Apple's in the eye of flaw finders
Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus 2006-02-07

At the recent ShmooCon hacking conference, one security researcher found out the hard way that such venues can be hostile, when an unknown hacker took control of the researcher's computer, disabling the firewall and starting up a file server.

While such compromises have become common in the Windows world, this time the computer was a Apple PowerBook running the latest version of Mac OS X. The victim, a security researcher who asked to remain anonymous, had locked down the system prior to the conference and believes that a previously unknown exploit caused the compromise. However, in the following weeks, forensics performed on the system did not reveal any clues as to how the PowerBook had been compromised.

The compromise underscores a number of trends that has already caused a shift in focus among flaw finders and could result in more attacks on Mac OS X. Security researchers themselves have moved over to Apple computers in the past few years and have learned the ins and outs of the operating system. The company's move to Intel-based hardware for its next-generation of Macs also gives flaw finders familiar territory in which to look for bugs. Finally, as Apple continues to garner more market share, the lure of a larger set of targets will make attacks more likely, say security researchers.

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http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11375?ref=rss

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