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Ancient Flaws May Leave Mac OS X Vulnerable
mdeb writes "ZDNet Australia is running a story that claims Mac OS X 'contains unpatched security flaws of a type that were fixed on alternative operating systems more than a decade ago.' As an example, in August of last year, Apple patched the 'dsidentity' bug, which could easily have been exploited to grant a non-privileged user with admin rights the capability to create and remove 'root' user accounts."
Wow, stop the presses. Security flaws on a *nix based system. Boy that's news no one expected. Or does somehow the magic Apple logo protect you from all harm - and Bill Gates?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Now we will just have to sit and wait for Steve Gibson's assessment that Apple intentionally left these exploits open as a backdoor to the system!
ZDNet Australia is running a story that claims OS X 'contains unpatched security flaws of a type that were fixed on alternative operating systems more than a decade ago.'
Only in the Southern Hemisphere. Up here, trolls rotate counterclockwise.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Thank God people have almost cracked running Windows XP on these new Mactels!
Good thing I use Windows ME.
It must have happened when they translated the binary off of the stone tablets, likely because they were limited to only bronze tools.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
That's the first time I've heard operating systems other than OSX described as "alternative".
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
We need a mod category for "baiting the untold OSX masses".
Considering the user must be priviliged is it safe to say that the user has already authenticated and in the system. I always use passwords like "asldkfje983r0u!56@#987$%^rnYA(*U()*U&0u" for standard users. If they can crack that they deserve to gain admin rights too. You should see my admin key: it is a 10^12 digit mersenne prime.
My name is Inigo Montoya, you referenced Princess Bride, prepare to read the same joke ten thousand times.
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
I ain't got a fucking clue what you guys are talking about, but hey! When in Rome.
Hey, it doesn't matter and mac os X is uber secure.
Where are all the OSX exploits??? I've been running without a virus scanner, although I back up frequently. Nothing, no spywear, viruses etc.
Are there probably exploits possible. Yes of course. But Apple's security record has been very very good.
This is absolute hogwash.
That does it! I'm swiching back to Micorosoft Bob!
Is that, like, a decoder ring or a shoe-phone?
When I saw the headlines I thought someone had found Egyptian Hieroglyphs from aliens explaining how to break into OSX.
Guess my definition of Ancient isn't the same as the posters.
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You see, you hold a crucifix straight up and down for Vampires; cock it 45 degrees so it sort of looks like the Apple logo, and you'll keep Gates away! But, there's a problem with Balmer, you also need the Firefox logo to ward him off. Sometimes, you need Nerdy, the MS Slayer. She's, yes, it's a woman, the chosen one. I can't say anymore now.
And then it was like... beepbeepbeepbeep, and then, like, half my accounts were gone. And I was like, huh?
They were really good accounts too. And then I had to recreate them and I had to do it fast, and they weren't as good...
-=Lothsahn=-
I was myself wondering what a non-privileged user with admin rights was. But a few more reads finds that it means that the exploit gives admin rights to non-priveleged users.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Now that's not fair. It's entirely possible that Mr. Archibald is very passionate about source code auditing and that his business and this story are just outpourings of... BWAHAHAHA. Oh geez, I can't believe I typed that for so long.
Yeah, good point.
Hehe...
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
10) Ten million+ active boxes still "too small a number" to target.
9) Worlds virus writers all work at Valve; have no idea what the hell OS X is.
8) OS X originally scheduled to have virus this year; pushed back till Q2 next year to add Intel support and a Universal Binary.
7) Russian Mafia all actually use Macs, tell underlings to keep macs virus free so they don't have to run virus scanners.
6) Forget buffer overflows; real mechanism viruses use to spread is actually second mouse button.
5) No viruses released for sale on ITMS yet.
4) Actually viruses everywhere but Jobs Reality Distorition Field keeps Mac users thinking they are not there.
3) XCode secretly detects and transforms viruses into RSS readers instead at compile time; explains glut on Macs.
2) Virus writers accientally drug virus into one of several hundred "Untitled Folders" on Desktop, now have no idea where it is.
1) Mac owners just too damn pretty for God to let them get viruses.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When we spoke to Apple on the phone about this issue, the security team had never even heard of the application, and burst out laughing at the simplicity of the vulnerability," said Archibald.
don't take it personally. seriously. They were laughing with you, not at you.
Someday these smug mac users are going to get their comeuppance.
Really.
Someday.
Any day now...