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How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

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Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#201

Post by 0xff00ffee »

twodayslate wrote: post #172
pehtis wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would highly recommend checking all installers on macOS through Suspicious Package. It will give you a complete picture of all the installer scripts that will be run and all the files that will be written. I did just that for zoom and decided against installing it.

https://mothersruin.com/software/SuspiciousPackage/ for those curious

Oooh this is good. A few years ago I came home drunk and wanted to watch this old film that wasn't on any channels. I found it on some dubious website, which required me to install a player .dmg. I drunkenly typed in my password, and then an hour later was like: dafuq did I just do?!? Next day I re-imaged my mac because I'm both paranoid and don't know enough about secops.

SuspiciousPackage wouldn't have helped combat Drunk Install Syndrome, but it might have been a helpful tool before I nuked my OS.

Or maybe this is just good marketing for SuspiciousPackage, which is really malware. Well played.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#202

Post by gentleman11 »

impendia wrote: post #44
t0mas88 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?

I'm a college professor, and I'll share my perspective. For one, Zoom did just work. (At least as a participant, rather than an organizer.) I tried it out, and it immediately worked. It did what all of us were expecting, with no fuss. I also tried MS Teams. It seems designed with a different philosophy: that you use the software to do many different things, and you want them all integrated. (For example, it posted my…

Zoom doesn’t just work. If the students want privacy, they are just helpless.

Edit: downvoted for speaking up for student rights. Sorry if it is inconvenient for the teachers

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#203

Post by gentleman11 »

capableweb wrote: post #12
t0mas88 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?

Well, I have a feeling that the praise for zoom going around is not from people working in enterprises, it's people working for everything-but enterprises, who just want a solution that works. In my experience (also not enterprise), Zoom is the simplest solution with the best quality and latency, compared to the alternatives. The UX could be better, but the performance of Zoom for all platforms makes you survive the…

I don’t think you can get much more reliable or simpler then whereby.com

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#204

Post by gentleman11 »

jwr wrote: post #184
t0mas88 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?

> I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. I'm also curious. I subscribed to Whereby ( https://whereby.com/ ), where I can send people a URL, which they click and land in my conference room. There is ZERO software they need to install. [For all the "well, actually" folks: yes, it "only" works in every modern browser out there, and it works "only" for up to 12 people. Fine with me.]…

To be more specific, whereby seems to be free for up to 4 people, but then they claim to be able to support 50. Never tested it with 50

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#205

Post by cpeterso »

mrpippy wrote: post #145
rgovostes wrote: post #79

I installed the WebEx client for macOS today and it seemed similar, installing almost instantly without going through the normal EULA, volume selection, etc. flow. It seems like they've stuck their installation flow into an Installer.app _plugin_ which is unusual. I haven't encountered that before, and I'm somewhat surprised the feature exists considering Apple waged war on loading code into first-party software. (Th…

Ughhh, this is probably where Zoom got the idea from.

Zoom was founded by Eric Yuan, a lead engineer from Cisco's WebEx business unit.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#206

Post by gentleman11 »

> Zoom has been criticized for its data collection practices,[45] which include its collection and storage of "the content contained in cloud recordings, and instant messages, files, whiteboards" as well as its enabling employers to monitor workers remotely;[46][47] the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that administrators can join any call at any time "without in-the-moment consent or warning for the attendees of the call."[48] The Ministry of Defence of the U.K. banned its use.[49][50] During signup for a Zoom free account, Zoom requires users to permit it to identify users with their personal information on Google and also offers to permanently delete their Google contacts.

Widespread use of Zoom for online education during the novel coronavirus pandemic increased concerns regarding students' data privacy and, in particular, their personally identifiable information.[17] According to the FBI, students’ IP addresses, browsing history, academic progress, and biometric data may be at risk during the use of similar online learning services.[17] Privacy experts are also concerned that the use of Zoom by schools and universities may raise issues regarding unauthorized surveillance of students and possible violations of students’ rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

- Wikipedia

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#207

Post by tech234a »

bruckie wrote: post #127
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t Google Meet depend on a browser plugin they make you install the first time? Hangouts did.

No, it uses WebRTC. https://support.google.com/meet/answer/7317473

Apparently a plugin is needed for Internet Explorer, but otherwise isn’t.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#208

Post by tantalor »

jedieaston wrote: post #189
tantalor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard do you think it is to steal a password once you have root?

It should be impossible with SIP enabled, as in OS X 10.14 Apple protected the files in /var/db/dslocal where the user shadow files are stored so that root could not read them (unless triggered by an Apple signed executable, like Software Update). If you are running with SIP disabled you've taken the risk of it happening, and if you are on a corporate laptop (or 99% of personal machines) it is engaged. https://apple.…

Think a little harder. With root, you can install a keylogger.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#209

Post by 867-5309 »

gentleman11 wrote: post #202
impendia wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a college professor, and I'll share my perspective. For one, Zoom did just work. (At least as a participant, rather than an organizer.) I tried it out, and it immediately worked. It did what all of us were expecting, with no fuss. I also tried MS Teams. It seems designed with a different philosophy: that you use the software to do many different things, and you want them all integrated. (For example, it posted my…

Zoom doesn’t just work. If the students want privacy, they are just helpless. Edit: downvoted for speaking up for student rights. Sorry if it is inconvenient for the teachers

universities are organisations, which all force some incarnation of an internet usage policy. better still, the students are paying an arm and a leg for their lack of privacy. wouldn't it be great for the non-technical end user if these Just Works™ software could just bypass firewalls by way of VPNs, common ports, obfuscated servers or the like?
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