Hacking into a ibook G4 with Tiger

Short answer : no it is not possible.
But some pirate could use an hypothetical security flow in MacOS X to gain access to your hard drive.
If every service is disabled (especially remote session — SSH server —) you have less chances to be hacked.
Anyway, if someone has local access to your computer, it is quite easy to reset a password using the Tiger installer disk.

Hello John.

Where did you read a report regarding a Mac running OS X being hacked this way?

Hack is kind of a broad term. If you put me alone in a room with your computer, and I guessed your password, that would be hacking it. If I called you up posing as a technician from your ISP and convinced you to give me shell access to your computer, that would be hacking as well. So would be using a buffer overflow exploit in (insert application) to execute malicious code. There are many ways to hack a computer. So ideally, the best way to keep your files safe is to keep the computer locked in a windowless room with no outside connection to the internet.

Now, unless your computer contains highly sensitive information that would be desirable to hackers (like say, thousands of credit card numbers or proof of alien life), the chance that someone would go through the effort to rifle through your trash can is probably close to zero.

The average computer user should probably be more concerned about not sending personal data over unencrpyted connections, not falling for phishing scams, and not having their name pop up on an RIAA lawsuit list.

And if you're really worried about people getting access to your trash can, why not just empty the trash?

"And if you're really worried about people getting access to your trash can, why not just empty the trash?"

Or use the Secure Empty Trash option.

http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/

i dont want scare nobody. is only signalling.

Those are hypothetical and potential flows, we do not even know if most of them can be exploited. I can remember some of the items listed here that were more bugs than security issues.

I would have to agree with Yann on this point. I get kernel panics like this regularly on the same build. Personally I liked the little "fatal error" message from days of old.

Further, any credibility of anything on that site got flushed immediately upon seeing the composite sketch that was part of one of the most expensive and failed manhunts in US history. Has kind of that y2k err about it.

If one has real security issues and concerns about hackers in particular they may wish to reconsider what type of information they post to public forums on the www. Posts can be edited by the original author by clicking the edit button next to the reply button in one's own reply/post.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure"

FWIW

I hope you are using that term in the generic sense!!!

If not, please immediately contact your organization's security officer, review your system's SPP and your DD254, and the relevant sections of the NISPOM. If you do not have direct access, the NISPON may be downloaded from http://www.dss.mil/isec/nispom.htm in PDF format.

This is hilarious. In Australia we all roll on the floor laughing when we read about CIA plots and hacking into peoples home computers. I mean if you do stuff that arouses suspicion then you would expect some attention from the authorities. I had someone tell me that they used to say words like guns, murder, terrorist, bomb etc etc etc over the phone and reckoned they could hear clicks during the call suggesting that they were being listened to. Yeah right.

My advice is to take a Bex (aspirin for those who've never heard of Bex) and have a lie down.

Theoretically, any Mac could be cracked/hacked. If you use common sense the odds against it happening are long.

You can protect yourself by using your firewall and/or a hard wired router, downloading only from "trusted" sites, installing all security updates and being careful about what you give administrative power to.

Don't use Limewire or any other P2P service to download your software, get it from reputable sources. In addition, always keep at least your users backed up, preferably a clone of your entire system on a separate disk. And put your sensitive passwords, bank accounts, credit card numbers in a "secure note" in a new keychain or in an encrypted folder.



-mj
macjack@gmail.com

I would think that creating an encrypted disk image and then storing them there would make a lot more sense. Do remember to use Secure Delete on the originals after you copy them to such a disk image.

Yes, and turn encrypted virtual memory on, too, and watch our back while working on something sensitive.
Seriously, unless one have very good reason to protect his work, it would not worth the performance overhead implied by protected vm and filevault, IMHO.