Mac OS X not perfect? - UBB.Developers

I would say it's not, here you go kids...news you can use!

quote:
Caution: Apple's Software Update Has Been Hacked

Monday, July 8, 2002
By Senior Editor John H. Farr

According to ZDNet UK, "no patch is understood to be available," and Apple hasn't commented publicly yet, but as far as we know, the cat is out of the bag, now that the hacker responsible has posted full instructions on his Web site. Anyone following the procedure can install a "backdoor" on any OS X-equipped Macintosh computer, and if you don't know what that means, perhaps you should.

Here's most of what is known so far:

"The exploit takes advantage of Apple's software updating mechanism in OS X, called Software Update, which checks weekly for new updates from Apple. According to hacker Russell Harding, who claims to have discovered the exploit, the Mac OS X Software Update feature downloads these updates over the HTTP protocol with no authentication, and installs them as root on the system.
It is a trivial matter, according to Harding, to use any one of several well-known techniques to trick a user into installing a malicious program posing as an update from Apple. Such techniques include DNS spoofing and DNS Cache Poisoning."

Comments: We are not aware of any malicious activity currently taking place that utilizes this vulnerability, but that could change. Automatic software updating is an increasingly popular technology in the industry as a whole, but it looks like there's still some work to be done. Oh, and for any new Mac OS X users who haven't figured out the obvious, what you need to do is make sure Software Update is set for manual updating, at least until this is straightened out. Hint: most of the big boys do it that way anyhow.

yep Mac computers stink!

This is different from various similar issues on Windows and Linux how exactly?

They are all not safe.

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Originally posted by Charles Capps:
This is different from various similar issues on Windows and Linux how exactly?

It's different in the fact that the Mac community spends a majority of their time and advertising loudly proclaiming that they are vastly superior to the PC and PC users.

They have just been humbled. That and the fact that their market share has slipped to 2.4 percent *insert big OUCH here*.

haha! So much for those *insert bad word* commercials gloating how all of those supposed users switched from windows to mac and how it's all better interface and security wise.

[snl sean connery]My day has come![/connery]

Sorry, i don't like macs if you couldn't tell already.

quote:
Originally posted by TheX:
I would say it's not, here you go kids...news you can use!

Of course its certainly not perfect no current OS is perfect. However, OS X is the closest thing to a perfect OS available right now.

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Originally posted by ©.:Sean Network:.©:
yep Mac computers stink!

And what would that in-depth, thought-provoking opinion be based on? I'm assuming you used a Mac for years and had a bad experience. If it was in MacOS pre-10 then you should give it a second look. Many, including myself would agree that OS9 and earlier weren't much better than Windows.

quote:
Originally posted by TheX:

quote:
Originally posted by Charles Capps:
This is different from various similar issues on Windows and Linux how exactly?
It's different in the fact that the Mac community spends a majority of their time and advertising loudly proclaiming that they are vastly superior to the PC and PC users.

They have just been humbled. That and the fact that their market share has slipped to 2.4 percent *insert big OUCH here*.

While I agree that many spout MacOS is better than Windows, I don't think anyone said it was absolutely perfect (any MacOS version). However, I stand by my previous remark, that OSX is by far the closest commercial OS to perfect out right now. I believed that so much that when OS10.1 was released and I ran it through its paces compared to my XP test that I converted to two Macs running OSX (7 year Windows user + 8 years of DOS before that).

quote:
Originally posted by brett:
haha! So much for those *insert bad word* commercials gloating how all of those supposed users switched from windows to mac and how it's all better interface and security wise.

[snl sean connery]My day has come![/connery]

Sorry, i don't like macs if you couldn't tell already.

Yeah, man OSX has one security flaw (that will probably be fixed by the end of July) compared to Windows' thousands of security holes. Yeah, who wants that crap, go Windows. :rolleyes:

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Originally posted by SWFan:

Yeah, man OSX has one security flaw (that will probably be fixed by the end of July) compared to Windows' thousands of security holes. Yeah, who wants that crap, go Windows. :rolleyes:

Winner mocks OS X hacking contest

"The hacker who won the challenge, who asked ZDNet Australia to identify him only as "Gwerdna," said he gained root control of the Mac in less than 30 minutes.

"It probably took about 20 or 30 minutes to get root on the box. Initially, I tried looking around the box for certain misconfigurations and other obvious things, but then I decided to use some unpublished exploits--of which there are a lot for Mac OS X," Gwerdna told ZDNet Australia."

duah, its like linux... you want to be uber leet and want to keep access to yourself while doing mischief? make "0day" exploits and don't hand them out; the less popular problems are the less likely they are to be patched

As someone who uses both OSX and Windows extensively, let me just state that there isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish I could use a Mac at work instead of my Dell. (especially one of those sweet new MacBook Pros)

Regardless of whether or not Mac OSX is more secure, easier to use or maintain...I use Windows because I have to, I use OSX because I like to

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Originally posted by tackaberry:

Regardless of whether or not Mac OSX is more secure, easier to use or maintain...I use Windows because I have to, I use OSX because I like to

Ditto