14 DAY TRIAL // With over a year passing since the story first broke out, many will not even remember the fiasco concerning the exploit David Maynor claimed to have found in Apple's network cards. Heavily criticized at the time for not providing any details to back up the claims and using a third party card in the demonstration video, Maynor has finally published the dirty details.
The September issue of online hacking magazine, Uninformed.org, contains the details of how to run unauthorized software on a Mac by leveraging wireless driver flaws. The information is intended for reference purposes only, as Apple patched the flaw on the 21st of September, 2006, after locating it in an internal audit. Maynor claims that while at the time of the Black Hat demonstration in August he had discovered the bug in Apple's own wireless cards, he had been told to use the third-party card in the video because it was deemed "the least offensive to people." Furthermore, Maynor claims that the reason he did not provide the information up to now is that he was under a nondisclosure agreement that prohibited him from doing so. Those interested in finding out just who the nondisclosure agreement was with will be disappointed to find out that this information is also not provided.
It would seem that not much has changed since a year ago and the factual information surrounding the MacBook wireless exploit is still as full of holes as a big chunk of Swiss cheese. If Maynor was under a NDA, why did he initially report that the information about the exploit had been provided to Apple, and why did he not simply mention this at the time? If the exploit had been found in Apple's own wireless cards, why bother with the third party wireless card? Saying that the motive was to not offend people just doesn't cut it, especially when you are quoted in the original articles published at the time saying "we're not picking specifically on Macs here, but if you watch those 'Get a Mac' commercials enough, it eventually makes you want to stab one of those users in the eye with a lit cigarette or something."