One of the big advantages of using a Mac over a PC is that they’re supposedly less susceptible to viruses, but they also seem to be slightly more susceptible to ridiculous security flaws that are somehow both small and potentially catastrophic. The latest major whoopsie to come out of Cupertino is specifically related to the latest version of the High Sierra Mac operative system—10.13.1—and it allows anyone to access your computer simply by entering “root” as the username in a specific login box over and over again until the system just gives up and lets you in. After that, anybody can be their own Mr. Robot, altering any and all settings on the Mac. This comes from Tech Crunch, which says the bug was apparently first noticed by Lemi Orhan Ergin, who posted about it on Twitter.
Tech Crunch also points out that people probably shouldn’t test this out to make sure it works, because it creates a “root” account that some actual Mr. Robot could use to do some real hacking. It would also be a good idea to not leave your Mac unattended somewhere if you have High Sierra, though that would probably be useful advice even if it weren’t possible to break into a computer this easily.
Apple is aware of this bug and has released a statement, recommending that anyone particularly concerned about this should set up a root password so people can’t get in with just the username. (You can learn how to do that at this link.) Apple says it’s “working on a software update” that should fix this, so once that’s out Mac owners can go back to feeling rightfully superior about their preferred computer brand.
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