Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update • Hacker News Board

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#371

Post by jedieaston » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

xenospn wrote: post #347

odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this issue. Computer went to sleep after the update. This was on Friday. Haven't been able to do any kind of thing on it. Trackpad 'clicks' but no screen, not touchbar, nothing (2018 Macbook Pro). Called apple, they tld me it had to go a store, unfortunately where I live, due to quarantine there are no shops available to pick it, and we aren't allowed to drive outside our district. Will try the apple configura…

If that had happened to me my entire startup would have to shut down. Not cool.

Might not be a bad idea to buy another laptop (cheap) and just boot it up once a month to make sure you can use it, and if your system dies, then just pull that one out and use it while Apple RMAs your primary. If the cheap laptop doesn't have enough power, just connect to an Amazon Workspace or something and use that until your normal laptop can work again.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#372

Post by jedieaston » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

nimish wrote: post #364

FireBeyond wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best have your spare MacBook available to do it!

Love to need another $3000 machine to fix my $3000 machine

Right now, yes, but in usual circumstances you could just borrow a friend's box, your IT department could fix it, or you could have a el-cheapo Mac (either an old one or like a Mini from 2010) that can run Configurator (which doesn't require a recent version of OS X, I don't think).

Still sucks, just a bit less. not really different than an iPhone, except that you can rebuild those on Windows (for now).

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#373

Post by pvg » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

floatingatoll wrote: post #368

pvg wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get a recovery key when the original key is generated.

Yes: You can export a FileVault recovery key when enabling FileVault, whether on a T2 Mac or not. No: There’s no opportunity to use FileVault recovery keys when you’re doing a DFU on a T2 Mac. If you have to DFU, your data is lost. (edited to clarify per reply)

That wasn't the question I was answering or was asked, I think.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#374

Post by Izkata » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #284

at_a_remove wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go that route, "bricked" is now indistinguishable from "broke," and we already have a word for that. Broke. We would have then gone from a situation where we had two different states and names for each of those states to a situation where we have two words for the very same, very fuzzy state and no way to talk about the other state. It makes a mockery of the idea of advice. Imagine your parents calling you and…

Bricked, to me, means it is physically just fine, but it doesn’t work due to some kind of software issue. “I bricked my phone and had to spend a whole day reading obscure guides to three different levels of embedded software before I could get it working again” feels like a perfectly valid sentence. You can fix a bricked thing, just like you can fix a broken thing, but both require some investment of time and possibl…

This is also how I've always understood the two terms.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#375

Post by freehunter » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:37 PM UTC

xenospn wrote: post #347

odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this issue. Computer went to sleep after the update. This was on Friday. Haven't been able to do any kind of thing on it. Trackpad 'clicks' but no screen, not touchbar, nothing (2018 Macbook Pro). Called apple, they tld me it had to go a store, unfortunately where I live, due to quarantine there are no shops available to pick it, and we aren't allowed to drive outside our district. Will try the apple configura…

If that had happened to me my entire startup would have to shut down. Not cool.

If your entire startup is dependent on one single Macbook there is something severely wrong with your business model and I hope your customers and/or investors are aware of this risk before giving you any money.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#376

Post by deeblering4 » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:42 PM UTC

sk5t wrote: post #367

xenospn wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that had happened to me my entire startup would have to shut down. Not cool.

Consider a plan B, like, run Linux on off-the-shelf hardware.

The OS and hardware type are not relevant. Increasing redundancy is what is needed.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#377

Post by apfsx » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

morpheuskafka wrote: post #340

apfsx wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do T2 Mac’s have DFU mode like iPhone’s? If so that’s news to me and pretty interesting.

The T2 chip itself (runs bridgeOS which is like watchOS) do. It is used only to recover the firmware of the T2, AFAIK it can't be used to write to the SSD directly. The checkra1n team recently showed that all Macs with a T2 chip are vulnerable to checkm8 exploit used to jailbreak iPhones, and this could persist for a while due to the T2 chip staying on between application processor reboots. This allows override of mi…

hi, thank you for posting this. I was fascinated by the checkm8 exploit since I read about it last September. Completely unknown to me was that T2 Mac's were also vulnerable to this. With all the vulnerabilities that are now open due to this, i'm questioning was it even worth ever putting these chips inside Macbooks? In retrospect, would they have been better off just scrapping this idea completely? Because the way you put it, due to the checkm8 exploit the T2 is now practically useless in everything it was originally meant to do.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#378

Post by jorge-d » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:48 PM UTC

perardi wrote: post #324

I am quite the Apple apologist, but Catalina is awful. 1. As seen here, it's a bugfest. 2. For user-facing features, it brings…Sidecar? And a bunch of half-assed Catalyst apps, I suppose. 3. Such an exciting new set of security features—really met what I have to guess was their goal to quickly train me to click OK on every single dialog to get to work.

Well Sidecar itself is a bugfest as well, it really feels unpolished

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#379

Post by FabHK » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:49 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #375

xenospn wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that had happened to me my entire startup would have to shut down. Not cool.

If your entire startup is dependent on one single Macbook there is something severely wrong with your business model and I hope your customers and/or investors are aware of this risk before giving you any money.

Yeah. I gave my MBP (late 2016 “Esc”) to the Apple Store in London for repairs on 12 February. They decided to replace it (yay) and the replacement is scheduled to reach me the week after next. That’s about 10 weeks without my main machine, thanks to SARS-CoV-2. Really drives home the need for a contingency plan.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#380

Post by freehunter » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 7:51 PM UTC

perardi wrote: post #324

I am quite the Apple apologist, but Catalina is awful. 1. As seen here, it's a bugfest. 2. For user-facing features, it brings…Sidecar? And a bunch of half-assed Catalyst apps, I suppose. 3. Such an exciting new set of security features—really met what I have to guess was their goal to quickly train me to click OK on every single dialog to get to work.

For 3, what it's taught me is that I have to load a video conference, go into the privacy settings, allow use of camera and microphone, then exit the video conference and load it again before anyone can see or hear me.

I'm a consultant and talk to multiple clients all with their own video conference solution and having to do this every time I join a call where a client is using a different video conference solution is very unprofessional. The worst was using Teams where I had to close my browser before I could join the conference, after I had already queued up everything I needed for the call. So now everyone is waiting on me to re-open everything and reset the state for the demo.

I never thought I'd miss Windows UAC.