Software Allows Hackers to Activate MacBook Webcams Without Green Warning Light

*puts on tin foil hat*

A business opportunity for decent looking camera cover designs. Say, as opposed to the electrical tape & cardboard, or post-it notes.

Here's the GE 3D printed camera cover designed by Moot:

This is like hacking Windows 95 and saying the flaw is most likely existent in Win 8.1, despite the multitude of kernel rewrites and hardware changes through the years. (The is still probably legacy code in 8.1, but seriously? This is very tenuous)

I'm waiting until the NSA comes out and shows is how it's done before I worry.

tcgjeukens said:

Years ago, when the (external) iSight was dropped in favour of the built in camera, I found a gadget manufacturer that offered an iPatch.
A small pieces of rubber that covered the lens.
That company may see sales moving forward.

Coen

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Got a link?

And what about the mic? Would tape silence that, also?

BREAKING: Teenager hired to work at the NSA.

Steve never would have allowed this...

Virus is a virus is a virus. Who cares if the person who downloads and installs this form of a trojan gets infected.

If this was an exploit than we have a whole different story.

I can remember the keynote where Steve Jobs claimed that this hack couldn't be done as a justification for why they had removed physical iris when they moved from the old firewire iSight camera to the integrated models.

Never say never.

There is an app for that, it's called iTape.

3bs said:

Got a link?

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It's available on Amazon.

w0lf said:

*puts on tin foil hat*

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Where?

Hungry&Foolish said:

No one cares about my old @ss.

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yep, and a hacker would probably send me some tape to put over the camera .

I wish I knew how to do that stuff. I've known a ton of girls who I'd like to see naked.

Plutonius said:

yep, and a hacker would probably send me some tape to put over the camera .

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Or permanently disable the camera.

B

Hah!

They can spy on this!! Zziiippp!!

If someone wants to see what the majority of people do in front of a camera-ON THE INTERNET-good luck to them. #cannotbeunseen

Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf Webcam Today Show Interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SLtdV9yIho8

Yawn.

Pyrrhic Victory said:

I wish I knew how to do that stuff. I've known a ton of girls who I'd like to see naked.

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Come on man! Go get your game on and try attracting said girls rather than creeping.

Awesome...nothing like a low tech solution for a high tech problem. It's getting to the point where one can't have a "private moment" without SOMEONE spying on you. I mean sure, I probably SHOULD have lowered the curtains that one time while walking around my house nude but dammit!, my neighbors should keep their eyes on their OWN damn house

I've already developed a patch to fix this.

....well more like cut a patch out of a cloth than developed

What is going to be most interesting is whether Cook changes future Macs so that the green light IS wired into the camera so that no software hack can defeat it.

Considering all of his public statements, memos and White House visits claiming that Apple is against all this surveillance, he could easily modify all future Macs to prevent at least this kind of governmental intrusion (well, not prevent it, but at least warn the user that the camera is on via the light)

Screwtape said:

I wonder if they've changed the design since 2008. I was under the impression that the LED is on the path to power the camera. In other words, they're wired together in a way that you can't send power to the camera without powering on the LED first.

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This has often been claimed but never demonstrated. I'd like to see an executable of the exploit they used, to test on various machines.

TheRainKing said:

*covers camera*

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Software allows NSA hackers to activate x-ray to penetrate any cover on the camera.

I'd be far more worried about the microphone.

The most likely thing the camera will pick up is your face staring at the screen - not very informative - or the wall across from the computer if you aren't sitting in front of it. Neither has much spy potential.

On the other hand, your computer's microphone (and may I remind everyone, it doesn't have a red light that needs to be hacked), can pick up all sorts of conversations you would rather remain private. That plus the contents of your hard drive, your web browsing history, every email, text message and phone call you've ever made, every character you've ever typed on your keyboard -- that's the stuff I'd be worrying about. And if they can control your camera remotely, believe me (or if you prefer believe the NSA docs Edward Snowden revealed) they can get all that other stuff. No tin foil hat necessary unfortunately - reading the Washington Post, The Guardian and NY Times will suffice.