macOS Archive

Apple this week delivered to developers Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard build 9A303, the latest in an extremely limited series of pre-release builds of its next-generation operating system. People familiar with the new distribution of the software, labeled Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard build 9A303, say one of its primary objectives of the release is to knock out several 'performance related bugs' that were present in 9A283.

"Yesterday, I read what I consider to be a provoking piece at ZDNet. It pointed out that while there is no question that Macs are not the malware targets that Windows machines are, they're most certainly not immune to an attack of the right variety. It went on to backup its point with a real world scenario in which a University of New South Wales Mac server had been hit by malware. Disturbingly, the server had apparently been running the latest updates from Apple and still managed to get hit. It mentioned that, in the author's opinion, Apple was 'misleading people' into believing that their OS was more secure than it really is. Whether or not that is true is frankly immaterial to me. It should be noted that no OS is 100 percent bulletproof, and I believe this is what it was driving home at. Unfortunately, some people within the Mac community felt differently."

Source code for a Mac virus has gone public, a security company warned Friday, and although the original doesn't carry a malicious payload, more dangerous variants can be expected. The virus, dubbed 'OSX.Macarena' by Symantec, targets some, but not all, Mac OS X Mach-O executables. "Although methods of infecting Mach-O binaries have been publicly available for some time, this marks the first known fully functional Mach-O file infecter virus," Symantec noted in an alert to customers of its DeepSight threat network on Friday. "The source code for this virus is publicly available and as such it is possible that variants may be trivially developed to extend the virus's functionality."

Metasploit founder HD Moore has released an exploit for an unpatched vulnerability in the Apple Airport driver that ships with some PowerBook and iMac computers. Moore said the exploit is not related to the Wi-Fi driver flaws discovered and discussed in Aug. 2006 by researchers David Maynor and Jon Ellch at the Black Hat Briefings. Moore, who is collaborating with Ellch on Wi-Fi flaw research, named the exploit after Daring Fireball, a Mac blogger who doubted the Black Hat findings and issued a public challenge to Ellch and Maynor.

Mac OS X 10.4.8 will now run on any generic x86-based PC. Well, almost. Kernel coder Semthex has posted what he claims is an entirely legal release of the Mac operating system's foundation layer. The only snag: you can't boot into the familiar GUI. To date, the version of Mac OS X for x86 processors has relied on kernel add-ons to anchor the software to Apple's own hardware through the machines' Trusted Platform Module. Much of the core code is independent of it, however, and available for access to all and sundry via Apple's own source code licence. What Semthex has claimed to do is produce code that essentially bypasses the TPM stuff yet stays within the Apple licence.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says that Apple did not need NeXT, the company that provided the foundation for Mac OS X; he argues that System 7 wasn't nearly as bad as it was made out to be. Wozniak also says that Mac OS 9 was more secure than OS X is now: Mac OS X is built in Unix and is therefore more prone to attacks because people are familiar with the holes in Unix, explained Woznaik. "Some of the holes in Unix are well known. So keeping Firewalls on is more important. And we keep announcing, even our own security fixes, not as many as Microsoft but still we never really had those in the OS 9 days."

"With the advent of Intel-based Macintosh computers, Apple was faced with a new requirement: to make it non-trivial to run Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware. The 'solution' to this 'problem' is multifaceted. One important aspect of the solution involves the use of encrypted executables for a few key applications like the Finder and the Dock. Apple calls such executables apple-protected binaries. In this document, we will see how Apple-protected binaries work in Mac OS X."

Apple has just released a new web page with developer information concerning Mac OS 10.5, Leopard. Among other things, the list includes: OpenGL 2.1, resolution independence, the adoption of the Mandatory Access Control framework from TrustedBSD, Code signing, and much more. And yes, boys and girls, there are screenshots as well. Update: Apple also launched faster MacBook Pros today. Update II: Screenshots of Leopard from ThinkSecret.

"If you can believe what some of the online tech prognosticators tell you, Apple's real 'Top Secret' plan is to have Mac OS 10.5 Leopard out by Macworld Expo in January, or perhaps shortly thereafter. If true, it would give Apple a chance to trounce Windows Vista, at least in times of mind share as opposed to market share, assuming the latter indeed comes out around the same time. I think some of the folks who expect an early release ought to reconsider what they're smoking or drinking."

Apple Computer this week released to developers the first pre-release update of its next-generation Leopard operating system since the initial preview in early August. Build 9A283 delivers "Significant user interface changes to iCal" and "Basic editing in Preview," according to the report. It also adds "new Parental Controls for content filtering, apps, and curfews" and "3D audio cues to indicate locations of items on the screen in the VoiceOver screen reader."

These two really interesting videos (1, 2) at YouTube document the beginnings of NeXT Computers. We can assume that these videos were shot either late 1985 or early 1986.

Lunapark reviews the EyeTV Hybrid, and concludes: "If you own a Mac Mini and have it in your living room, the EyeTV Hybrid is something you should run out to buy immediately (I mean right now). For MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro owners - if want your tv fix on the Mac or you want an easy way to transfer television shows to your ipod, EyeTV Hybrid is a great choice. Personally I love the EyeTV Hybrid and would enthusiastically recommend it without any hesitation."