Odds and Ends: Physical access and Mac OS X security go hand in hand; Reminder: Slow trackpad response fix; more

Physical access and Mac OS X security go hand in hand A posting entitled "How to Hack a Tiger Admin Account" underlines the fact that macs with unrestricted physical access are inherently insecure: The use of user creation routines or attachment of alternate startup devices (if a firmware password is absent) make it so.

This piece shows the steps necessary to create an administrator account (which can be used to do virtually anything) on a default-state Mac that may already have one or more administrator accounts. Creating an administrator account on a target requires simply booting in single-user mode then use the niload command to move information into the NetInfo database.

The author says "Apple does make some of the most secure computers on the planet, though if you happen to get physical access to a machine they can easily be hacked into. Here I will show you how to create a permanent or temporary admin account on an Apple computer from single user mode."

Reminder: Slow trackpad response fix If you are experiencing an issue where your Mac portable's trackpad has a slight delay when first being accessed (you touch your finger to the pad, and movement does not occur immediately), try turning off the option "Ignore accidental trackpad input" in the Keyboard and Mouse pane of System Preferences.

Knowledge Base updates

• #304524 Mac OS X 10.4: Speech Commands window is empty
• #304317 Intel-based Macs: Some applications unexpectedly quit while printing using an SMB home directory
• #304689 Bonjour: Intermittent issues when using EarthLink
• #301838 Pro applications quit unexpectedly on launch or quit, or display non-customary menus and dialogs

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