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Infamous MacBook WiFi hack demonstrated, dubious code to go public
This on-again / off-again storyline surrounding the infamous MacBook WiFi hack has us all in a bit of a whirlwind, but it looks like the responsible party is finally coming clean. David Maynor, who is now the CTO at Errata Security, broke the silence regarding the questionable WiFi vulnerability that he claimed existed in Apple's MacBook by actually demonstrating his findings in front of the crowds at the Black Hat DC event. The meddlesome duo elicited all sorts of backlash from Apple after the story surfaced, and a showing at the ToorCon hacker convention in San Diego was actually axed after Cupertino threatened to sue Maynor's now-former employer, SecureWorks. Yesterday, however, Maynor streamed rogue code from a Toshiba laptop while his MacBook (running OS X 10.4.6) scanned for wireless networks; sure enough, the laptop crashed, and he insinuated that the code could actually be used to do far worse things, such as control functions of the computer -- but interestingly enough, it wasn't noted whether the MacBook's WiFi adapter was Apple's own or of the third-party variety. The angst still felt by Maynor primarily stems from Apple's outright denial of his claims, only to provide an elusive patch that fixed the issue in OS X 10.4.8, essentially making its operating system more secure without giving David his due credit. Mr. Maynor also said that he would no longer attempt to work with Apple and wouldn't report any further findings to them, and while most Macs have certainly done their duty and upgraded to the latest version of OS X, users can reportedly expect a public release of the rogue code to hit the web soon.
John Gruber issues open challenge to MacBook Wi-Fi hackers
Oh it's on now: criticism of the MacBook Wi-Fi hack has been mounting against the original hackers (David Maynor and Jon Ellch) and SecureWorks, while they have remained mostly silent. At least one passionate blogger has been defending the hack and the original statements, but John Gruber has issued an open challenge for Maynor and Elich to prove this hack once and for all: "If you can hijack a brand-new MacBook out of the box, it's yours to keep."From my understanding of the hack as it was originally explained and pseudo-demonstrated, Gruber's criteria and the actual nature of the challenge sound reasonable: he will meet Maynor and/or Elich at an agreed-upon Apple Store or Mac reseller, and he will purchase a brand new MacBook (but the true question is: traditional white, or $150-premium black? Update: he's already laid down a $1099 price; the base configuration). After taking the machine through a default setup with one administrator account, he will enable Wi-Fi (if it isn't turned on out of the box), but will refuse to join any open networks (since Mac OS X is designed to deny this by default, and the attack - understandably - can't be based on a user blindly joining just any open networks, especially one that might be created specifically by an attacking machine). John will then create a basic file on the desktop, with the default permissions assigned by Mac OS X (read/write by user, read-only by Group and the World). Maynor and/or Elich are then free to attack, and if the file disappears from the desktop - they win a (very slightly used, recently attacked) MacBook. If the file stands its ground, the hackers owe John the price of the MacBook. If the dynamic duo manage to only crash the machine or the current login session, John will call the challenge a tie, whereas he will keep the MacBook, and the duo don't have to whip out their checkbooks.I am admittedly no security expert, nor am I a 1337 h4x0r, but the challenge seems sound. Any readers who have been following this saga spot any holes? Feel free to sound off - and stay tuned: the challenge must be accepted by Friday, September 8th, and as John already deduced: the most likely outcome is that they'll only take the challenge if the know they can win.
