defence in depth.

In this post I will demonstrate how to both extract and crack Mac OS X passwords. The OS X variants that this tutorial is aimed at are 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Whilst Mac OS X is based on a Unix variant (BSD), there are several key differences between traditional Unix-based and Mac OS systems when it comes to password storage. Lets take a quick look at some of the differences. If you have ever poked around on an OS X system, you may have noticed the absence of the /etc/shadow file. Whilst traditional Unix and BSD variants store their password hashes in /etc/shadow and /etc/master.passwd respectively, Mac OS X does not. Since the release of OS X 10.3 in 2003, Macintosh products have stored their shadow files in the /var/db/shadow/hash/ directory. Another key difference is the way in which the two systems store their hashes. On a Unix-based system, every hash associated with the system is stored in the /etc/shadow file. This differs from OS X whereby each ...

Whether compromising a system for legitimate or non-legitimate purposes, bypassing anti-virus software is often an integral step in any intrusion exercise. Fortunately for enterprise, anti-virus and anti-malware software is now commonplace in most organisiations. Whilst many of the tools that attackers wish to implement are constantly being blacklisted, this isn't without reservation. Attackers are still getting malware into systems and penetration testers are still able to compromise systems. So the question is, how is this possible? The answer: Bypassing anti-virus, of course. In this post I intent to present several tools that can be used in bypassing anti-virus/anti-malware software. I will provide a brief background on each tools operation and a summary of its use. But first, some background. Anti-virus software typically works by using either signature-based detection or heuristic-based detection (some products use both). Signature-based detection products rely on rec...