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At this point it feels like Mach is a reliable source of bugs in macOS. I know Apple is working hard to lock it all down, but is there any path to shifting away
by turnsout 2y ago
At this point it feels like Mach is a reliable source of bugs in macOS. I know Apple is working hard to lock it all down, but is there any path to shifting away from Mach completely?
- oneplane 2y agoYes, there was a post recently about moving more and more parts out of Mach. Some of it to L4, some of it to user space. Technically, this might actually increase the potential attack surface (due to more different components existing together). But more specialised surface would then allow for simplified control and as an effect better protection of that surface.
- nmgycombinator 2y agoI would argue that Mach was not the source of the bug here, but rather it was the lack of an entitlement check. Entitlements are honestly a very good security system, but they are opt-in. If a daemon doesn't check entitlements, then its insecure. Don't blame the messaging mechanism, blame the way it is used. To be honest, any sort of locked down messaging system requires more (i.e. validation of sender, etc.) than just the transfer of messages. And that's just not something you would get with a low-level communication protocol like Mach (unless Apple overhauled the MIG compiler to add entitlement checks). Mach is fantastic when paired with entitlement checks.