Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Re: Newspaper Article about Cable Modem security / Solutions?
From: Neil Ratzlaff <neil.ratzlaff () ucop edu>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 09:13:37 -0800
I quite agree that Macs are going to be harder to protect after MacOS8x. I don't run anything that will accept remote connections, which is much easier to ensure on a Mac than Windows or unix, which is why I said I don't have to worry much. Security changes are one of the reasons I haven't gone to MacOS9 - I will probably just go straight to MacOSX. But I won't do that until I have a firewall set up and tested. When OS10 comes out, I expect a great wave of Mac Attacks and some very unhappy Apple customers unless Apple turns off all listening ports by default, and I don't think they will.
Neil At 16:58 11/18/99 +0000, Dorian Moore wrote:
Neil Ratzlaff wrote: > > At home I have been using a Mac, so I really don't have to worry much. That's what you think! ... I'm relatively concerned by this issue. The fact that MacOS 9 now ships with the ability to appleshare over IP (from a standard desktop with file sharing) implies that hackers could now start gaining access to Mac users machines via TCP/IP (I know, who wants to steal Data of a mac?)... as the MacOS starts to move more towards the BSD backend (from MacOS10) this is going to become more of an issue. Classically Mac users (and I'm not belittling mac users, I'm writing this from a Powerbook, MacOS is my platform of choice, even though I'm a sysadmin...) are less technically orientated and rely on security through obscurity (IE there are Less Mac orientated Viruses, there are less remote hacks/DOS scares), and users quite frequently set up file sharing on a network without a password (hey, it's a mac, what's the problem). I know of a couple of routing/firwall products which run on Macs (http://www.sustworks.com/ is probably the best)... and I also know how to install a particular routing product via appleshare, and set up a configuration so that the next time the user restarts your have an IP product which looks out onto their net and you can tunnel into (and if you know how, it's possible to manually install, over appletalk, any number of PCanywhere alikes onto a Mac). Sniffing around a Mac with ResEdit over appleshare can give you quite a bit of information about how the network is configured as well... Anyway, I digress, just really making a point that Macs seem to be on the way to becoming a more open and world friendly architecture. This is a great thing for interoprability, but it's also a security threat to a lot of people who think 'Hey, it's only a Mac' my 2 pence worth d. -- Techie wanted, apply within : http://www.kleber.net/job.html Dorian Moore is property of Kleber Design Ltd. If found please contact Kleberby phone on +44 207 581 1362 or visit http://www.kleber.net for further details. You really shouldn't listen to anything he says... as it may just be an opinion
Current thread:
- Home DSL security for a neophyte, (continued)
- Home DSL security for a neophyte m. rizzi (Nov 17)
- MicroFirewalls for home/low speed connections chuck (Nov 18)
- Re: MicroFirewalls for home/low speed connections Nicholas Tang (Nov 21)
- Re: MicroFirewalls for home/low speed connections Aaron C. Springer (Nov 26)
- RE: MicroFirewalls for home/low speed connections Kurt Buff (Nov 30)
- MicroFirewalls for home/low speed connections chuck (Nov 18)
- Home DSL security for a neophyte m. rizzi (Nov 17)
- Re: Home DSL security for a neophyte Bruce B. Platt (Nov 18)
- Re: Home DSL security for a neophyte Rafi Sadowsky (Nov 21)
- Message not available
- Re: Home DSL security for a neophyte Bruce B. Platt (Nov 28)
- Re: Newspaper Article about Cable Modem security / Solutions? Dorian Moore (Nov 21)
- Re: Newspaper Article about Cable Modem security / Solutions? Neil Ratzlaff (Nov 21)