Mac Clone Software Via Thunderbolt

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A flaw in the Thunderbolt port on your Mac may allow an attacker to access your data without authorization. A hacker can even break in when the drive is encrypted and the Mac is locked with a password.

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This flaw is not limited to a specific machine, according to security researcher Björn Ruytenberg, it affects all machines between 2011 and 2020 that have Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt-compatible USB-C ports.

The vulnerability lies in Intel’s Thunderbolt controller chips. Ruytenberg has discovered seven different vulnerabilities and developed nine methods to exploit them. The attack can be made stealthily, so the user is not aware of the attack, and no traces are left behind.

Users don’t have to install any software or click on a phishing link to open up this vulnerability. It’s a hand-on attack so a hacker does need contact with the computer, but they only need five minutes to break in and access your data, claims Ruytenberg.

Thunderspy is stealth, meaning that you cannot find any traces of the attack. It does not require your involvement, i.e., there is no phishing link or malicious piece of hardware that the attacker tricks you into using. Thunderspy works even if you follow best security practices by locking or suspending your computer when leaving briefly, and if your system administrator has set up the device with Secure Boot, strong BIOS and operating system account passwords, and enabled full disk encryption. An attacker only needs 5 minutes alone with the computer, a screwdriver, and some easily portable hardware.

Not all computers are equally vulnerable. Windows and Linux computers are fully vulnerable and a Mac is fully vulnerable when running Windows or Linux in Bootcamp. Ruytenberg cautions users “to avoid using either operating system until a fix has been issued to address this vulnerability.”

Macs are only partially vulnerable when booted into macOS because of additional security Apple has added to macOS. When booted into macOS, the attack device must fool macOS into thinking it is an Apple-approved Thunderbolt accessory. Whatsapp web desktop-app für mac. Once connected to a Mac, the forged device shows up as a legitimate Thunderbolt in the system information app.

Ruytenberg reached out to Apple and Intel with the details of his finding. Intel responded with a quick statement that claims there are protections in place to mitigate this attack. The company also instructs people to avoid an attack by not allowing access to the computer and by avoiding untrusted devices.

In 2019, major operating systems implemented Kernel Direct Memory Access (DMA) protection to mitigate against attacks such as these. This includes Windows (Windows 10 1803 RS4 and later), Linux (kernel 5.x and later), and MacOS (MacOS 10.12.4 and later). The researchers did not demonstrate successful DMA attacks against systems with these mitigations enabled. Please check with your system manufacturer to determine if your system has these mitigations incorporated. For all systems, we recommend following standard security practices, including the use of only trusted peripherals and preventing unauthorized physical access to computers.

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Cloning Your Data to a New Hard Drive in macOS
Our primary recommendation for transferring files from an old Mac OS X or macOS drive is performing a clean install of OS X (10.11.6 and under) or macOS (10.12.0 and higher) and migrate your data using Migration Assistant. For instructions please click here. Cloning is a viable option if installing a fresh copy of the OS and migrating your data is not an option.
Cloning is a destructive process that will erase the recipient drive, leaving the source drive intact.
The instructions below are for cloning from the original drive externally to a new drive inside a computer. In certain circumstances connecting the original drive externally is not an option. In those cases using an external hard drive as an intermediate is recommended. This process would consist of cloning the original drive while still inside the computer to a separate external hard drive, then installing the new drive and cloning the external hard drive to that new drive.
Booting into the recovery partition or OS install media
After you install the new hard drive, you will need to boot to the recovery partition on the original drive if OS 10.7 or later is installed. If OS 10.6.8 or earlier is installed, you can use the original OS install discs that came with the computer.
Power on the Mac while holding down the 'Option' key. This will display a boot menu that looks like the picture below. Click the drive icon that says 'Recovery' (OS 10.7 and later) or 'Mac OS X install' (OS 10.6.8 and earlier).
The number of drives listed will depend on the number of
bootable drives in your system.
Format your new drive
Once booted into the Recovery partition or installer disc, select your desired language. Next, open Disk Utility by navigating to the Utilities menu in the upper-left corner of the screen, then select Disk Utility from the drop down menu. Once in Disk Utility our detailed instructions for the formatting process can be followed: www.macsales.com/tech_center/formatting.cfm
Apple's Disk Utility (10.3.x to 10.12)
WARNING:Via When using the restore process, the files on the destination volume will be erased! Before you restore a volume, be sure to copy any files on the destination volume that you want to save, to a different storage device or cloud account.
  1. Select the new volume (indented icon) and click on the 'Restore' tab.
  2. Drag the old volume to the Source field.
  3. Drag the new hard drive to the 'Destination' field.
  4. Click the check box for 'Erasing destination.'
  5. Click 'Restore' at the bottom to begin the process of copying your data to the destination.

You can also restore one volume from another volume. When you restore from one volume to another volume, it makes an exact copy of the original. For example, you can restore from your startup volume to an external volume to use as a backup.

Mac Address Clone Software

  1. Select the new drive volume in the sidebar then click the Restore button or choose Edit > Restore. This is the volume that is erased and becomes the exact copy.
  2. Click the 'Restore from' drop down menu, then choose the volume you want to clone the data from.
  3. Click Restore. Once the data has been cloned, Disk Utility indicators will show the status as being 'complete'. Click the 'Done' button.