encrypted plaintexts should not be easily discerned by an attacker even if the implementation is known.)

For a better understanding of this, look at Kerckhoff's Principle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerckhoffs%27_principle
(Only the second point here is important.)

Edited by serrath, 01 April 2012 - 07:22 PM.

[Afterm4th]

lets not forget about the fact that virus writers tend to want to infect as many computers as possible. apple has only so much market share. This means less computers to be infected and hence why there are so many viruses for microsoft products.

[Powermaniac7]

Funny just after asking this question I've come across on multiple sites I've visited reports of Macintosh viruses on the rise, among other similar reports.

[serrath]

Yeah, there was recently (two days ago? three?) a little media storm about Mac malware. It's like some kind of domino effect; one or two articles about it get published by relatively obscure news sites and everybody else has to write the same story (or cover it) for their readers.

[dinscurge]

apple IS a virus. It's a cult thats spreading. The cult is based on its own in house hardware and its proprietary closed source unix software. And marketing.

eh. if i had to guess it would make sense to me to target them more as towards traffic sniffing as they obviously have the money to pay 2-4x the actual worth of the hardware specs to almost any other computer manufacture, there credit card number is probably worth more than the guy with a amd a8 crossfire laptop with a 6750m which is basically the same specs as the 1799-2000$ mbp 15" accept for like 500-700$ accept probably better gaming\opencl performance ect. as they have a 6620+ a 6750 in a hybrid crossfire. i mean who would pay 2000$ for a laptop with 1333mhz ram now :/. i would rather buy alien ware atleast then you can get high specs when you pay 2000$ then you can get a 6990m or something and 200% that mbp 17". i would guess they only get away with the marketing because there market share is so low, with the basically out right lieing claiming windows has all these viruses/trojans blue screens and headaches and whatever when literally the same things could be said about macosx

edit: big enough it would take years in court, but more than small enough to outskirt the antitrust problems unlike intel/microsoft ect.

Edited by dinscurge, 07 April 2012 - 03:23 PM.