Attention MacBook owners: you might want to pay attention to this.
LAS VEGAS–Flaws in the software that runs wireless-networking hardware could let an attacker break into a PC over Wi-Fi, security researchers warned Wednesday.
An attacker could gain complete control over a laptop by sending malformed network traffic to a vulnerable computer, David Maynor, a senior researcher at security service provider SecureWorks, said in a presentation at the Black Hat security event here.
Maynor, along with researcher Johnny Cache, showed a video of a successful attack on a MacBook, made by Apple Computer. However, the attack is possible also on other computers, both laptops and desktops, and not just MacBooks, the researchers said. [cnet]
Of course, this isn’t just limited to MacBooks, but the idea of Apple products being safe from hackers is not as true as the commercials may lead on. The article continues to go on to say that this isn’t a wide-spread issue, but it is something to be concerned about. The important thing is for developers to take this into consideration and cut it off before these vulnerabilities become easy to exploit.
Still feel uneasy about your machine getting hacked wirelessly? Here’s good advice from the article.
Consumers should be streetwise when using their laptop by not connecting to networks they aren’t sure they can trust and by disabling the wireless radio when it is not needed, Maynor said. “There is no need to run out and rip your wireless card out of your laptop, but you should take precautions,” he said. [cnet]
The other thing to note is that this comes from flaws within drivers. These are easy to remedy through updates. It would be a good idea to be paying attention over the next few months to see if there are warnings and updates issued for the stuff you are using.