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Of course when this possibility was raised 25 days ago on HN [1] there was a swarm of apologists who figured the superior Apple services needed no firewall inte

Of course when this possibility was raised 25 days ago on HN [1] there was a swarm of apologists who figured the superior Apple services needed no firewall interception (and just 2 days ago we learned that hell yes, they do!) and that this was all by design and impervious to abuse by other apps. Turns out, no, macOS is still written by the same old skeleton crew at Apple and they still introduce trivial problems in most things they do. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24839086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24839086

claudeganon 6y ago
In the Vault 7 leaks, Little Snitch was mentioned as something three letter people had problems with circumventing. I think it's worth considering whether this new attack surface is there by design: https://blog.obdev.at/little-snitch-on-vault-7/ https://blog.obdev.at/little-snitch-on-vault-7/
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  I didn't follow up on the Reuters news piece from January titled "Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources". Has it been confirmed? If yes, then your assertion is most probably correct. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-sources-idUSKBN1ZK1CT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...
  - claudeganon 6y ago
    That Reuter's piece is original reporting that Apple never responded to, so I would say that it's all but confirmed that they did in fact do this at the FBI's request.
    - Hermel 6y ago
      Do you mean “all but” literally (everything except confirmed) or colloquially (absolutely confirmed)? (I hate the term “all but”. I find it often hard to tell what people actually want to say when using it.)
      - claudeganon 6y ago
        The former. For it to be the latter, Apple or FBI would have to explicitly state as much.
- inquirerofsorts 6y ago
  Why is this comment greyed out? It's an entirely valid question to arrive at.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    Possibly someone(s) not familiar with the reporting that implicates the possibility that speculation is correct.
bogomipz 6y ago
>"Turns out, no, macOS is still written by the same old skeleton crew at Apple" I didn't understand this reference. Who is the "same old skeleton crew"?
- mattnewton 6y ago
  GP is saying that the same teams have been working on macOS as before, implying they are just as fallible as previous iterations of macOS authors were by "same old", and implying that they are understaffed for the task by calling them a "skeleton crew"[0] [0] https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/skeleton_crew#:~:text=skeleton%20crew%20(plural%20skeleton%20crews,to%20keep%20vital%20functions%20operating https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/skeleton_crew#:~:text=skele....
cghendrix 6y ago
Lol it would be hilarious if it turned out they were letting their is&t department work on OSX.
- jasonmp85 6y ago
  What is “OSX”?
  - claudeganon 6y ago
    Former name for macOS.
    - ineedasername 6y ago
      I just call it A/UX 2.0 I try to forget those in between years of of System 7 / OS8 / OS9. They all gave me deep scars through countless hours spent troubleshooting extension conflicts. All while seeing the unhelpful, literal bomb icon dozens of times in a row [0]. The windows BSOD was bad, but at least it never mocked you about the OS blowing up. [0]https://www.versionmuseum.com/images/operating-systems/classic-mac-os/webp/classic-mac-os%5E1984%5Esystem-1-system-error.webp https://www.versionmuseum.com/images/operating-systems/class... More details: In theory, extension troubleshooting should have been easy. 1) Boot with them off. If it boots, it's the extensions. 2) Turn half off. If it boots, you know it's the other half. 3) Repeat step #2 with the remaining extensions until you find the offending one. Except it wasn't always a single one. It could be a problem that only occurred when a combination were active. So you'd go through the much higher # of combinations of turning certain groups on together... the first 5 & third 5 extensions, etc... Sometimes even that wouldn't work, and you'd be stuck opening programs you knew used certain extensions to force them into activity. Eventually, if you were lucky, you'd find the one corrupt extension and reinstall it. But if all else failed, you backed up the data with all extensions disabled, blew out the OS with a clean install and reinstall all the programs & restore the backup.
      - ineedasername 6y ago
        Come on downvoters, you can do better than -2. I know, I criticized Apple's old OS, I deserve it.

claudeganon 6y ago

In the Vault 7 leaks, Little Snitch was mentioned as something three letter people had problems with circumventing. I think it's worth considering whether this new attack surface is there by design: https://blog.obdev.at/little-snitch-on-vault-7/ https://blog.obdev.at/little-snitch-on-vault-7/

smnrchrds 6y ago
I didn't follow up on the Reuters news piece from January titled "Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources". Has it been confirmed? If yes, then your assertion is most probably correct. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-sources-idUSKBN1ZK1CT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...
- claudeganon 6y ago
  That Reuter's piece is original reporting that Apple never responded to, so I would say that it's all but confirmed that they did in fact do this at the FBI's request.
  - Hermel 6y ago
    Do you mean “all but” literally (everything except confirmed) or colloquially (absolutely confirmed)? (I hate the term “all but”. I find it often hard to tell what people actually want to say when using it.)
    - claudeganon 6y ago
      The former. For it to be the latter, Apple or FBI would have to explicitly state as much.
inquirerofsorts 6y ago
Why is this comment greyed out? It's an entirely valid question to arrive at.
- ineedasername 6y ago
  Possibly someone(s) not familiar with the reporting that implicates the possibility that speculation is correct.

bogomipz 6y ago

>"Turns out, no, macOS is still written by the same old skeleton crew at Apple" I didn't understand this reference. Who is the "same old skeleton crew"?

mattnewton 6y ago
GP is saying that the same teams have been working on macOS as before, implying they are just as fallible as previous iterations of macOS authors were by "same old", and implying that they are understaffed for the task by calling them a "skeleton crew"[0] [0] https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/skeleton_crew#:~:text=skeleton%20crew%20(plural%20skeleton%20crews,to%20keep%20vital%20functions%20operating https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/skeleton_crew#:~:text=skele....

cghendrix 6y ago

Lol it would be hilarious if it turned out they were letting their is&t department work on OSX.

jasonmp85 6y ago
What is “OSX”?
- claudeganon 6y ago
  Former name for macOS.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    I just call it A/UX 2.0 I try to forget those in between years of of System 7 / OS8 / OS9. They all gave me deep scars through countless hours spent troubleshooting extension conflicts. All while seeing the unhelpful, literal bomb icon dozens of times in a row [0]. The windows BSOD was bad, but at least it never mocked you about the OS blowing up. [0]https://www.versionmuseum.com/images/operating-systems/classic-mac-os/webp/classic-mac-os%5E1984%5Esystem-1-system-error.webp https://www.versionmuseum.com/images/operating-systems/class... More details: In theory, extension troubleshooting should have been easy. 1) Boot with them off. If it boots, it's the extensions. 2) Turn half off. If it boots, you know it's the other half. 3) Repeat step #2 with the remaining extensions until you find the offending one. Except it wasn't always a single one. It could be a problem that only occurred when a combination were active. So you'd go through the much higher # of combinations of turning certain groups on together... the first 5 & third 5 extensions, etc... Sometimes even that wouldn't work, and you'd be stuck opening programs you knew used certain extensions to force them into activity. Eventually, if you were lucky, you'd find the one corrupt extension and reinstall it. But if all else failed, you backed up the data with all extensions disabled, blew out the OS with a clean install and reinstall all the programs & restore the backup.
    - ineedasername 6y ago
      Come on downvoters, you can do better than -2. I know, I criticized Apple's old OS, I deserve it.