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How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

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Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#111

Post by gizmo686 »

raverbashing wrote: post #20
nwh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been balmy little bits of stuff like this all the way through OSX and iOS for ages, though maybe not quite as flippant. Every Mac has the kernel extension "Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext" for example, which loads into RAM a short poem. There once was was a user that whined his existing OS was so blind, he'd do better to pirate an OS that ran great but found his hardware declined. Please don't steal Mac OS! Really,…

I wonder if this has (or had had) some legal significance. I remember some issues with the Apple II rom being copied and that they had to add a "Copyright Apple" or something similar to the binary data.

If I recall correctly, they added a watermark to the ROM. The concern was that as adversary could modify the code to make it difficult to prove that it was actually a copy. The watermark was a hidden section of the code which could be executed to demonstrate that the code did in fact originate from Apple.

If anyone can confirm/deny this, please do.

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#112

Post by gizmo686 »

nicholassmith wrote: post #38
josteink wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every Maccard on the planet seems to think pirating OS X is an oh so terrible thing to do (to the point that parent post is bringing up poems about it like its a cute, non-weird thing). At the same time pirating everything else on the planet seemingly is OK. I've never understood the rationale behind this. Keep in mind I'm a software developer myself and run strictly non-pirated software, and open-source as much as p…

With OS X there's no license key you need to enter, they have a poem instead asking you not to steal it. That's a nice thing, rather than assuming you're going to steal it they have a poem to jokingly ask you otherwise.

They also have it (somewhat) tied to the hardware, which reduces the threat of piracy in the first place.

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#113

Post by veemjeem »

frank_boyd wrote: post #37
artificialidiot wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you mean standby time, it is absolutely horrible.

That is exactly what I mean.

My Nexus 4 lasts about 4 hours of usage, about 10 hours of standby time. I really wish it had a replaceable battery. Phones these days just don't last very long.

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#114

Post by PeterisP »

anonymous wrote: post #110
nwh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been balmy little bits of stuff like this all the way through OSX and iOS for ages, though maybe not quite as flippant. Every Mac has the kernel extension "Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext" for example, which loads into RAM a short poem. There once was was a user that whined his existing OS was so blind, he'd do better to pirate an OS that ran great but found his hardware declined. Please don't steal Mac OS! Really,…

Didn't Jobs say "Great Artists Steal."? Users who are artists must heed these wise words. All Hail the Cult Leader. As for this "poem", I've seen better from kids in elementary school. This speaks to the creative aptitude of Apple's kernel engineers. Certainly not the strongpoint of their workforce. What sort of royalties or up-front payments did CMU get for letting Apple use their kernel?

It's actually very nifty - if you use a "secret"(obscure) key or checksum to check authenticity of hardware, then it still could be legally duplicated as nothing before DMCA was passed would prohibit that. If you use a scrappy poem as that key/token... then it's clearly copyrightable, and its duplication by some other manufacturer can be restricted with ages-old laws.

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#115

Post by takluyver »

icebraining wrote: post #95
nwh wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple sold it as an operating system, they'd have to deal with a nightmare of drivers. As it stands one disk can cover almost every Mac ever made, and they're content with that.

Sure, but they wouldn't have to sell it as an operating system just to remove the artificial restrictions. They could still support only their machines, and just not encrypt the binaries and all that nonsense. But I'm not saying they should , as I said, I don't really care. I'm just saying that just because they don't want to support other machines, that doesn't mean they have to purposely block them. I mean, Asus do…

> they don't have BIOS checks verifying that the OS is supported and refusing to boot if it isn't

In fact the machines they're selling now almost certainly do have precisely this. It's called 'secure boot', and caused a lot of controversy. The major Linux distributions work because they've managed to get themselves signed with the appropriate key so the BIOS accepts them, but if you want to put a more niche distribution on there, you probably have to disable that check in the BIOS.

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#116

Post by briannickel »

nwh wrote: post #17
DominikR wrote: post #13

I definitely love those kind of easter eggs. There are also similar methods in the Android SDK: UserManager.isUserAGoat() link: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/UserManage... Log.wtf() link: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/Log.html... , java.lang.Throwable) AdapterViewFlipper.fyiWillBeAdvancedByHostKThx() link: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/Adapte...

There's been balmy little bits of stuff like this all the way through OSX and iOS for ages, though maybe not quite as flippant. Every Mac has the kernel extension "Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext" for example, which loads into RAM a short poem. There once was was a user that whined his existing OS was so blind, he'd do better to pirate an OS that ran great but found his hardware declined. Please don't steal Mac OS! Really,…

Reminds me of VAX chips during the Cold War. They had "When you care enough to steal the best etched on the chip in Cyrillic.

http://popularlogistics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/cvax1...

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#117

Post by bsorbo »

jheriko wrote: post #28

if you ever investigate the call stacks when there is a crash in their stuff from wrong parameters you can find all kinds of weird names. I'm still wondering what the purple coloured port is :)

"Purple" was one of the code names for the first iPhone - http://allthingsd.com/20120803/apples-scott-forstall-on-how-...

I've seen PurpleEventCallback show up in different stacks.

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#118

Post by icebraining »

takluyver wrote: post #115
icebraining wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but they wouldn't have to sell it as an operating system just to remove the artificial restrictions. They could still support only their machines, and just not encrypt the binaries and all that nonsense. But I'm not saying they should , as I said, I don't really care. I'm just saying that just because they don't want to support other machines, that doesn't mean they have to purposely block them. I mean, Asus do…

> they don't have BIOS checks verifying that the OS is supported and refusing to boot if it isn't In fact the machines they're selling now almost certainly do have precisely this. It's called 'secure boot', and caused a lot of controversy. The major Linux distributions work because they've managed to get themselves signed with the appropriate key so the BIOS accepts them, but if you want to put a more niche distribut…

No, Secure Boot doesn't check if the OS is supported, it just checks if it's digitally signed, and that the signature is valid.

And you don't even have to disable the check if you want to use an unsigned distribution: most (all?) implementations allow the user to load her/his own public key to verify the signature against.

While we should worry about its impact - particularly in certain implementations - it's really not even close.

Re: How Apple hides new functionality in iOS: isYoMamaWearsCombatBootsActive

#120

Post by anonymous »

PeterisP wrote: post #114
anonymous wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't Jobs say "Great Artists Steal."? Users who are artists must heed these wise words. All Hail the Cult Leader. As for this "poem", I've seen better from kids in elementary school. This speaks to the creative aptitude of Apple's kernel engineers. Certainly not the strongpoint of their workforce. What sort of royalties or up-front payments did CMU get for letting Apple use their kernel?

It's actually very nifty - if you use a "secret"(obscure) key or checksum to check authenticity of hardware, then it still could be legally duplicated as nothing before DMCA was passed would prohibit that. If you use a scrappy poem as that key/token... then it's clearly copyrightable, and its duplication by some other manufacturer can be restricted with ages-old laws.

Do you have a citation for the cases where Apple has successfully argued used this in court against some other party who was pirating OSX?

It's only "nifty" until it's put to the test and fails in court. It's "effective" as a way to protect software only in the minds of some Apple engineers; but a judge might not see it that way. There's no precedent to assure anyone that it would work. If there were, I suspect we'd see it in widespread use. Or maybe Apple has tried to patent it?

Perhaps the DMCA exists because "nifty" gimmicks like this one cannot be relied on?

Nice try.

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