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Is it possible for someone to brute force or perform a dictionary attack on a locked Macbook?

It's very easy to bypass security of a Windows box (Password Protection). What is the difficulty level of bypassing the security of a Mac running OSX.

Can someone run forensics on it and recover data without knowing the password?

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  • Sure, a weak sudo password should necer be chosen. Without complete encryption reading the data is no big problem for IT forensics.
    – Daniel Ruf
    Nov 29, 2015 at 16:52
  • @NeilSmithline macbook has Flash storage which cannot be removed or upgraded. Computer is locked
    – Sanidhay
    Nov 30, 2015 at 7:58
  • @Sanidhay you can always remove flash storage and read it with special hardware, experts can do this. And they can easily access the data if they have access to the hardware. You can easily bruteforce the lock, this is well known and not impossible.
    – Daniel Ruf
    Nov 30, 2015 at 8:18

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Sure, John the Ripper for example and other tools can crack the passwords.

Always choose a secure and random password.

Bruteforcing applies to any OS.

You can encrypt partitions and complete disks.

Without any secure encryption anyone can read the data from the disk with the right tools. There are great opensource IT forensic tools available.

There are also known bruteforce attacks on the EFI PIN and iCloud lock used for locking the device.

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    IMO, the question is way too unclear to warrant any kind of an answer at this point in time.
    – Neil Smithline
    Nov 29, 2015 at 21:51
  • Well "Can someone run forensics on it and recover data without knowing the password?" Theoretically yes, it is possible.
    – Daniel Ruf
    Nov 29, 2015 at 22:26

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