Inception FireWire/Thunderbolt Hack
Inception is a FireWire physical memory manipulation and hacking tool exploiting IEEE 1394 SBP-2 DMA. The tool can unlock (any password accepted) and escalate privileges to Administrator/root on almost any powered on machine you have physical access to. The tool can attack over FireWire, Thunderbolt, ExpressCard, PC Card and any other PCI/PCIe interfaces.
Via Jen Savage, who writes:
I knew these Thunderbolt/FireWire attacks were possible, but I wasn’t aware there was a tool that makes them easy.
Crucially:
If FileVault 2 is enabled, the tool will only work when the operating system is unlocked.