Mac OS X hacker gains control in 30 min
updated 09:50 am EST, Mon March 6, 2006
Mac OS X compromised
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 ZDNet Australia reports that Mac OS X was hacked within 30 minutes using an unpublished security vulnerability.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 vulnerable to attacks.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2005
What Mac did he gain cont
What Mac did he gain control of? His own? Big deal! Let's see him break into any Mac out in the real world and not in his own house and see how far he gets. The first problem he has is to find you. The second problem is he has to get through your router firewall. The third problem is he has to get through the Macs firewall. The fourth problem is he has to gain access to your password. I seriously doubt he gained control of anything but his own. This story is missing so much detail that it really sounds phoney. And ZDNET has been pushing all of these stories that have no facts behind them and were really not the big security problems as hardly even one person got attacked.