According to the latest report, a company that makes password cracking tools said that a new vulnerability found in the Mac T2 chip allows it to brute force passwords and decrypt the device.
Apple’s T2 chip, among other things, allows Mac users to encrypt and decrypt data on their solid-state drives. This encryption is supported by other security features, such as limiting the number of password attempts to mitigate brute force attacks.
Since Mac’s password isn’t stored on its solid-state drive, bypassing this encryption means an attacker would need to brute-force decrypt the key, which could take millions of years. However, a company called Passware says it can now break this security mechanism.
Passware’s unlock tool has previously been able to crack passwords on Macs without T2 chips. Earlier in February, however, the company quietly announced that a plugin for the latest version of the software could bypass the brute-force mitigation protections on the T2 chip.
The module available to the Passware tool apparently exploits a new T2 chip vulnerability to circumvent password attempt restrictions. The end result is that attackers can apply a password dictionary to brute force Mac’s passwords, making it possible for them to decrypt the device’s data.
However, attacks that support Passware are slow. The company’s password cracking tool can guess 15 passwords per second. If a user’s password is relatively long, a brute force attack on a Mac could still take thousands of years. Shorter passwords are more vulnerable, with a 6-character password taking about 10 hours to crack.
The company also provides a dictionary of about 550,000 commonly used passwords and a longer dictionary of about 10 billion passwords.
The crack password T2 bypass tool is available for both government customers and companies that can provide a fair use justification. It sells for $1,990 (about 12,596.7 yuan).
Forcing Mac’s password requires physical access to your device, so this feature isn’t a significant issue for most users. Users who lock their Macs with long and strong device passwords can also rest easy knowing that a single brute force attempt can take thousands of years.
Again, the flaw only applies to Intel-based Macs with T2 chips. Mac devices with Apple Silicon or M1 chips are not affected.