MacFuse used for hacking?

[wasiu]

Hey everyone!
i want to ask for your opinion and advice on one thing.
today I went through my system preferences and in the "Other" section I've noticed there's something Im pretty sure I didn't install. Macfuse - now im not sure how that stuff works but from what I understand you can use it to access files or do other stuff remotely over the internet? now i might be completely wrong because i didn't spend enough time reading into it because i'd rather have a quick answer to a simple question on here. Can someone possibly use this to hack my computer? How much information can they get using it (passwords? can it work like a keylogger?) ?
thanks in advance

 

[MaskingTape]

MacFUSE allows your mac to read other file systems. Did you install Parallels? It's installed with that so your mac can read NTFS formatted drive. As far as I know it can't be used for hacking or any remote access. Maybe someone else can explain further.

 

[angelwatt]

It may have also been installed if you installed NTFS-3G. It's of no danger to you or your system.

 

[hiddenpremise]

MacFUSE is for people who run windows on their macs. Your mac will natively read NTFS, but can't write to it. All MacFUSE does is enable the ability to write to your windowz partition from the mac side. Don't worry, it's not a hack tool. If it was, you wouldn't be able to see it and access it.

 

[jzuena]

MacFUSE allows your mac to read other file systems. Did you install Parallels? It's installed with that so your mac can read NTFS formatted drive. As far as I know it can't be used for hacking or any remote access. Maybe someone else can explain further.

VMware Fusion will also install MacFUSE, although it does show a pop-up first asking if you want to do so. That way you will at least know why MacFUSE is showing up in your System Preferences.

 

[-tWv-]

macFUSE is packaged with NTFS-3G. This is a great driver that allows the mac to write to NTFS formatted drives natively. I use this for external drives that I need to be read/write for both Windows and OSX. I also use this for copying files directly to my bootcamp partition. Without ntfs-3g I would have to move the files to a flash drive from OSX, then boot into windows and copy them over. NTFS-3G is one of my favorite add-ons to my mac because it makes it easy to write to windows formatted drives, with no transfer speed decrease.