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October 2, 2006

security

The end of the MacBook hack saga?

Posted Oct. 2, ’06, 5:10 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Security

MacBook hack It’s been a long road fraught with innuendo and a complete lack of real information, but the “MacBook hacked in 60 seconds or less” story may have finally come to an end. I dare say that all but perhaps George Ou are ready to put it behind us.

Here’s a quick recap of what’s happened since I last reported. Apple and SecureWorks announced that they were working together with CERT acting as an arbitrator. Maynor cancelled his talk at Toorcon and no official explanation was revealed (sound familiar?). George Ou interpreted this as another instance of the Man (Apple) putting the little guy (Maynor and Ellch) down. Ellch threw a hissy fit because he got abandoned just like Krebs (who is still asking for Maynor to talk to him).

At the very least, we can consider this the best example of how not to reveal a security issue. It’s been a farce from the beginning and Maynor and Ellch have no one to blame but themselves. The Mac community asked for more information repeatedly (just to be clear, that’s all we’ve asked for despite Artie MacStrawman). We got none, just condescending remarks. Now that Apple has issued some wireless patches and the supposed problem (which M&E refused to confirm existed prior to) has been fixed. We’ll never know if they really had something or if they didn’t.

At any rate, this partial disclosure thing they tried backfired. The end?


3 Comments

Peter said:

Them blaming Apple now is just a smoke screen for all of their BS. I don't buy their "Apple applying pressure" story one bit. They should have been up front about this from the get go.

October 2, 2006 7:39 AM
Myles said:

Just wondering - Has this flaw been patched in Windows yet? Linux? Why all the emphasis on Mac OS X?

October 2, 2006 8:46 AM
Luke said:

"Here’s a quick recap of what’s happened since I last reported. Apple and SecureWorks announced that they were working together with CERT acting as an arbitrator. Maynor cancelled his talk at Toorcon and no official explanation was revealed (sound familiar?). George Ou interpreted this as another instance of the Man (Apple) putting the little guy (Maynor and Ellch) down. Ellch threw a hissy fit because he got abandoned just like Krebs (who is still asking for Maynor to talk to him)."

And as the hourglass turns... So do the days of our lives...

October 2, 2006 11:36 AM

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