I write as a hobby; I'm trying to figure out what it would actually take to turn a computer running on Mac OS 10 to become the world's most expensive paperweight. The character I'm writing basically got his techno-terrorist start of darkness by completely shutting down his shitty college apartment's computer lab. I know what System 32 does; but what's the Mac equivalent?
>>951216
OSX is basically a UNIX variant, and obviously there are different ways to manhandle one. Deleting /lib or /bin (if there is root access) would probably fuck up the system. Permanently bricking? That's another question.
>>951216
High voltage surge over any components. I remember macs have a shitty chip that prevents them from overheating by slowing down procesor speed to a crawl. And this chip can be overheated with a few simple comands. Once it overheats the os wont boot.
As to how this can be done i won't tell you since "I'm a writter" is code for I don't want to be called out on intent to commit a crime. But google may help
>>951216
I know dick all about computers but couldn't he just over clock them and fry the cpu?
>>951216
sudo rm -f /
>>951262
>non-recursive remove
won't break shit
>>951216
Do you mean bricking it functionally (i.e. software problems) or completely rendering the hardware permanently unusable?
Software-wise, Macs run on Linux, and if you are the admin, it isn't hard to delete/mis-configure things. This can be done remotely if the Macs are set up for it (which they are, by default). Generally speaking, malware is written to help propagate itself into victim's computers, then executes some command. There is no reason why one couldn't use that, especially if they have a foothold into the system.
Hardware destruction requires a device or devices to cause physical damage to the components. Generally speaking, for modern computers, it is next to impossible to physically damage the hardware using only software commands. If there is a firmware exploit, one could try mis-configuring the system (though Macs have the firmware locked down pretty tight). Short of high voltage input or an EMP (which causes high voltage input), it would be hard to render all of them permanently non-functional at the same time.
Personally, if you wanted to cause the most interruption, targeting networks causes lots of problems.
Flash a new firmware with a random other bios.
>>951302
>Macs run on Linux
>>951819
Unix.
>>951930
Do you mean FreeBSD?
>>951216
shotgun slug would do it.. thats for sure.
>>951946
Technically it's 'Unix-like,' but FreeBSD is still descended from Unix/Berkley Unix.
>>951216
well, assuming you don't want to actually get into the code, >>951243 or >>951240
combined with disabling the heat sensors in the computers. of course, the data in the harddrives MAY be recoverable after that, but the motherboard/gpu will heat up and desolder connections or short.
alternatively, going from the hardware side, a magnetic pulse would scramble the hdd's, and would need to have them be reformated and flashed a new bios at least. Or a manually created power surge at the breaker box on that breaker could damage the electronics, although not reliably especially if there are surge protectors. Probably be better off wiring in a transformer to run the systems at higher voltage.
there were rumors of a CIA virus that could short certain CRT monitors rapidly enough that the arc would vaporize some components and blow out the glass screen into someone's face, but that's... poetic license, shall we say.
