Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

gist.github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 66 posts

Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

#31

Post by lilyball »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #27

“On iOS, there is no full-disk or full-volume encryption, only varying levels of file-based encryption...” I don't understand this claim. iOS had full disk encryption starting with iOS 3.0, in 2010. Or at least Apple (and other security experts) says it does: https://darthnull.org/security/2014/10/06/ios-encryption/ Am I missing something here?

You're not missing something. The author doesn't seem to understand how iOS's disk encryption works. It's not "full disk encryption" in that the full disk is not encrypted with one key. However, every single file on the disk is encrypted, with separate keys, and the various levels of security (e.g. "accessible always", "accessible when unlocked", etc) are managed by storing these keys in different key bags whose own keys are evicted from memory at the appropriate times.

Which is to say, it's not classic FDE, but if you were to take the storage out of an iPhone and inspect it, you'd find that everything in the filesystem is in fact encrypted.

Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

#33

Post by nixpulvis »

davewritescode wrote: post #30
nixpulvis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must I link a running process list of my Linux laptop vs my macOS laptop?

How do you know the process list is accurate for certain? The point is, there’s potentially back doors in everything, including the C compiler that built your Linux kernel.

We've all read reflections on trusting trust... still my point stands, it's hard to argue that Linux is not lighter than the mainstream OSes.

Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

#36

Post by userbinator »

This post by a security researcher who prefers to remain anonymous

If iOS is to really be considered a secure OS, and if vanilla macOS is to become more secure, independent end-user control must be considered. Increased low-level design security at the cost of control, and the ability to prevent leaking data, cannot be considered a real improvement in security.

Whoever you are, thank you greatly for not being another one of those authoritarian cargo-cult "users are stupid so we should remove all control from them" people which the greater security community seems to be full of.

Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

#37

Post by userbinator »

unstatusthequo wrote: post #7
karimdag wrote: post #2

I am no connaisseur , just a guy who cares about privacy (in general and his in particular) who also happens to own an iPhone and wants to buy a Mac. This seems pretty troubling, as I as well as many I suppose, trust Apple and think that they're one of the good guys. I know it's cliché but I think this is the part where "[..] live long enough to see yourself become the villain." applies. The more important question,…

What do you do? Windows world is worse. So is Android generally. Use Linux? How do you trust that? QubesOS? Pen and paper? If you walk outside, you’re on camera. Living off grid with no phone or computer seals the deal, but not very practical. I’m all about security and privacy, but everything is on balance with practically. If a three digit govt agency wants to find you, they have so many other ways than Apple.

Windows before Vista/XP is quite good in terms of privacy in the "phones home" sense --- no activation and a fresh default install will remain absolutely quiet on the network. Activation started with XP (but easily cracked), and then Microsoft began increasing the noise and phoning-home crap shortly after that.

I find it ironic that one of the features removed starting with Win7 was the network activity indicator in the system tray. Of course, recent Apple hardware and software has no indicators either. The opaqueness is unsettling.

Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

#38

Post by userbinator »

nixpulvis wrote: post #33
davewritescode wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know the process list is accurate for certain? The point is, there’s potentially back doors in everything, including the C compiler that built your Linux kernel.

We've all read reflections on trusting trust... still my point stands, it's hard to argue that Linux is not lighter than the mainstream OSes.

Something like a default Ubuntu install (which might be somewhat "mainstream") actually has a surprising amount of stuff running in the background. Of course it's all open-source or otherwise completely documented, so it's still easier to figure out what's what than with Windows or macOS.

Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

#39

Post by mmphosis »

nixpulvis wrote: post #29
andromeduck wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really doubt that's the case if you use more than a few small apps which is the case for the vast majority of users.

Must I link a running process list of my Linux laptop vs my macOS laptop?

  ps aux | wc
Linux:

  177
Mac OS X:

  44
macOS?

Re: iOS, the Future of MacOS, Freedom, Security and Privacy

#40

Post by merlish »

stuartd wrote: post #3

How old is this? the state and details of disk encryption on both OSes is slightly unclear, but hopefully will become clearer when iOS 10.3 is released. 10.3 was released 9 months ago. And I find it hard to take seriously any article where every other sentence is bolded.

The article has additions up to 2018 as additional sections.
Post reply on HN