How to Change the Password on a Mac

Let’s say a friend or family member has forgotten his/her Mac’s password and wants you to break into his or her computer and re-set it. It turns out that hacking a Mac is a heck of a lot easier than hacking a PC. Back in January of last year I wrote about how easy it is to break into a Windows PC. But breaking into a Mac is even easier provided FileVault disk encryption hasn’t been turned on and in most cases it will not have been .

There are a number of ways to break into a Mac just as there are several ways to compromise a PC. In this post, I’m going to show you the easiest way to hack a Mac.

Oct 22, 2009 HAS the Mac finally been hacked? Yes and no, depending on how you look at it. A computer security conference in Vancouver recently uncovered a flaw that saw a hacker gain control of a MacBook Pro. Five widely used password managers have serious flaws, some of which have been publicly known for years, a pair of researchers said in an academic paper published earlier this month.

All you need to do to hack a Mac is to boot it into Recovery Mode (the Recovery Partition that’s on every Mac) and fire up Terminal. To access the Recovery Mode on a Mac, press the Cmd and the R key during the boot-up process. Once you’re in Recovery mode open Utilities and open Terminal and type resetpassword into the Terminal window and then hit the Enter key. It’s pretty much that simple. I’ve put the exact details at the very bottom of this post.

Click the above image to enlarge it.

Before OS X 10.7 Lion, you didn’t even have to open Terminal. You just had to boot into Recovery Mode and then go to Utilities and then select Password Reset from the menu.

So Wow, is it easy to hack a Mac or What! So how do you prevent someone from coming along and breaking into your Mac and mucking around in all your files?

To prevent someone from resetting your Mac’s password and gaining access to your files, all you need to do is to go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy and enable FileVault to be turned on. Once FileVault is enabled no one will be able to re-boot your Mac into Recovery Mode and make changes to your password. FileVault encrypts your entire computer making all of your files totally inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t know your password. But do you really want to enable FileVault encryption on your Mac?

The Pros and Cons of FileVault Encryption

Apple’s newest OS, Yosemite, enables FileVault by default. Before OS X 10.10 Yosemite, FileVault was turned off by default. And I think there was a good reason for this since there are pros and cons to FileVault and for me the cons out weigh the pros for average Mac users.

Here’s why you might not want to enable FileVault encryption. First of all, if there are a few things you’d like to keep private on your Mac, it makes more since to store those things in a single encrypted folder than encrypting your entire computer. Secondly, it will definitely slow down your Mac – newer Macs with lots of RAM and SSD drives barely enough to notice but older Macs appreciably. Most importantly you’ll need to remember your Mac user account password or recovery key (I’ll explain recovery key in the FileVault setup instructions below) or you’ll never be able to use your Mac again.

As I mentioned before, FileVault encryption will slow down your Mac especially if you’re doing something RAM intensive like working with PhotoShop or doing Movie editing. So if you’re going to use it you might want to set up two user accounts one encrypted with FileVault for all your sensitive files and the other without FileVault encryption for when you are doing everyday stuff like working, playing games or surfing the Web.

When I got this new iMac in November of last year, one of the first things I did was turn on FileVault. A few days later I turned it off and it’s been off ever since. I’ve got 16 Gigs of RAM and a Fusion Drive, but I could still “feel” the drag that FileVault encryption was causing. But if you want to turn it on here’s how:

1) Log on to the user you want to encrypt with FileVault

2) Go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy and click on FileVault tab

Click the above image to enlarge it.

3) Click the padlock icon and type in your Mac’s password

4) Click the Turn On FileVault button and you will be presented with this page:

Click the above image to enlarge it.

Has A Mac Ever Been Hacked Arcadeprehacks

Using the Recovery Partition to Change a Mac’s Password

There is a hidden partition on your Mac called the Recovery Partition and it’s been a part of OS X ever since OS X 7 Lion so this password re-set hack I’m about to detail will work on any Mac running Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks or Yosemite.

1) Restart the Mac. You can use the power button on the back of the Mac to do this.

2) The instant you hear the Startup chime press and hold the Command and R keys for 5 seconds and release. Soon you’ll see the Apple logo and a progress wheel (or bar in the case of Yosemite).

3) Once the Mac has booted into Recovery Mode you’ll see a page called OS X Utilities. I’ve put a picture of it at the top of this post.

4) Don’t try to click on anything on this page. Instead go to the Menu at the very top of your screen and Click Utilities > Terminal.

5) In the Terminal window type or copy and paste resetpassword and hit Return.

6) A new window will open that will look like this:

Click the above image to enlarge it.

7) Click on the icon of your drive

8) Select the desired user account. It will be pre-selected to you if you’re the only user.

9) Enter your new password twice. It has to be different from the old one, of course.

10) Click the Save button

11) Go back to the Menu at the top of the screen and click OS X Utilities > Quit OS X Utilities and you will be prompted to restart the Mac

12) Log on with your new Administrator password you created in step 9 and if necessary go to System Preferences > Users and Groups and start cleaning house.

Ransomware is a particularly nasty form of malware because it seeks to exploit computer users’ fear that their privacy has been compromised. As more and more malware is reported and makes the headlines, more of us become concerned for the safety of our data, as well as our own privacy and even personal safety. Ransomware, like the “your camera is hacked” scam, plays on that by sending you a message telling you that the hackers have images taken from your webcam while you were surfing the web. Usually, the message claims you have been visiting porn sites and that the webcam took a video of you while you visited the sites.

Can my Mac’s camera be hacked?

The short answer is yes. It is possible for malware running on your Mac to turn on the iSight camera and record video or still images and audio from the microphone, and send it to a storage location on the internet. As recently as 2016, a backdoor called Backdoor.OSX.Mokes, a Mac variant of a piece of malware that had already been found on Windows and Linux computers, was discovered. According to Kaspersky labs, the backdoor could steal data, including Screenshots, Audio-/Video-Captures, Office-Documents, and Keystrokes. There have been other instances of malware that has this capability.

As reported at “Objective by the Sea,” 2019 security conference, 20% of Macs are infected by PUPs — Potentially Unwanted Applications.

What can I do to stop my camera from being hacked?

While some suggest using camera covers or lids to protect your privacy, we don't recommend doing so. Closing your Mac with a cover over the camera may seriously damage the display. Lids can also cover the light sensor and prevent your Mac from automatically adjusting brightness. There are other safe methods to make sure you're not being watched. We'll explain them below.

Doesn’t a green light come on when the camera is in use?

Yes, it does. Apple assures that the camera indicator is always lit if the camera is activated. It means no one can use your camera without you knowing.

But there are additional security measures you can take to control access to your camera.

Check what apps have access to your camera

If you think that your camera might be hacked, it’s a good idea to check what programs on your Mac are allowed to access it. You can easily check the current permissions with the help of the freshly-baked feature in CleanMyMac X. It’s called “Application Permissions,” and it allows you to stay in the know of your app permissions. If you're running macOS Catalina, you can check what programs can access your camera, microphone, files, and folders in just a few clicks.

CleanMyMac X has a free trial version, so try it out and keep your data safe!

I thought you said the “your computer has been hacked” thing is a scam?

It is. While it’s possible to steal video, audio, and photos from your webcam and microphone, and malware exists that can do it, that’s not what’s happening in this case. The porn blackmail scam that sends out email messages claiming your webcam has been hacked is designed to extract money from people who believe it may be true. Even people who have never visited a porn site become concerned when they receive the email. It's easy for people who have visited porn sites to see how their fears could be exploited.

Has My Mac Been Hacked

The scam works by sending spam emails in the hope of luring enough people to make it worthwhile. The email claims that you downloaded a virus while watching porn and that the virus captured video of you while you were on the site, along with screenshots of the site itself. It then threatens to send the video to everyone in your contacts app if you don’t pay a ransom of several thousand dollars in Bitcoin. As an extra twist, the email addresses are often harvested from data breaches which also exposed users’ passwords. By including the password in the email, the hacker demonstrates that they know something about the recipient. That increases the fear that the hacker has more information, including the images and video they claim to have. It’s a tried and tested social engineering trick and a very nasty one.

What to do if I receive one of these emails?

1. Delete it. Don’t click on any links in the email and don’t pay the ransom. The hacker doesn’t have what they claim to have. The email is designed to blackmail porn site visitors. Even if you have visited porn sites, you can safely delete the email.
2. If the email contains a password or part of a password that you’ve used online, change your password on every site where you use it. Use a unique password for every account, make sure it’s hard to guess (Safari’s password suggestion tool is a good way to do this), and don’t write it down.
3. иTake the opportunity to scan your computer for malware. You can do that using one of the many antivirus tools that allow you to download them and scan your computer for free. Some may then charge you if they find anything, and you need to remove it. Alternatively, if you’re using a Mac, you can use the malware tool in CleanMyMac X. It uses CleanMyMac’s regularly updated malware database and compares what it finds on your Mac with it. If it doesn’t find anything, it will tell you your Mac has a clean bill of health. If it does, you can remove it at the press of one button.
   This app can detect macOS-specific keyloggers, backdoor viruses, and worms. Download its free version here.
   
4. Forget about it. Once you’ve deleted the email, changed passwords, and scanned your computer, try and forget about it. You won’t hear any more from the hackers.

While it is possible for webcams, like the iSight cam on iMacs and MacBooks, to be hacked and images and video stolen, it’s very unusual. Far more common are hackers who try to exploit the fears of people who are worried about privacy by claiming to have video and photos that they don’t. While taping over your webcam and microphone will prevent anything from being stolen, for most of us, it’s probably not necessary. However, you should make sure that your online accounts have secure, unique passwords and delete any accounts you no longer need or use. And it would be best if you also scan your computer for malware, perhaps using the malware utility in CleanMyMac X.

Has A Mac Ever Been Hacked What To Do

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