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MacLoJack
Authored by: dkulp on Dec 23, '06 10:20:31PM

Good grief. It works as advertised. I tested it. Sheesh.

When not "stolen", your mac makes a simple HTTP request every six minutes (not every 60 seconds). When it is marked stolen, then it sends data to his website every 60 seconds. The author's website provides a URL on the site to access the files that are uploaded from your "stolen" mac. These files can be used by you or law enforcement.

The privacy risks are twofold.

1. An http request every six minutes provides a log of your IP addresses and time online.

2. If your computer is marked as stolen, then much personal information is shared, including screenshots. The author makes no promises about how he'll use the data that you send. But if it's stolen, then that's just the data that you would like to obtain.

Both of these concerns are mitigated by installing your own MacLoJack server on a trusted host. Patching the Perl code in /usr/libexec/lojackd to use a personal server is trivial. The server itself is also an easy-to-read perl CGI.

The author provides accurate deinstallation instructions on the website.

The whole thing is trivially disabled by a savvy hacker, but the chance that a thief will know to disable an obscure daemon is low.



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