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Comment by jachee | Hacker News Reader

As long as you maintain physical possession of your machine, point 3 is moot, at least on Macs.

I don't trust their implementation of a hardware link that is both reliable and truly un-exposed to software because I don't have the expertise or time to interpret their implementation, and even if I did, I don't trust that nothing about it will become vulnerable in any MacBook model going forward into the future. I don't think point 3 is moot in any practical sense.

The only way to physically get electricity to the camera unit, to be able to get any data from it is to pass that electricity through the indicator LED.

Multiple teardowns have confirmed that it's a hardware path that software cannot modify.

See the several articles linked in this page about apple webcams/mics being turned on by hackers....

Apple is good, but they are not perfect

They are not, but these articles are for < 2008 Macs. On "newer" Macbooks it done by hardware.

You’re posting this late enough to have had time to see that those are all about hardware which is a decade old.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23796606

Right, so as time progresses news comes out about said hardware being hacked. I think you've validated his point. 5 years from now we will see how today's cameras have been hacked.

This was a known weakness back then, not some amazing breakthrough, and unless the vendors are actively lying about the hardware there's no way for someone to “hack” the power connection without a soldering iron.

I leave my laptop in my hotel room while I go out for dinner, so point 3 is valid.

If I'm going to dinner where I can't take my backpack, I put mine in the safe.

Can recommend. Physical security > *.

The safe that hotel provided for you? Agree that it's better than nothing though.

Safe is Probably worse than leaving in your bag

You expect someone to take apart the fused display assembly and modify the intricate power pins to both the LED and camera while you’re having dinner?

I hope you’re a billionaire with secrets because otherwise this is pure paranoia.

What about replacing the laptop and just cloning the content. I wouldn't notice.

The T2 chip in modern Macs is responsible for operating as the disk controller for the on-board flash, and encrypts the filesystem at rest.

You could copy some data over live, but there are also non-exportable cryptographic keys in the Secure Enclave.

You could more easily swap out the entire screen assembly with a ‘compromised’ version.

Or as other poster mentioned, just swap whole units.

... and of everything you will ever plug into the USB port on your machine, including cables.

How is any of that going to rewire the hard line electrical path?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com