macOS Is it possible to write a program that runs on the OS but bypasses it?

[moonman239]

Let's say I'm a hacker with lots of C/Assembly experience. There's this guy I want to annoy by putting a program on his computer that will print to any and all printers to which his computer is connected and will not stop printing until he discovers my program. I'll have to write my own driver code - I can't use the OS to print, lest it should make him aware of my nefarious activity.

Would it be possible to do this?

 

[robvas]

You could print over the network without using the OS calls to the printer...Or write your own driver like you said if it's a USB printer.

 

[DeltaMac]

I don't think I would be annoyed, just puzzled... particularly if all the printers were in remote locations.

Would your program eventually show that YOU caused it? Now that would be annoying...

But, just my 2p, it's not a very creative prank. Are you running out of ideas?
I'm thinking that erasing any connected external drive would get pretty annoying

 

[mfram]

Even if you could write it.. which would be difficult and time-consuming if you wanted to bypass the OS.. you would need administrative access to the machine. That means either having a password to an administrator account or physical access to the machine to boot it into recovery mode. I guess you're thinking kernel driver. But such a driver would be in a file that would be visible on the file system if you knew where to look. I guess you'd have to modify the file system to hide that file. More time.

 

[960design]

Physical access to the machine: yes, quite easily, but would require several hours code work. There certainly is a better use of his leet skillz time.
Remote access to the machine: yes, requires successful phish ( easy enough ).

 

[xStep]

Have you considered the computer crime acts that you'll possibly be committing?

 

[ocabj]

http://codex.cs.yale.edu/avi/os-book/OS8/os8c/slide-dir/

The issue at hand is how is the printer connected to the computer and can you write not only the driver that talks to the printer in user space, but also some sort of driver to communicate on the respective bus the printer is on that is only in user space.

In order for an application to use some peripheral, it doesn't just need a driver for the peripheral, it needs a driver to talk to the bus that peripheral is on (e.g. USB, Bluetooth).