full-disclosure - Question about Mac OS X 10.4 Security

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Date: Tue Feb 28 16:14:38 2006
From: stefmit at gmail.com (Stef)
Subject: Question about Mac OS X 10.4 Security

On 2/28/06, Paul Schmehl <pauls@...allas.edu> wrote:
<snip>
>
> Still, the ignorance of Mac users, who believe their platform is somehow
> magically "secure" will contribute to the problem.
>
> Paul Schmehl (pauls@...allas.edu)
> Adjunct Information Security Officer
> University of Texas at Dallas
> AVIEN Founding Member
> http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/

I am sorry, Paul, but I have to take you up on this, especially with
your tendency of generalizing everything. I have used *nix in the
past, for all my network and security tools, until MacOSX presented
itself as an opportunity for migration, when I had a need for a new
laptop (over two years ago). At that time the 2.6 kernel and available
modules weren't up to the tasks of the latest hardware capabilities of
x86 laptops, so - on an advice from a friend of mine - I have tried an
iBook. I have been able to compile and port all my tools just fine,
especially with the help of the underlying "like-BSD" infrastructure
(long live fink and Darwin-ports). All I can tell you is that - ever
since - I never looked back at other choices (w/the exception of
Windows, which was never considered among choices, anyway, due to
limitations in cygwin, not talking about the many other obvious
reasons for the OS, itself ;)), and have recently got myself the
latest still-PPC Powerbook, which just confirmed the rightness of the
original migration. As a repository of security and network tools, I
have thrown at this baby everything I can possible think of, and still
haven't found a way to break it ...

... so the Mac users are not [only] the bunch of idiots/ignorants whom
you tend to describe - I would just invite you to attend a blackhat or
shmoocon, or even SANS or Cisco networkers, and let me know how many
Mac users you can count there ... and then ask yourself why ... but
then, again, I may be wrong ;>

Stef