Security researchers analyze any attack that an operating system may suffer, and in this case, the Mac. The latest discovery is known as "Thunderclap" demonstrates how it is possible to access a Mac through the Thunderbolt port and that it acquires sensitive data from our computer. Apparently, this problem would affect all Macs made since 2011.
We know the news from a security conference held a few hours ago, where Thunderclap was presented as a set of vulnerabilities that take advantage of the way Thunderbolt works.
The Thunderbolt configuration would allow an expressly configured device, accesses relevant system information, without any supervision. Of course, for this vulnerability to affect us, the attacker must be in front of the team. But also, these devices must be configured as trustworthy by our system, bypassing macOS security measures. Apparently the system offers more privileges to a Thunderbolt device than to a traditional USB device. This information is provided by the researcher Theo Markettos.
The study does not distinguish between types of Thunderbolt connection, being able to access from the current USB-C to old Mini DisplayPort connectionsSince the report mentions all Macs since 2011 as a possible impact, with the exception of the 12-inch MacBook. The team that Thunderclap has published includes prestigious researchers such as Colin Rothwell, Brett Gutstein, Allison Pearce, Peter Neumann, Simon Moore and Robert Watson. Many of them work for different companies since 2016 with many patches and fixes, correcting operating system errors. In the Mac world, in 2016 they corrected a vulnerability in macOS 1o.12.4.
Ensuring the security of any user, to prevent them from accessing our equipment due to this type of vulnerability, it is enough to do not give permission to any device that it connects, with special relevance to unknown USBs and to have our equipment protected with a password and if possible guarded.