from Network World.

Two well-known Mac hackers are updating a widely used hacking toolkit, making it easier to take control of a Macintosh computer.

Over the past few days, the researchers have been quietly adding new software to the Metasploit toolkit, used by security researchers and criminals alike. Metasploit already supported Mac attacks, but until recently the Mac code hadn’t been as good as Metasploit’s Windows and Linux tools, said Dino Dai Zovi, an independent security researcher who talked about the new tools with his collaborator Charlie Miller at the CanSecWest conference Friday. “Our goal was to make Mac OS X a first-class target for Metasploit.”

Metasploit is an open-source toolkit that makes it easy for hackers to launch a barrage of attacks against a computer system.

Miller and Dai Zovi earned fame in previous years for hacking Macintosh computers at CanSecWest’s annual Pwn2Own hacking contest. On Wednesday, Miller, a researcher with Independent Security Evaluators, won $5,000 and a Mac laptop by using a previously unknown Safari vulnerability to hack into a Mac system.
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At the show, the researchers demonstrated several payload programs they have developed for Metasploit, including one called “Pic the Vic,” which can be used to snap a photograph of a Mac user who has been hacked, using the computer’s camera.

They have also ported a Windows tool, called Meterpreter, to the Mac. Meterpreter is a stealth tool that can be used to gain information from and import more software onto a hacked computer.