The Hacker's Guide to OS X

The Hacker's Guide to OS X

by Alijohn Ghassemlouei, Robert Bathurst, Russ Rogers
Released December 2012
Publisher(s): Syngress
ISBN: 9781597499545

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Book description

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

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright
  5. Forward
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction
    1. Why You are Reading This Book?
    2. The Path Ahead
    3. Reference
  7. Chapter 2. History and Introduction to OSX
    1. History and Introduction to OSX
  8. Chapter 3. The Filesystem
    1. Introduction
    2. What is a File System?
    3. The Difference Between Memory Types
    4. Partition Tables
    5. Identifying GUIDs
    6. Booting
    7. Master Boot Records
    8. Blessed be Thy Volume
    9. Booting from the Network
    10. Working up to HFS+
    11. How a File System Works
    12. File System Addressing
    13. Disk Fragmentation
    14. The File System Forefathers
    15. File System Layouts
    16. Hierarchical File System (circa 1985)
    17. Microsoft File Systems
    18. HFS Plus
    19. Journaled HFS
    20. MetaData
    21. Understanding Forks
    22. Fiddling with the File System
    23. Playing with Attributes
    24. Hidden Files
    25. Conclusion
  9. Chapter 4. Footprinting OSX
    1. Introduction
    2. Off the Client
    3. On the Client
    4. Conclusion
  10. Chapter 5. Application and System Vulnerabilities
    1. Introduction
    2. Understanding Vulnerabilities
    3. Vulnerabilities are Equal Opportunity
    4. Media Layers
    5. Host Layers
    6. History of Vulnerabilities in Apple Products
    7. Mac OS X Specific
    8. A Recent Example—Flashback
    9. How it Works
    10. Understanding Apple’s Security Response
    11. Apple iOS Specific
    12. Keeping it Under Control
    13. Advanced Persistent Threats
    14. Apple Script
    15. Conclusion
  11. Chapter 6. Defensive Applications
    1. Introduction
    2. Secure Configurations
    3. Kernel Extension Removal
    4. Examining Commercial Tools
    5. Conclusion
  12. Chapter 7. Offensive Tactics
    1. Introduction
    2. Summary
    3. References
  13. Chapter 8. Reverse Engineering
    1. Introduction
    2. The Basics
    3. Coding
    4. Decompiling Journey
    5. Memory Monster
    6. Assembly Time
    7. Ripping It Apart
    8. Taking It Home
    9. Analysis Techniques
    10. Summary
    11. References
  14. Chapter 9. Mobile Platforms
    1. Introduction
    2. Apple iOS Security Model and Overview
    3. References
  15. Chapter 10. Mac OS X Tips and Tricks
    1. Introduction
    2. Web Browser Plugins
    3. Cool OS X Hacks
    4. Conclusion
  16. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Hacker's Guide to OS X
  • Author(s): Alijohn Ghassemlouei, Robert Bathurst, Russ Rogers
  • Release date: December 2012
  • Publisher(s): Syngress
  • ISBN: 9781597499545