[lug] root password

[Rob Nagler]

Rob Nagler writes:
> valuable data run less software.  Laptops are more easily crackable
> than servers, because they are client machines, and run all sorts of
> highly vulnerable software, like Firefox, Word, etc.

Just out yesterday:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/08/hijacking_a_macbook_in_60_seco_1.html

    If you want to grab the attention of a roomful of hackers, one sure
    fire way to do it is to show them a new method for remotely
    circumventing the security of an Apple Macbook computer to seize total
    control over the machine. That's exactly what hackers Jon "Johnny
    Cache" Ellch and David Maynor plan to show today in their Black Hat
    presentation on hacking the low-level computer code that powers many
    internal and external wireless cards on the market today.

    The video shows Ellch and Maynor targeting a specific security
    flaw in the Macbook's wireless "device driver," the software that
    allows the internal wireless card to communicate with the
    underlying OS X operating system. While those device driver flaws
    are particular to the Macbook -- and presently not publicly
    disclosed -- Maynor said the two have found at least two similar
    flaws in device drivers for wireless cards either designed for or
    embedded in machines running the Windows OS. Still, the presenters
    said they ultimately decided to run the demo against a Mac due to
    what Maynor called the "Mac user base aura of smugness on
    security."

s/Mac/Linux/g :-)

Rob