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Is this possible?!?!?!?!?!?

Prof.

Prof.

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 17, 2007
5,375
2,202
Chicagoland
Okay, my friend told me that Macs are the only computers that you can "hack" by just knowing the IP address. Is this true? I told him that it's not but then he said he hacked his friends MacBook after finding out what his IP address is.

Is it true?

Prof. :apple:
 
Macs can be hacked but it is much more difficult than hacking a windows based computer. I second the suggestion of asking for a demonstration.
 
I would love to ask for a demonstration. Unfortunately, he lives in New York City and I live in the suburbs of Chicago. Well, now I know he's a lier.
 
Anyone who says he "hacked" into another computer clearly is not very technically advanced and is just telling boastful lies to make himself seem important. Just by the language he used you can be certain that anything he says about anything can be safely disregarded. Whether he's talking about computers or any other topic, don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth.
 
motulist said:
Anyone who says he "hacked" into another computer clearly is not very technically advanced and is just telling boastful lies to make himself seem important. Just by the language he used you can be certain that anything he says about anything can be safely disregarded. Whether he's talking about computers or any other topic, don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth.
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Wow! I like you.:cool:
 
Prof. said:
I would love to ask for a demonstration. Unfortunately, he lives in New York City and I live in the suburbs of Chicago. Well, now I know he's a lier.
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You still can get him to demonstrate the ability he claims to have. Just go online and tell him your IP address, and see if he can take control of your Mac, or even tell you the file name contents of a folder on your hard drive.

As long as you have file sharing turned off and your firewall turned on, I'll bet you $100 that he can't do it.
 
motulist said:
You still can get him to demonstrate the ability he claims to have. Just go online and tell him your IP address, and see if he can take control of your Mac, or even tell you the file name contents of a folder on your hard drive.

As long as you have file sharing turned off and your firewall turned on, I'll bet you $100 that he can't do it.
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Okay. How do I turn file sharing off? I'm still relatively new to Macs and still learning.
 
Prof. said:
Okay. How do I turn file sharing off? I'm still relatively new to Macs and still learning.
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File sharing should be turned off by default. If you've never turned it on, then that means it's off. I'm still running OS 10.3, and some settings have been moved to different locations, so I probably can't walk you through to find it exactly. But if you go looking through you system preferences in the network and sharing (and maybe security) control panels then you should see the settings for sharing and firewall somewhere in there.
 
taylorwilsdon said:
If your friend can "hack" a macbook with an IP address, then he should get a job with the NSA because nobody else can do that.
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Wow! I am really liking these responses. I like you too.:D

EDIT: I don't think it's the same. It's a different friend but... I just wanted to make sure that you couldn't "Hack" mac as easily as he said you could. Sorry if I made you mad.
 
Prof. said:
Wow! I am really liking these responses. I like you too.:D

EDIT: I don't think it's the same. It's a different friend but... I just wanted to make sure that you couldn't "Hack" mac as easily as he said you could. Sorry if I made you mad.
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Hey, I'm not ragging on you. I'm just saying that you need to be a little more grounded about these things. You don't need to post it here but I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess you're just moving into the teen-ages and it shows.
 
taylorwilsdon said:
Hey, I'm not ragging on you. I'm just saying that you need to be a little more grounded about these things. You don't need to post it here but I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess you're just moving into the teen-ages and it shows.
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No, I'm 18. Sorry, but I just wanted to make sure that my Mac is safe from hacking. Like I said, I am still relatively new to Mac and I am still learning the ropes. Cut me some slack.:(
 
Nothing to add to this thread really but I liked the irony of you being "Prof. :apple:" yet know nothing about them. :p
 
amoda said:
Nothing to add to this thread really but I liked the irony of you being "Prof. :apple:" yet know nothing about them. :p
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My name is "Prof." because that's what ppl called me in school. I was always studying and was one of the top students (only in some classes) As I keep mentioning I am still new to Macs. That's why I come here; I come here to learn new stuff. I like learning.
 
Hey guys lay off him, he's done absolutely nothing that warrants even minor insults. He's doing what a person *should* do when they have questions and aren't sure if they should believe what they've heard.

So keep your comments friendly.
 
It's hard to believe sometimes that Mac is never possible to be hacked. Why is that ? Why Windows is very vulnerable to be hacked in? What technologies that brings Macs are truly ahead then the rest ?
 
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alebar14 said:
It's hard to believe sometimes that Mac is never possible to be hacked. Why is that ? Why Windows is very vulnerable to be hacked in? What technologies that brings Macs are truly ahead then the rest ?
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It isn't impossible to hack OS X, so much as it is just very very hard. So much so that I don't think anyone has ever done it. I think (THINK, mind you) that the same can be said about almost every flavor or linux.

Bear in mind that when I say hack I am talking about a person gaining control or access to your system without your permission, and regardless of precautions (firewall, file sharing off, strong passwords).

Windows has been around in its current incarnation for quite some time. And I'm not talking about how XP has been on shelves for 6 years now. Rather I mean that XP is based on Win2000, which in turn is based on NT4, which in turn is based on.... you get the idea. Vista is based on XP by the way.

So you have this OS that is essentially 15+ years old. They have patched security holes a plenty, but when the codebase is that established and has been in use for that long... not to mention the legacy code they leave in there for backwards compatibility's sake.

I believe I am safe in saying that Windows is, by default, inherently less secure than OS X. However, given appropriate protection (firewalls, DMZs, etc... stuff you should be doing anyway) It is a fine OS that gets it job done, it just needs a little more help along the way to keep it from getting in its own way I suppose.
 
alebar14 said:
It's hard to believe sometimes that Mac is never possible to be hacked. Why is that ? Why Windows is very vulnerable to be hacked in? What technologies that brings Macs are truly ahead then the rest ?
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I'm not familiar with the specifics but from what I know about software, vulnerabilities in software are related to two things: Bad Design and Bad Implementation (ie bugs).

Mac OS X is written on Darwin which is a Unix Operating System. Unix has been around for many years and was written as enterprise level software. A lot of effort went into making it secure. History has shown that Unix is more secure than windows.

On the other hand, Windows Vista has many of its kernel level operations re-written from XP to be more secure. I'm pretty sure Vista is more secure than XP.

Windows XP is written on Windows NT kernel. I'm not completely familiar with its history but a large reason why XP was exploited so much was because of its prevalence. Hackers don't really bother targeting niche markets because it doesn't bring about as much gains. Targeting XP would mean their exploits would work on over 90% of all PC's in the world. That's a lot of PC's!

The other reason is your average PC user is not completely computer literate. They don't know what a firewall does, or anti-virus. They click random links and download weird files.

Windows XP secured and locked down is actually pretty good. I haven't installed anti-spyware and anti-virus on my XP machines and haven't had a problem.

So in short to answer your questions:
Q: It's hard to believe sometimes that Mac is never possible to be hacked. Why is that ?
A: You're statement isn't true. It is possible to hack Mac's. Just most hackers don't bother because the market is too small.

Q: Why Windows is very vulnerable to be hacked in?
A: Technologically, Windows is based on a less stable operating system than Unix (Windows NT) but more importantly are sociological factors. With 90% market share, hackers want to exploit Windows XP machines. Furthermore many of those people aren't completely computer literate and do not practice safe computing.

Q: What technologies that brings Macs are truly ahead then the rest ?
A: It is based on enterprise level server operating system that is proven to be stable and secure.
 
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