Discover OS X Vulnerability, Receive Death Threats

OS X is secure and we'll kill you if you say otherwise!

Thursday, July 19, 2007 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News

In the world of computer security research, it really doesn't get any more dramatic than this.  This weekend, a security researcher hiding behind the pseudonym "Infosec Sellout"  posted to the BugTraq mailing list that he had discovered a vulnerability in a component of Apple's Bonjour automatic network service, and that he had developed a proof-of-concept worm that exploits the hole.  However he says he won't release it.  The response?  Death threats.

However, that's only the beginning of a what is turning out to be a story that belongs more on a mid-day Soap Opera than on the front page of a tech news site.  It quickly devolves into identity hijacking, site defacement, and speculation on other anonymous posters disclosing vulnerabilities in the past.  Again, CNet has the dirty details.

Astyanax
Reply #1 Thursday, July 19, 2007 3:42 PM
Oh wow, how shocking! An OS X computer with vulnerabilities, who would have known?! [/sarcasm]
Why would anyone want to mess with a Mac anyway? It's already a kick in the balls if you own one....
nicksick
Reply #2 Thursday, July 19, 2007 5:34 PM
It's still more stable then any windows machine besides maybe 3.1. Or dos.
Astyanax
Reply #3 Thursday, July 19, 2007 5:47 PM
Nice try, but no. Though I did expect someone to say that, typical fanboy responce.
It wasn't long ago their was OS X 9 which every other month would decide to whipe your entire hard disk clean forcing you to start over. It was less stable than Windows 98, and since Windows 98 was an utter piece of trash one can only guess what OS X 9 was.

You know.. I could see a linux user bashing Windows, but an OS X user? Come back when they've coded their own kernal rather than starting off with a Unix one.

Kind of odd how OS X 10 came out and suddenly stability was improved. But i'd expect that seeing as they used someone elses kernal.

But hey what do I know right?
Nimbin
Reply #4 Thursday, July 19, 2007 6:09 PM
it's funny that all the mac fans think nothing of trashing every other O/S but as soon as something is found to be wrong with the mac O/S they get very snotty and spit the dummy when we start trashing it. awwwwww maybe they need an early night and a nice warm bottle. next thing you know they will blame it on the fact that mac's use intel processors now
Aquamonkey
Reply #5 Thursday, July 19, 2007 6:40 PM
Can't really add more than what Astyanax0 wrote. Macs are just as unsecure as any other OS, but people don't waste their time to create an exploit that affects about 6% of computer users, they go after the big boy which as we all know is Windows
BigDogBigFeet
Reply #6 Thursday, July 19, 2007 7:48 PM
Good grief. Where does the truth begin and end? Sounds like some sort of geek soap opera hosted by actors who have way too much money and time on their hands. Oh well.
starkers
Reply #7 Thursday, July 19, 2007 8:57 PM
Wow, this is taking fanboi-ism just way too far....maybe some insulting gaffitti, or hurling some rotten eggs and/or rotten tomatoes. perhaps a bag full of excrement set on fire on the doorstep, but death threats over an OS is over-kill...to the extreme, to say the least.

Ooops....guess I had better quit calling his holiness? (Steve Jobs) a smug little prick, his smarminess, a turtleneck twit....and pink on the outside, then.
nicksick
Reply #8 Thursday, July 19, 2007 10:13 PM
Wait, did I come off as a mac user? Oh heavens no. I value my money enough to spend it on more than one thing every 2000$. I'm a linux boy, m'lads. My OS is free and customizable until the very end. I bought a laptop with Windows XP MCE, uninstalled all the crap, and dual-booted with Ubuntu. It took two solid days getting XP to mimic Ubuntu close-enough that it didn't look like poop. Yes, thats right, I actually paid money for a piece of microsoft software. I.. I wasn't feeling right, I was ill, not myself...
XX
Reply #9 Friday, July 20, 2007 2:44 AM
Its impossible for MAC computers to have any flaws. It was handed down to Steve Jobs on a silver plate by angels from some MAC deity. It can compute Pi to last digit, solve Python(sp)'s theorem with powers greater than 2, cook food, clean up after your kids, and put them to bed too!

NOT. OSX is an OS, and made by humans. Humans are not perfect by definition. Then also by definition, anything made by imperfect beings are also imperfect.

Do I blast a person when that person posts flaws on Windows or Linux? Nope. I use both, and know it has flaws too.
nicksick
Reply #10 Friday, July 20, 2007 12:37 PM
@#9, but with linux, the flaws are due to the user. With windows, the flaws are inherent and built-in for your inconvenience.
starkers
Reply #11 Friday, July 20, 2007 11:57 PM
With windows, the flaws are inherent and built-in for your inconvenience.


Yes, but it's convenience, actually...cos it saves you the trouble of having to look for them....and you would....if only to justify the costs associated with having to buy a firewall; an AV program; an anti-spyware program; a trojan hunter; a HDD clean up program and a defragger which tidies up all those files a Mac or Linux would leave immaculately and spic and span.

Funnily enough, and it pisses me off, but the inherent flaws I paid for just haven't been behaving as they should. Windows (Vista) is running so smoothly these days....no BSOD's ; no freeze-up's; no crashes; and no viruses, spyware or malware infestations. Guess I must be doing something wrong.
Alternate Setting
Reply #12 Saturday, July 21, 2007 11:18 AM
Hmm, I've a feeling if we look up and behind us, we'll see the point of the OP flying somewhere overhead.......

'Cos it ain't about the ability of a halfway competent PC owner to secure the OS of their choice - this is about defective wetware

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