Thunderbolt: Introducing a new way to hack Macs

Apple and Intel have introduced a new notebook connection technology called Thunderbolt that will hopefully replace all the other cables coming out of your laptop. However, it appears to share the same security flaw as some of these older technologies: attaching a hostile device can break into your computer. A hacker can walk up to your laptop while you are not looking, connect a device for a few seconds, disconnect it and walk away with your data (such as passwords). This works even when your laptop is "locked" with the password screen. We can't prove this until we get our hands on the hardware, but all signs point to hackers being able to exploit Thunderbolt.

Imagine that you are at a conference. You innocently attach your DisplayPort to a projector to show your presentation on the big screen. Unknown to you, while giving your presentation, the projector is downloading the entire contents of your hard disk.

Posted by Robert Graham
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