Secure Coding mailing list archives
eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits"
From: ljknews at mac.com (ljknews)
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:56:20 -0500
At 11:20 AM -0500 1/27/06, Kenneth R. van Wyk wrote:
Interesting article, I suppose, but I'm not convinced of its conclusion: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1915923,00.asp The article claims that Apple's use of Intel chips will result in more software exploits because, "'Attackers have been focused on the [Intel] x86 for over a decade. Macintosh will have a lot more exposure than when it was on PowerPC,' said Oliver Friedrichs, a senior manager at Symantec Corp. Security Response." I was hoping to find some hint of a hardware architectural feature that the powerpc has that provided an additional means of protection, but the article mentions none. Instead, the only reason that it cites for the (presumed) increase in software exploits is attackers' knowledge and experience base. After all, didn't attackers also have access to powerpc systems to build attacks on during the same timeframe that Symantec suggests? Does the powerpc architecture provide some inherent protection against (say) stack smashing than the x86 does? Am I missing something here?
The most charitable (to the writer of the article) interpretation I can think of is that the sociopaths have experience dealing with BIOS and that sort of thing. But I do not know that Intel Macintoshes boot the same way Intel PCs do -- certainly they have aspects to support MacOS running that are missing from Intel PCs. -- Larry Kilgallen
Current thread:
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Kenneth R. van Wyk (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Pascal Meunier (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Andrew Rucker Jones (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Crispin Cowan (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Jose Nazario (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Jose Nazario (Jan 30)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Blue Boar (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Pascal Meunier (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" Jose Nazario (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" der Mouse (Jan 27)
- eWeek says "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits" ljknews (Jan 27)