How do you know when Micro Snitch spies on you? I couldn't find the source code anywhere.
I got MicroSnitch as part of a bundle with LittleSnitch, without really knowing what it was at the time. When I figured it out, I had the same thought as you. It's definitely not something I'd ever trust completely, not only could it be spying on you, but I also don't really trust my hardware. However, I must say, it's still very nice to have. It at least narrows the possible spying vectors, and it's nice to know imm…
Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
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Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got MicroSnitch as part of a bundle with LittleSnitch, without really knowing what it was at the time. When I figured it out, I had the same thought as you. It's definitely not something I'd ever trust completely, not only could it be spying on you, but I also don't really trust my hardware. However, I must say, it's still very nice to have. It at least narrows the possible spying vectors, and it's nice to know imm…
Wouldn’t LittleSnitch be ideal in this situation to assist in checking if MicroSnitch is phoning home?
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#13How do you know when Micro Snitch spies on you? I couldn't find the source code anywhere.
Source code isn't really necessary. Nor sufficient for that matter even if it was there, you'd need verifiable builds and an assurance of no self updating capability too, basically for certain minimal products you need some level of trust. As far as extra verifying though you'd probably start the same way you would minimally blackbox anything: stick it on a virgin test box and monitor all I/O in a controlled setting (VM could work too, though if you're super paranoid you might take into account that can be detected and runtime behavior modified). I guess you could start disassembling it and poking around its memory and such too if you wanted.
But seriously, it's a Mac product, so source access everywhere should kind of obviously be off your list already. How do you know when Apple spies on you? You won't find the source code. And the answer is you blackbox it and mostly you trust that it'd get noticed at some point and Apple would get the crap sued out of them and be investigated by governments worldwide etc etc. Objective Development is a very long standing dev and has put out a far more critical long standing security product that has been used by a lot of sec people for a very long time. Sure they could be compromised in the same way any dev could, but on the lowest critical factor level they're unlikely to be the biggest risk in most users' threat model.
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#14I would really prefer all I/O devices, including touchscreens and antennas, have physical on/off switches. 1 for in and 1 for out where possible. Even if I have to open the device to flip them. I'd like to be able to turn a phone into receive-only device without worrying about what it's broadcasting. That's probably a lot more complicated than I'm imagining, but I'd like it if lines between what's a sender and what's…
Then all the spy software has to do is receive a signal to begin recording, saves to a buffer, and waits for you to check twitter before uploading.
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#15Of course, if a program has access to it (including Apple's own permission-exempt software) an unauthorized app may be able to use the authorized one as a route around the sandbox:
https://objective-see.com/blog/blog_0x2F.html
But Mojave also added an "APP_1 wants to control APP_2" permission prompt, so I don't think that workaround is typically possible. When the malware tries to use Quicktime to run a video/audio capture, the AppleScript should trigger a "Badware.app wants to control Quicktime" permission prompt.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335848/mojave-disa...
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn’t LittleSnitch be ideal in this situation to assist in checking if MicroSnitch is phoning home?
Who knows if LittleSnitch is not a "social hack" by itself ?
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn’t LittleSnitch be ideal in this situation to assist in checking if MicroSnitch is phoning home?
Who knows if LittleSnitch is not a "social hack" by itself ?
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#18Or just install Oversight, it's free, does the same thing. And if you want you can support the author on Patreon. https://objective-see.com/products/oversight.html
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who knows if LittleSnitch is not a "social hack" by itself ?
I think there was a talk on breaking LittleSnitch at either Defcon or B-sides a few years back. I couldn't get in though; it was full. Whatever it was is probably fixed by now anyway.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/03/mac_firewall_little...
Re: Micro Snitch – Know when someone spies on you
#20I would really prefer all I/O devices, including touchscreens and antennas, have physical on/off switches. 1 for in and 1 for out where possible. Even if I have to open the device to flip them. I'd like to be able to turn a phone into receive-only device without worrying about what it's broadcasting. That's probably a lot more complicated than I'm imagining, but I'd like it if lines between what's a sender and what's…