Good ol Apple always telling you how to use your hardware that you paid for.
Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
461–470 of 990 posts
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly this. I use one for these reasons, in descending order of practical concern: 1. I don't want to broadcast myself during a meeting when I'm not prepared, or perhaps leave a meeting open by accident. 2. If a bad actor does access my camera, I won't necessarily notice the indicator light, especially if I'm not actively using the computer at that moment. 3. I don't trust the indicator light to be permanently unha…
As long as you maintain physical possession of your machine, point 3 is moot, at least on Macs.
... and of everything you will ever plug into the USB port on your machine, including cables.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
>2013: iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569 ... applies only to older Mac notebooks from like 2008 period which are long since obsolete according to Apple's announced support policy. >2016: Your Mac’s Camera Can Be Hacked https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/your-macs-camera-ca... . ... refers specifically the exploit above. >2016: Former NSA…
I expect you are probably correct, but it doesn't really matter. If you don't want to be filmed, the correct engineering approach is not to have a camera pointed at you 24/7. It is a bit like the gun rule of not pointing a gun at things you don't want to shoot - sure, the trigger should be enough of a control, but accidents happen. If you spend your entire life with a camera pointed at your face, your face (and activ…
Indeed, I'm a little surprised Apple didn't follow the Thinkpad approach of simply having a sliding piece with an aperture that extremely obviously blocks the camera. Surely Apple can't seriously think their users would be confused by this and complain... I don't think my desktop computer's webcam is likely to get hacked either but I'm still going to unplug it when I'm not using it.
Complex systems are hard to secure.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
Frankly, by the time the indicator is noticed, it may be too late. Even with the LED wired in place and a 'feature' (capacitor or software?) forcing it to stay lit for 3 seconds, the damage may be done. It does, at least, let you know an attack occurred. I really think an LED is barking up the wrong tree. A built-in hardware cover would have the same effect as the LED, and no one would have to trust it, since the cam…
How would you handle the microphone? I don't know any hardware way to make sure my microphone's not hearing me if I can't trust the software.
If the microphone is built into the laptop it should have a hardware switch. That still has problems as you note, but it is far better than the current state of affairs for most devices. And it still requires trust in someone (or opening the device yourself).
A better solution would be to have the microphone be physically removable, but even then it could have an internal power source and storage...
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#465Earlier quoted context omitted.
A physical electrical on/off switch for the microphone (that actually interrupts the wires going to the mic).
Doesn't that require the same kind of trust in the correctness of the wiring that is at issue in some other comments? I can see that a camera cover works, but I think I couldn't see that a physical switch was actually interrupting the wiring without doing a teardown.
> I can see that a camera cover works
Well, I don't mean to fuel your paranoia, but there are materials opaque to the human eye but not necessarily fully opaque to a CMOS sensor, especially one without infrared/UV filters.
It would be quite possible, trivial even, to design a web camera with a nice built-in black camera cover -- which is transparent to the camera.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#466I use electrical tape on mine (not a macbook).
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#467So, Apple has done a nice job of making the sure the LED comes on when the webcam is in use. Unfortunately, there are still very good use cases for webcam covers. - The computer has malware which controls the webcam. Although it's nice that the light correctly alerts you the webcam is in use, the malware can still get some pictures off before you can act. - You're not very good with computers, and so you don't know h…
- You can't see.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
As long as you maintain physical possession of your machine, point 3 is moot, at least on Macs.
I leave my laptop in my hotel room while I go out for dinner, so point 3 is valid.
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.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has been the case for quite some time (10 years or so). I've torn apart two Macbooks to specifically test this and the LED is enabled when the camera receives power. It's impossible to disable with software. You can modify the Macbook of course, which is why the paranoid type will still use tape. Some attacks I've seen will take a photo with the camera as fast as possible so you might not notice, but the light w…
> You can modify the Macbook of course, which is why the paranoid type will still use tape. If the attacker has done this, they might as well just hide the camera somewhere else.
Not really - there are lots of times when you will not be present with your laptop (think airport security).
It's orders of magnitude easier to get access to a mobile device than to setup a camera in every possible location a target might move to. But they'll helpfully carry the device with them.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#470Looking at the comments here, I guess I'm the only one who finds sadness that Apple even has to publish this document. Some of those novelty and promotional camera covers are really quite thick. And it just seems like common sense to me that you wouldn't close a laptop with one of those things on. Just like I wouldn't close my laptop with a pen or a ham sandwich tucked into it. But I guess Apple has had enough compla…
This is the one that destroyed the screen on my 16" MBP. 0.023 inches thick. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C24NBGL/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_T...
Using something as hard as a metal for a screen cover like this seems to be asking for trouble?