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Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

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Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#71
post #34

I’m sure quite a few MBP 2015 users are going to be a little sad the end is near. I loved that machine. I was able to skip the 2017 MBP and go to 2019, but honestly I miss the smaller trackpad.

Will non-Ventura devices still get vulnerabilities patched, or are they dead in the water?

Security updates are N-2 I believe (so current OS and last two major versions).

Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#72
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacOS versions tend to receive security updates for 2 additional years after they’re supplanted, so it’s more like 7-8 years. Plus, all of the Macs that aren’t eligible for Ventura can use Bootcamp to install Windows or dual boot into Linux if you’re not happy with MacOS anymore.

The newest machine that can't run the new version would be a Mac Pro purchased a scant 4 years ago. Potentially for several thousand dollars. Meanwhile there are 10 year old ~$1000 Thinkpads running Windows 11 or Linux. If they just wanted to run Linux on it they could have saved themselves some money. 8 years of updates to current version and 10 years of security updates should be the absolute minimum for every expe…

I question anyone purchasing a machine with generations old hardware in 2018. Especially considering the Mac pro had been supplanted by newer macs at that point.

Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#74
post #4
post #2

> However, the Gatekeeper check here is overridable by users. This is presented as a flaw, but I'm not sure they are thinking through the alternatives. It's hard to give too much credence to security experts who are't thinking holistically. Perhaps there is a flaw, but I'm curious to know what it is.

Things the user can override are things social engineers can convince users to override.

Exactly. Technical measures are important, but if someone wants to play a game or do something that's been banned on Apple's stores and finds a site that claims to have an installer (which is actually malware) with instructions to disable Gatekeeper or SIP or what not, social engineering can work. Their goal is to do the thing they wanted to do, probably not thinking of security in the meanwhile. Popup alerts are going to be interpreted as something to get rid of so they can do the thing.

It's a difficult balance. Power users, engineers, developers - we can (usually) tell when warnings need to be heeded. People who use their devices to achieve a goal without really understanding or caring about what's happening usually won't.

Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The newest machine that can't run the new version would be a Mac Pro purchased a scant 4 years ago. Potentially for several thousand dollars. Meanwhile there are 10 year old ~$1000 Thinkpads running Windows 11 or Linux. If they just wanted to run Linux on it they could have saved themselves some money. 8 years of updates to current version and 10 years of security updates should be the absolute minimum for every expe…

I question anyone purchasing a machine with generations old hardware in 2018. Especially considering the Mac pro had been supplanted by newer macs at that point.

In 2018 CPUs were still stagnating, so a 2013 CPU would likely be almost as performant as the latest one.

Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#76
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have gotten so use to these trivial changes that our expectations have renormalized. Desktop OSs are asymptotically approaching a fixed point. Examples of modest but non-trivial changes: - eliminate the folder-file system (or at least make it completely invisible to the user) - remove UI distinction (but not necessarily the sandbox distinction) between web apps and normal apps. - seamless mobile-desktop integratio…

I'm curious as to your background if you consider any of the things mentioned in the articles as "trivial" changes. Have you worked in systems development before? I similarly question your definition of "modest". The first one alone is incredibly radical, and has been tried several times in the past but people keep asking for hierarchical file systems. It's far from modest. 1. How do you propose users organize things…

I’m not using “trivial” as a measure of ease of back-end implementation, but rather of how it actually changes user experience and productivity. There is no limit to how hard it can become to implement trivial changes behind the scenes; it would be silly to ignore or downplay the ossification of desktop OS capability just because software developers continue to expend more and more effort to make smaller and smaller improvements.

My reading of your comment is that you aren’t actually interested in thinking about non-trivial changes here. “Didn’t you know people have tried eliminating folder systems before? It’s hard and hasn’t succeeded yet” is obvious and does not seriously engage with the possibility. (“Didn’t you know people have been attempting to make stylus input work for decades without success?”) Likewise, the fact that web apps can be disguised as native apps is not the same thing as eliminating the distinction at the user level, and I don’t think you would have conflated these if you were really interested in it.

So I don’t think it will be productive to continue this conversation.

Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#77
post #34

I’m sure quite a few MBP 2015 users are going to be a little sad the end is near. I loved that machine. I was able to skip the 2017 MBP and go to 2019, but honestly I miss the smaller trackpad.

I have a 2015 MBP, and still think this machine has legs to last a bit longer. Maybe I'll put arch linux on it later on

Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#78
post #2

> However, the Gatekeeper check here is overridable by users. This is presented as a flaw, but I'm not sure they are thinking through the alternatives. It's hard to give too much credence to security experts who are't thinking holistically. Perhaps there is a flaw, but I'm curious to know what it is.

Security folks tend to have a very myopic view on things. Ever wondered why your computer got less and less useable? Security people pushing their agenda.

Re: Apple’s macOS Ventura – New Security Changes

#79
post #29

At least two other security changes: - userspace filesystems: the nail on the coffin for kernel extensions. Now we won't need to run in "reduced security" to use FUSE and that was the last kernel extension that remained popular. Probably kexts will be deprecated shortly - rapid security response - it seems also to include changes in Xprotect and mrt

Do you have any links on the userspace filesystems? There's a few things I'd like to develop in that regard without getting into kexts

There is that: https://threedots.ovh/blog/2022/06/quick-look-at-user-mode-f...

But userspace filesystems are already present in iOS so you can find some reverse engineered info on that (e.g. in Jonathan Levin's books)

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