That one sent me to Google. The quote is accurate, but I thought the stated reason was interesting as well. As I interpet it, he says that in most any browser it is easy to find bugs (in which he can place things into memory), but that the actual exploit is easier in Mac OS because "I put the code into a process and I know exactly where it's going to be". I have to assume that is a browser issue, not an OS issue, because Mac OS X has been using "system library randomization" for a while now. (I understand that the OS needs to control/limit what the application does.) As I have said before on this forum, you can say what you will about the reasons why there is an extremely minimal amount of malware on the Mac as compared to Windows (70,000 new per day!), but the fact remains that you are much "safer" running Mac OS X today than you are Windows. Mac OS X does have some issues that need to be addressed, and I think you will see more of that real soon now, as they have recently had some high profile hires in that area.
That said, I still think the original statement that the "security model is better" is something of a different animal. The security model to me is more of a general philosophy of how the user relates to the operating system. Mac OS X, which is based on BSD Unix, uses the multi-user, least-privilege model and has since day 1. Whether designed for it or not, that has not been the model in use in the Windows world until relatively recently. I mean, when you cannot even run Outlook without elevated permissions, it becomes kind of pointless (based on Outlook 2003 not working as a regular user). Bill Mayo -----Original Message----- From: Angus Scott-Fleming [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 12:27 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: WTF? Fake AV On 28 Apr 2010 at 11:00, Steven M. Caesare wrote: > > While I am not a huge fan of MACS, their security model is obviously > > much > better than Windows > > I'd suggest that's an ill-drawn conclusion. +1. Charlie Miller, the Pwn20wn champ three years running, hacks Macs +by choice over Windows because he says they're easier to hack. -- Angus Scott-Fleming GeoApps, Tucson, Arizona 1-520-290-5038 Security Blog: http://geoapps.com/ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
