I'm really wondering if there even was 1 customer request for this.
Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
51–60 of 159 posts
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#52Or they could do, you know, a simple $0.10 on-off slide switch.
And then they would have to endure 10 million support calls from users who didnt know they disabled the switch and cant make skype/facetime calls.
The presumption that nothing can ever be done, whether right or wrong, is at the very least, discouraging.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#53> The chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed Why do you need a chip for this? Can't you just break the circuit with a regular dumb physical switch? Or is this a much more complex problem than it first appears?
There is already a lid closed sensor. Adding another mechanical switch is more expensive, adds another point of failure, takes space, may interfere with the aesthetics, etc... The T2 chip probably also acts as a controller for a lot of the builtin sensors, including the microphone and lid closed switch. As a result, adding a feature to turn off the microphone when the lid is closed becomes trivial. Basically just add…
Physical switch could be made INSIDE the laptop and would be automatically pressed by the lid itself - when the lid is closed. No sensors needed. No chip needed. When lid is closed - mic is disconnected. When opened - mic is connected... User does not need to do anything else then closing the lid...
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#54Why is it so hard to believe the headline?
Has Apple security record on electronics been ever broken? I don’t think so. If there is an exploit yet, at least it’s not publicly known and no-one has seen it for sale on the black market, so it would be in the millions. I’d say Apple is trustworthy as far as I’m concerned, perhaps not trustworthy enough if the threat model is Hillary-level politics, but trustworthy enough for a billion dollars business.
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Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's at least a pre amp and a d/a converter that the mic needs to have powered up and running before any of it's signal can be used by the rest of the computer.
Which will all be inside an IC, away from the microphone. So what, does the light turn on whenever the entire IC sees power? Because if it relies on a signal from within the software-controlled IC, that's not exactly trivial to audit.
The trivial solution would be a LED + resistor just wired across the mic's power rails.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#56> The chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed Why do you need a chip for this? Can't you just break the circuit with a regular dumb physical switch? Or is this a much more complex problem than it first appears?
There is already a lid closed sensor. Adding another mechanical switch is more expensive, adds another point of failure, takes space, may interfere with the aesthetics, etc... The T2 chip probably also acts as a controller for a lot of the builtin sensors, including the microphone and lid closed switch. As a result, adding a feature to turn off the microphone when the lid is closed becomes trivial. Basically just add…
Why have the control go through a sophisticated programmable chip and not just use a simple transistor/relay directly connected to the sensor?
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#57I'm really wondering if there even was 1 customer request for this.
Perhaps they became aware of an attempt to attack the microphone in this way.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#58Is there any other hardware running when the lid is closed?
Macbooks can't even hibernate to a complete shutdown. If you remove the battery, you can't cut out the power supply without the laptop rebooting. I.e. the ‘sleep‘ has the hardware running, waiting to pick up where the system left off.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is already a lid closed sensor. Adding another mechanical switch is more expensive, adds another point of failure, takes space, may interfere with the aesthetics, etc... The T2 chip probably also acts as a controller for a lot of the builtin sensors, including the microphone and lid closed switch. As a result, adding a feature to turn off the microphone when the lid is closed becomes trivial. Basically just add…
Physical switch could be made INSIDE the laptop and would be automatically pressed by the lid itself - when the lid is closed. No sensors needed. No chip needed. When lid is closed - mic is disconnected. When opened - mic is connected... User does not need to do anything else then closing the lid...
too easy to fix if it breaks
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just put a magnet-actuated switch into the mic itself and a magnet in the corresponding place in the body - problem solved. Nothing to break, zero attack surface, what's not to like?
Except the magnet-actuated switch for each mic.
Why would that be more likely to fail than the lid-closed sensor which they are currently using for this application?