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Less Than a Minute to Hijack a MacBook's Wireless

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the uh-oh dept.

Kadin2048 writes "As reported by Ars Technica and the Washington Post, two hackers have found an exploitable vulnerability in the wireless drivers used by Apple's MacBook. Machines are vulnerable if they have wireless enabled and are set to connect to any available wireless network, fairly close to their default state, and the exploit allows an attacker to gain "total access" -— apparently a remote root. Although the demo, performed via video at the BlackHat conference, takes aim at what one of the hackers calls the "Mac userbase aura of smugness on security," Windows users shouldn't get too smug themselves: according to the Post article, "the two have found at least two similar flaws in device drivers for wireless cards either designed for or embedded in machines running the Windows OS." Ultimately, it may be the attacks against embedded devices which are the most threatening, since those devices are the hardest to upgrade. Currently there have not been any reports of this vulnerability 'in the wild.'" According to this story at ITwire.com, they were able to exploit Linux and Windows machines, too. (Thanks to Josh Fink.)

13 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How about warning the vendor. by Snover · · Score: 5, Informative
    You mean like this, from TFA?

    Maynor said he and Ellch have been in contact with Apple, Microsoft and other companies responsible for vetting the device drivers that power the embedded or third-party wireless card devices meant for those systems, and that both companies are working with wireless card vendors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to remedy the problems.


    Also, christ, I'd say they're being pretty responsible about it.

    Maynor said he and his colleague opted in favor of a videotaped demonstration versus a live one because of the possibility that someone in the audience could intercept the traffic sent to a potentially live target and deconstruct the attack -- possibly to use the exploit in the wild against other Macbook users.
    --

    [insert witty comment here]
  2. In related news... by Kranfer · · Score: 4, Informative

    In related news, there is an article at ITWire about Intel admitting to a security flaw with their wireless technology as well. Check it out at http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2161539/intel-ad mits-centrino-wi

    --
    -- Josh
    "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
  3. Re:How about warning the vendor. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Informative
    They should have disclosed the vulunerability to Apple and give fair time to patch OS X before going public with it.

    Seeing you can't be bothered reading tfa to find out that they haven't discolsed & gone to some trouble to ensure the vulnerability's details weren't leaked, I'll quote the relevant sections for you:

    hile those device driver flaws are particular to the Macbook -- and presently not publicly disclosed

    and:

    Maynor said he and his colleague opted in favor of a videotaped demonstration versus a live one because of the possibility that someone in the audience could intercept the traffic sent to a potentially live target and deconstruct the attack -- possibly to use the exploit in the wild against other Macbook users.

    One last quote for you (just 'cause its funny):

    "We're not picking specifically on Macs here, but if you watch those 'Get a Mac' commercials enough, it eventually makes you want to stab one of those users in the eye with a lit cigarette or something,"
    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  4. Re:Uh by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

    R'ing TFA, I found that the chipset in question is an Atheros. As a Free- and OpenBSD user, this made me feel incredibly smug since, unlike Linux, the OpenBSD driver (now ported to FreeBSD) for Atheros cards is entirely blob-free (and has undergone the same security audit as the rest of OpenBSD) and so is almost certainly not vulnerable to this attack.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  5. Actually, your Powerbook probably IS safe! by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Informative

    MacBooks use different wireless drivers (because they have Intel wireless chips). Your Powerbook has the old Airport card; unless there's also a similar flaw in it, it's safe.

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    1. Re:Actually, your Powerbook probably IS safe! by larkost · · Score: 5, Informative

      Of course... just after I post this becomes available (new to me anyways). So it looks like it only being a third-party driver exploit was a red herring: the built-in chipset is venerable, and Apple is aware of it and already working with the vendor for a solution.

  6. The ISC discussed this yesterday by pbrammer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look for more information on the ISC Web site. Bottom line is this is not an OS issue, rather a "firmware/driver" issue.

  7. Re:Centrino. Feh. by Nick+Fury · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not Centrino. Centrino is the name given to Intel's package of Motherboard chipset + wireless chipset + Processor. The new Apple machines don't use an Intel wireless card. They use Intel's chipset and Processor but not their wireless card. This does not make them Centrino machines.

    To be specific the new Macbooks/pros use a Atheros 5006x. This is in comparison to the powerbooks that use a broadcom based card. So Apple doesn't use Centrino.

  8. Watch the video by eturro · · Score: 5, Informative

    The actual video is here.

  9. Re:3rd party by fatrat · · Score: 5, Informative


    Read Brian Krebs' follow up

    http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/08 /followup_to_macbook_post.html

    Apple 'leaned heavily' on the presenters to make them use a different card. The built in card *is* vulnerable.

  10. The built-in card IS vunerable by everphilski · · Score: 4, Informative

    check Security Fix:

    During the course of our interview, it came out that Apple had leaned on Maynor and Ellch pretty hard not to make this an issue about the Mac drivers -- mainly because Apple had not fixed the problem yet. Maynor acknowledged that he used a third-party wireless card in the demo so as not to draw attention to the flaw resident in Macbook drivers. But he also admitted that the same flaws were resident in the default Macbook wireless device drivers, and that those drivers were identically exploitable. And that is what I reported.

  11. Apple's wiress drivers are flawed too, read ... by everphilski · · Score: 5, Informative

    check Security Fix:

    During the course of our interview, it came out that Apple had leaned on Maynor and Ellch pretty hard not to make this an issue about the Mac drivers -- mainly because Apple had not fixed the problem yet. Maynor acknowledged that he used a third-party wireless card in the demo so as not to draw attention to the flaw resident in Macbook drivers. But he also admitted that the same flaws were resident in the default Macbook wireless device drivers, and that those drivers were identically exploitable. And that is what I reported.

    ( Looks like Apple was wielding a big stick ... )

  12. Re:Mac Users by marklark · · Score: 5, Informative
    According to John Gruber of Daring Fireball, the affected MacBook was seen to be using a 3rd party wireless card. MacBooks (Pro or not) have wireless built in these days. This is a non-story. And this will probably be fixed soon by Apple for others.

    Next?