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Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

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Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#31

Post by Kallikrates »

afandian wrote: post #9
pcwalton wrote: post #3

There are a lot of checks for specific apps in the Cocoa framework. It's pretty much what the undocumented CFExecutableLinkedOnOrAfter() is for (sometimes called in conjunction with a check for a specific bundle name).

Do you have examples?

one example is Popover controls on iPhone. http://marksands.github.io/2014/05/27/how-apple-cheats.html

Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#32

Post by coldcode »

When I worked at Apple before Steve came back there were tons of checks in MacOS for particular versions of apps, especially for Microsoft Word and Excel, working around their buggy behavior (or their workarounds for Apple's buggy behavior, a vicious cycle). While I have no idea if this person knows anything it would not be surprising.

Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#33

Post by spacecowboy_lon »

gutigen wrote: post #13
chillacy wrote: post #2

I recall a story of how the windows 95 team (or the like) was crazy dedicated to backwards compatibility, so they had a check to see if the user was running Roller Coaster Tycoon and if so, disabled virtual memory so the game would run. Though I'd like to know more details, like: * Why does blizzard need to run in the sandbox on Mac OS X? The app sandbox is opt-in (though required for App Store apps) * Can anyone set…

Apparently Steam games are favourite attack vector of NSA, they love exploiting Steam games on sysadmin machines. https://www.wired.com/2016/01/nsa-hacker-chief-explains-how-...

No Sysadmin shoud be playing games on the systems he/she uses for admin work.

Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#34

Post by frou_dh »

coldcode wrote: post #32

When I worked at Apple before Steve came back there were tons of checks in MacOS for particular versions of apps, especially for Microsoft Word and Excel, working around their buggy behavior (or their workarounds for Apple's buggy behavior, a vicious cycle). While I have no idea if this person knows anything it would not be surprising.

In Safari under Develop in the menu bar there's an item "Disable Site-specific Hacks"

Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#36

Post by bad_user »

neallindsay wrote: post #35
BakaRakuda wrote: post #25

Nobody saw this yet? https://mobile.twitter.com/gruber/status/738149554978070529 Turns out a complete non-story.

Someone should change the title on the HN story - it's just straight-up false.

Yeah, updates from John Gruber's birdies are so reassuring.

Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#37

Post by ionforce »

mschuster91 wrote: post #7
chillacy wrote: post #2

I recall a story of how the windows 95 team (or the like) was crazy dedicated to backwards compatibility, so they had a check to see if the user was running Roller Coaster Tycoon and if so, disabled virtual memory so the game would run. Though I'd like to know more details, like: * Why does blizzard need to run in the sandbox on Mac OS X? The app sandbox is opt-in (though required for App Store apps) * Can anyone set…

> * Can anyone set their team ID to blizzard's? No, at least not for apps that are distributed on the official channels and signed with an official developer cert. > * Are blizzard games attack vectors? All games are, savegame manipulation is often the first step towards jailbreaking a game console.

What if your game sucks/isn't mechanically complicated and doesn't read saves?

Checkmate.

Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#39

Post by mikeash »

chillacy wrote: post #2

I recall a story of how the windows 95 team (or the like) was crazy dedicated to backwards compatibility, so they had a check to see if the user was running Roller Coaster Tycoon and if so, disabled virtual memory so the game would run. Though I'd like to know more details, like: * Why does blizzard need to run in the sandbox on Mac OS X? The app sandbox is opt-in (though required for App Store apps) * Can anyone set…

It could be that this was done for Blizzard's iOS games, and OS X just happens to share the code.

Re: Blizzard Exempt from iOS and MacOS Security Sandbox

#40

Post by coldpie »

coldcode wrote: post #32

When I worked at Apple before Steve came back there were tons of checks in MacOS for particular versions of apps, especially for Microsoft Word and Excel, working around their buggy behavior (or their workarounds for Apple's buggy behavior, a vicious cycle). While I have no idea if this person knows anything it would not be surprising.

Yeah. We port Windows applications to Mac at work. A couple years ago when Apple switched on a more stringent code signing requirement, we found many of our ports worked without the updated code signing, while some others would warn about an invalid signature. It was clear there was some internal whitelist for old, known signatures which had picked up many, but not all, of our ports. User friendly, I guess, but pretty ugly.
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