I perform security penetration tests on internal corporate networks  
all the time for my clients.  I can't remember the last time I didn't  
fully compromise a company's Windows-based domain control in the  
space of a few hours.  It's not the processor that leads to worms or  
virii, its the OS.  MacOSX is based on BSD Unix and has all BSD's  
security strengths.  These strengths will be maintained with the  
switch to Intel.  When you overflow a MacOSX app buffer and get a  
remote shell, you have very limited privileges to read and write  
data.  When you do this on Windows, you are NT Authority/System and  
can access password hashes and install backdoor programs any where  
you want.  Virus writers know this and bash MS Windows everyday for it.


There is also just as much PPC shell code on the Internet as there is  
x86 shell code.  Take a look at the PPC shell code options available  
under Metasploit (http://www.metasploit.com/).  A virus or worm would  
first have to exploit MacOSX to get a local user shell, then escalate  
the privileges to Admin to do anything.  Even then you don't have  
full root privileges, so you can't make changes to the OS core.  So,  
without a vulnerable OS, the shell code isn't as dangerous.

On Jun 7, 2005, at 3:15 AM, Dan LaBell wrote:

>
> On Jun 6, 2005, at 3:49 PM, Peter Hessler wrote:
>
>
>> On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 03:43:17PM -0400, Jeffrey Hergan wrote:
>>
>> :Is it fact that Apple is switching to Intel or is it only rumor?
>> :And wouldn't Intel be able to make a PPC chip?
>>
>> Fact. Apple is switching to the Pentium4 (although why they are going
>> to ia32, rather than to amd64/emt64, doesn't make any sense to me).
>>
>> Intel could, but Apple chose to go x86.
>>
>
> I was hoping it would be something other than x86, even if it just  
> differed in microcode,
> and lose some x86 cruft.  But, they may have a point, once you  
> start running hot, you might as well cook -- I liked the  
> performance per watt of the G3, but I never found myself impressed  
> with G4 and G5... Seems like low power, is more of discrete thing  
> (if not binary), than a continuous spectrum of wattage.
>
> Does this also mean that we'll be seeing more cross platform worms  
> and exploits, as
> the only the OS trap mechanism with differ in any shell code?
>
> Will the new machines still boot with openfirmware?, and I'm guess  
> they're keeping the Apple partition map ( or not ? ). Incidentally,  
> does the i386 port read an Apple partition map?
>