The Hacker's Guide to OS X

by Bathurst, Rob; Rogers, Russ; Ghassemlouei, Alijohn

• ISBN13: 9781597499507
• ISBN10: 1597499501
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-16
• Publisher: Syngress Media Inc

Summary

Written by two experienced penetration testers the material presented discusses the basics of the OS X environment and its vulnerabilities. Including but limited to; application porting, virtualization utilization and offensive tactics at the kernel, OS and wireless level. This book provides a comprehensive in-depth guide to exploiting and compromising the OS X platform while offering the necessary defense and countermeasure techniques that can be used to stop hackers As a resource to the reader, the companion website will provide links from the authors, commentary and updates. *Provides relevant information including some of the latest OS X threats *Easily accessible to those without any prior OS X experience *Useful tips and strategies for exploiting and compromising OS X systems *Includes discussion of defensive and countermeasure applications and how to use them *Covers mobile IOS vulnerabilities

Author Biography

Despite what is commonly believed, there has never been any shortage of MAC OS-related security issues. Mac OS 10 has security issues that warrant attention, and threats to the OS X operating system are increasing in sophistication and number. Whether it is the exploitation of an increasing number of holes, use of rootkits for post-Compromise concealment, or distributed denial of, service, knowing why a system is vulnerable and understanding how to defend it is critical to computer security. Written by three experienced penetration testers, the material presented discusses the basics of the OS X environment and its vulnerabilities. This book provides a comprehensible yet in-depth guide to exploiting and compromising the OS X platform while offering the necessary defense and countermeasure techniques that can be used to stop hackers. Provides relevant information including some of the latest OS X threats Easily accessible to those without any prior OS X experience Useful tips and strategies for exploiting and compromising OS X systems Includes discussion of defensive and countermeasure applications and how to use them Covers mobile iOS vulnerabilities. Rob Bathurst s currently a cyber security researcher and penetration tester focusing on reverse engineering. He has spent over a decade doing vulnerability assessment, programming, and network engineering for the Government, military, and private industry. Russ Rogers, OSSR CISM, IAM, IEM, Hon. Sc.D., is author of the popular Hacking a Terror Network: The Silent Threat of Covert Channels, and former editor-in-chief of The Security Journal. Russ is currently a penetration tester for a federal agency and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Peak Security, Inc. Alijohn Ghassemlouei is a Cyber Security Specialist and Certified Ethical Hacker. In his current position he administers Linux/Unix/Os system in a penetration testing lab, and performs penetration testing attacking a diverse range of classified and unclassified hosts and operating systems.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Why You are Reading This Book?	p. 1
What is Contained Within the Guide?	p. 2
The Path Ahead	p. 4
References	p. 4
History and Introduction to OSX	p. 5
History and Introduction to OSX	p. 5
OSX Origins	p. 5
Common Misconceptions	p. 9
Perceptions	p. 11
Capabilities	p. 11
Environments Leveraging OSX	p. 12
What Next?	p. 16
The Filesystem	p. 17
Introduction	p. 17
What is a File System?	p. 17
The Difference Between Memory Types	p. 18
Partition Tables	p. 19
Booting	p. 22
Working up to HFS+	p. 24
How a File System Works	p. 25
Disk Fragmentation	p. 27
The File System Forefathers	p. 28
HFS Plus	p. 34
Journaled HFS	p. 35
MetaData	p. 36
Understanding Forks	p. 38
Fiddling with the File System	p. 41
Playing with Attributes	p. 41
Hidden Files	p. 43
Conclusion	p. 46
Footprinting OSX	p. 49
Introduction	p. 49
Off the Client	p. 50
On the Client	p. 69
Conclusion	p. 77
Application and System Vulnerabilities	p. 79
Introduction	p. 79
Understanding Vulnerabilities	p. 79
Vulnerabilities are Equal Opportunity	p. 83
History of Vulnerabilities in Apple Products	p. 85
Mac OS X Specific	p. 86
A Recent Example-Flashback	p. 88
Apple iOS Specific	p. 91
Advanced Persistent Threats	p. 94
Apple Script	p. 95
Conclusion	p. 100
Defensive Applications	p. 101
Introduction	p. 101
Secure Configurations	p. 102
Passwords, Passphrases, and Multi-Factor Authentication	p. 102
Account Access Restriction	p. 103
FileVault	p. 106
Firewall Configuration	p. 108
Network Services	p. 111
Kernel Extension Removal	p. 114
Examining Commercial Tools	p. 117
PrivacyScan by SecureMac	p. 117
MacScan by SecureMac	p. 124
Conclusion	p. 135
Offensive Tactics	p. 137
Introduction	p. 137
The Exploits	p. 139
Using the Ammo in the Weapon	p. 143
Summary	p. 156
References	p. 157
Reverse Engineering	p. 159
Introduction	p. 159
The Basics	p. 160
Coding	p. 161
Decompiling Journey	p. 166
Analysis Techniques	p. 182
References	p. 183
Mobile Platforms	p. 185
Introduction	p. 185
Apple iOS Security Model and Overview	p. 186
Insecurity Overview	p. 189
The Goods	p. 198
Please Don't Hurt My Toys	p. 203
Summary	p. 204
References	p. 205
Mac OS X Tips and Tricks	p. 207
Introduction	p. 207
Web Browser Plugins	p. 207
Offensive Plugins	p. 208
Defensive Plugins	p. 219
Cool OS X hacks	p. 223
Safari Debug Mode	p. 223
Total Mac OS X Inversion	p. 224
More on ACP Applications	p. 225
Conclusion	p. 228
Index	p. 229
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.