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AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

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Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#111

Post by dkonofalski »

Someone1234 wrote: post #76
dkonofalski wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What "awful" things could be done exactly in the App Store panel?

If they have "'Always Require' Password for Purchase" enabled, you could disable that and buy apps from the app store without a password. For example you could let your kid use your Mac, but you don't want them spending your money via your app-store linked credit card. If they have access to the App Store Preferences panel they can disable the requirement and do so.

They would be prompted for the App Store password the first time a purchase was made after this is disabled so, no, that's not an issue here.

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#112

Post by dkonofalski »

raverbashing wrote: post #73
dkonofalski wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What "awful" things could be done exactly in the App Store panel?

Disabling password requirements for app purchases Disabling/enabling automatic updates

The App Store would prompt them for the Apple ID password for the first purchase made after this change.

I fail to see how automatic updates would be "awful".

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#113

Post by dkonofalski »

nabeards wrote: post #64
dkonofalski wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that I don't understand, as a developer, is how these types of bugs even make it in to these releases. Was the "lock" functionality in System Preferences changed at all in any meaningful way for the App Store panel. It doesn't seem like anything about that functionality is sufficiently different so how did this break? Did they bypass the check in order to work on the panel and forget to re-enable it or some…

Interesting, I do have the lock in Sierra 10.12.6 on my MBP.

That is interesting. I wonder if I update Sierra to the latest if it will show up. Does your lock work as expected?

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#114

Post by derpaderp1 »

hanklazard wrote: post #72
newscracker wrote: post #13

This does not help at all for the drubbing that macOS High Sierra has been getting recently. Long term OS X users have been waiting for a Snow Leopard like release, but it seems like Apple isn’t taking as much care as required on security and stability on the Mac. Something has to give — either Apple’s organizational structure needs a change or Apple needs to abandon certain things completely instead of releasing sub…

I'm also a long-time Mac user, but I've really had about enough of this. Between the seemingly constant stream of security problems and the dumbing down of OSX (MacOS, whatever), I'm not sure I'm willing to pay a premium for this product anymore. At the same time the Apple seems to be dropping the ball, some of the more noob-friendly linux distros are starting to look very attractive. And while Apple still seems to h…

lol look at this kid he's going to build his own OS

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#115

Post by fyfy18 »

reaperducer wrote: post #107
hanklazard wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also a long-time Mac user, but I've really had about enough of this. Between the seemingly constant stream of security problems and the dumbing down of OSX (MacOS, whatever), I'm not sure I'm willing to pay a premium for this product anymore. At the same time the Apple seems to be dropping the ball, some of the more noob-friendly linux distros are starting to look very attractive. And while Apple still seems to h…

If some of the Linux distros would start trying to look like MacOS instead of constantly aping Windows, then switching would be a lot easier. That's been the big reason I've never really taken to Linux. The GUIs all look like Windows with a skin. Where's the innovation?

Take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn (SFW other than the name) if you want some inspiration for what you can do if you customise it.

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#116

Post by willtim »

hanklazard wrote: post #72
newscracker wrote: post #13

This does not help at all for the drubbing that macOS High Sierra has been getting recently. Long term OS X users have been waiting for a Snow Leopard like release, but it seems like Apple isn’t taking as much care as required on security and stability on the Mac. Something has to give — either Apple’s organizational structure needs a change or Apple needs to abandon certain things completely instead of releasing sub…

I'm also a long-time Mac user, but I've really had about enough of this. Between the seemingly constant stream of security problems and the dumbing down of OSX (MacOS, whatever), I'm not sure I'm willing to pay a premium for this product anymore. At the same time the Apple seems to be dropping the ball, some of the more noob-friendly linux distros are starting to look very attractive. And while Apple still seems to h…

> Apple still seems to have the best hardware overall

The example comparison you gave, an X1 Carbon, has a more reliable keyboard with more travel, a matte-screen option without fragile glass, a user-replaceable battery, a user-replaceable NVMe drive, a variety of ports new and old, a docking solution, security cable lock etc

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#117

Post by mackey »

rickmode wrote: post #53
dkonofalski wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that I don't understand, as a developer, is how these types of bugs even make it in to these releases. Was the "lock" functionality in System Preferences changed at all in any meaningful way for the App Store panel. It doesn't seem like anything about that functionality is sufficiently different so how did this break? Did they bypass the check in order to work on the panel and forget to re-enable it or some…

Maybe Apple has embraced one of these "Agile" methodologies where you basically eliminate your QA group in the promise that developer created unit and integration tests can cover the quality gap. QA and dev approach software with different mindsets, and I've noticed in Agile projects where QA is mostly or entirely missing, there is a skill gap. Edit: People - I'm not trying to be flippant. I really have seen a decrea…

I think it has more to do with the complete lack of testing infrastructure and tooling that Apple has produced over the years, despite the explosion of APIs and developers on their platforms.

Even on iOS, which rumors have being more of a focus compared to macOS, still has a long way to go to catch up to other platforms. If they required these tools internally, no way would they be this far behind.

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#118

Post by willtim »

reaperducer wrote: post #107
hanklazard wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also a long-time Mac user, but I've really had about enough of this. Between the seemingly constant stream of security problems and the dumbing down of OSX (MacOS, whatever), I'm not sure I'm willing to pay a premium for this product anymore. At the same time the Apple seems to be dropping the ball, some of the more noob-friendly linux distros are starting to look very attractive. And while Apple still seems to h…

If some of the Linux distros would start trying to look like MacOS instead of constantly aping Windows, then switching would be a lot easier. That's been the big reason I've never really taken to Linux. The GUIs all look like Windows with a skin. Where's the innovation?

This is not true in general. Linux Desktop UIs like Gnome 3 have taken a lot of criticism precisely because they have not been copying Windows and have deviated considerably (due to patent concerns). Of course, there are some fringe "garage effort" Linux distros that don't care about patents and do just give some part of the community what they want.

As for innovation, Linux desktop UIs had virtual desktops and window tiling features long before Windows and MacOS.

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#119

Post by jpttsn »

dmitriid wrote: post #110
derefr wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under a different lens, that implies that previously iOS-only engineers now must also become familiar with the macOS codebase, and so more able to contribute to it. Given the large number of those engineers compared to the previous size of the macOS team, this may help more than hurt macOS (as long as you assume the engineering teams are of equivalent quality.)

One woman has a baby in 9 months. In how many months will 9 women have a baby? Also: “Mythical man month” etc. You do not solve your problem by having a bunch of engineers from a different domain and having different priorities.

First baby take 9 mo, but with a pipeline you can get the average close to 1 mo.

Re: AppStore Preferences can be unlocked by a local admin with any bogus password

#120

Post by dmitriid »

jpttsn wrote: post #119
dmitriid wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One woman has a baby in 9 months. In how many months will 9 women have a baby? Also: “Mythical man month” etc. You do not solve your problem by having a bunch of engineers from a different domain and having different priorities.

First baby take 9 mo, but with a pipeline you can get the average close to 1 mo.

In this case we’re talking about just one baby :)
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