RE: Mac Security

["Larry Seltzer" <larry () larryseltzer com>]

> > It is only a matter of time before some OSS vuln helps people attack
OSX...comments? 

There are lots of these. In the last couple of years Apple has patched many
critical bugs that were remotely exploitable, and IIRC they don't patch
versions prior to 10.3 anymore. So one way an attack would be easier is if
there are a lot of old, unpatched Macs out there. Are there? I don't know.

Another relevant point I think is that the sort of mass-scattershot
techniques used against Windows are effective, to the extent they are,
because so many of the PCs out there run Windows. The percentage of Macs
reached overall has to be low, and the percentage of vulnerable ones with
unsophisticated users will be lower. For this reason it's not an economic
use of cracking effort to attack Macs. This is the "flying under the radar"
argument.

Attacks against unpatched servers might be a more successful approach, but
we know how successful Apple is in the server market.

Larry Seltzer
eWEEK.com Security Center Editor
http://security.eweek.com/
http://blog.ziffdavis.com/seltzer
Contributing Editor, PC Magazine
larryseltzer () ziffdavis com 


_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.