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From the TB3 enabler GitHub: "For unknown reasons, Apple decided to block the support for some categories of Thunderbolt 3 peripherals under macOS and when you

From the TB3 enabler GitHub: "For unknown reasons, Apple decided to block the support for some categories of Thunderbolt 3 peripherals under macOS and when you connect those Thunderbolt 3 peripheral, you simply get an "Unsupported" message under Thunderbolt Device Tree. After digging around, it turns out the block is implemented in software level and it is possible to bypass the block by patching the related kext. This patch modifies IOThunderboltFamily and allows "Unsupported" Thunderbolt 3 peripherals to work under macOS Sierra." I wonder why they did that. Stability, probably?

nerdwaller 9y ago
I originally thought blocking access could be due to a licensing thing, given that Apple and Intel collaborated on it [0]. However I found [1] stating that the licensing fees and royalties were waved in order to ensure larger market adoption. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface) [1] http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/05/24/intel-making-thunderbolt-3-royalty-free-for-manufacturers-before-end-of-2017 http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/05/24/intel-making-thund...
willvarfar 9y ago
It could possibly be because of security issues?
jjoonathan 9y ago
Security? DMA is notorious.
txcwpalpha 9y ago
Security issues, most likely. Like Firewire, Thunderbolt suffers from the same security issue in that to achieve its high speeds, it gives connected devices direct memory access. In other words, any connected device can read and write directly from your RAM, bypassing any kind of access control built into the OS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Vulnerability_to_DMA_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Vulner...
- dogma1138 9y ago
  Not for security reasons at all but rather so you’ll have to buy Apple made devices like their own external GPU enclosure. Their restriction does not prevents actual DMA attacks at all just specifically limits high end TB3 devices.
  - abakker 9y ago
    Apple does not make a GPU enclosure, and does support external ones. I have a sonnet one with an rx580 in it. Works fine for me.
    - dogma1138 9y ago
      >Apple does not make a GPU enclosure Are you fucking kidding me? https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/external-graphics/ https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/external-graphic... Apple has been specifically targeting competing TB3 devices they do not white list but rather black list their competition. And what is even more obvious is that they do not block TB2/1 devices at all which are the ones used for all the publicly available DMA attack toolkits like Inception. This has nothing to do with security.
      - abakker 9y ago
        That enclosure is made by Sonnet, and the card is made by AMD. They make neither. They just say that they support it specifically as they roll out support of eGPU generally. So, no, I am not kidding you. That Apple dev kit costs the same as buying the components separately, or have you not looked at that possibility?
        dogma1138 9y ago
        They began blacklisting 3rd party enclosures shortly before it’s announcement. They do not restrict TB1/2 devices at all (including a TB2 GPU enclosure like the one I’ve been using for over 3 years) which have the same DMA access as TB3 the only difference is the speed of the PCIe lanes. But sure tell me how this is done for security. If Apple cared about security they would implement the same port and DMA protection MSFT has with Win10. But this is purely for business gains.
Terretta 9y ago
> I wonder why they did that. Stability, probably? Not malice anyway... From this project: "Note there is likely a reason why IOThunderboltFamily considers a peripheral unsupported in the first place. Use at your own peril."

nerdwaller 9y ago

I originally thought blocking access could be due to a licensing thing, given that Apple and Intel collaborated on it [0]. However I found [1] stating that the licensing fees and royalties were waved in order to ensure larger market adoption. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface) [1] http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/05/24/intel-making-thunderbolt-3-royalty-free-for-manufacturers-before-end-of-2017 http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/05/24/intel-making-thund...

willvarfar 9y ago

It could possibly be because of security issues?

jjoonathan 9y ago

Security? DMA is notorious.

txcwpalpha 9y ago

Security issues, most likely. Like Firewire, Thunderbolt suffers from the same security issue in that to achieve its high speeds, it gives connected devices direct memory access. In other words, any connected device can read and write directly from your RAM, bypassing any kind of access control built into the OS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Vulnerability_to_DMA_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Vulner...

dogma1138 9y ago
Not for security reasons at all but rather so you’ll have to buy Apple made devices like their own external GPU enclosure. Their restriction does not prevents actual DMA attacks at all just specifically limits high end TB3 devices.
- abakker 9y ago
  Apple does not make a GPU enclosure, and does support external ones. I have a sonnet one with an rx580 in it. Works fine for me.
  - dogma1138 9y ago
    >Apple does not make a GPU enclosure Are you fucking kidding me? https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/external-graphics/ https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/external-graphic... Apple has been specifically targeting competing TB3 devices they do not white list but rather black list their competition. And what is even more obvious is that they do not block TB2/1 devices at all which are the ones used for all the publicly available DMA attack toolkits like Inception. This has nothing to do with security.
    - abakker 9y ago
      That enclosure is made by Sonnet, and the card is made by AMD. They make neither. They just say that they support it specifically as they roll out support of eGPU generally. So, no, I am not kidding you. That Apple dev kit costs the same as buying the components separately, or have you not looked at that possibility?
      - dogma1138 9y ago
        They began blacklisting 3rd party enclosures shortly before it’s announcement. They do not restrict TB1/2 devices at all (including a TB2 GPU enclosure like the one I’ve been using for over 3 years) which have the same DMA access as TB3 the only difference is the speed of the PCIe lanes. But sure tell me how this is done for security. If Apple cared about security they would implement the same port and DMA protection MSFT has with Win10. But this is purely for business gains.

Terretta 9y ago

> I wonder why they did that. Stability, probably? Not malice anyway... From this project: "Note there is likely a reason why IOThunderboltFamily considers a peripheral unsupported in the first place. Use at your own peril."