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Apple's First 2005 Mac OS X Security Update Is Out
ollie_ob writes "Security Update 2005-001 has just hit Software Update for Mac OS X users, for those running 10.3.7 and 10.2.8 in both normal and server flavours of the OS. The update includes patches for: at commands, ColorSync, libxml2, Mail, PHP, Safari and SquirrelMail.
Details are here. One of these fixes -- a modification to Apple Mail so it stops broadcasting your MAC address in plain text every time you send an email - will come as a welcome relief to those trying to keep their WEP-based wireless networks secure. Other highlights are PHP 4.3.10, and a Safari fix so that pop-up windows can't mislead users as to their apparent origin. The Mac OS X Server version of the patch also includes an update to SquirrelMail that stops browsers from executing scripted content in emails viewed(!).
Interesting to note Apple's new naming scheme for the updates (last year, some updates came out dated days into the future - or past.) Also, there's a unified page for all future security updates."
And if you've got any questions about iLife '05, let me know. GarageBand's vocal effects are pretty cool, though I don't sound all that hot as a woman...
The CB App. What's your 20?
It appears that the slowness many saw with eBay in Safari has been fixed. Previously, the fix was to turn off javascript - a pain. No more spinning beachballs here (just revving G5 fans ...)
from the console
- tristan
What I like about the Kottke troll is that it is so versatile. You can substitute brands and products for comedic effect. For instance:Hilarity ensues.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
It's not as though someone would deliberately insert code to broadcast a MAC address into a mail client.
No, not specifically. Here's the scoop.
Each email is supposed to have a unique Message-Id header. Other than logging and tracing, this is so that, when it's referenced by other emails via the In-Reply-To: and References: headers, the mail reader can properly thread the emails.
Second, there's a common unique ID format called the UUID. This is a 128-bit value that is unique across space and time until AD 3400. If you've looked at CLSIDs in Windows RegEdit, then you've seen UUIDs. (Windows calls them GUIDs.) They're also used in a lot of RPC-type protocols, in Mozilla plugins, and other places. One common way to generate a UUID incorporates the computer's MAC address as the last 48 bits, so that no two computers will generate the same UUID (assuming the MACs were properly registered), along with the clock time.
Since UUIDs are an easily-generated random number (lots of library routines to generate them, as well as the OS X uuidgen tool), that's what Mail used for its Message-Ids.
Later versions of the UUID spec
Not a feature an idea that perhaps seemed OK at the time... to generate unique message IDs based on an existing type of unique identifier that happened, in the original format defined for it, to use an IEEE 802 MAC address, presumably because those are intended to be unique to a piece of hardware, so the rest of the UUID merely has to be a value that will never be used again on a system where that MAC address is used to generate UUIDs.
The current Internet-Draft for a URN namespace for UUIDs mentions another scheme to generate UUIDs in that format that don't use a hardware MAC address but that won't collide with UUIDs generated from MAC addresses for hardware (by turning on the bit that would be the multicast bit in an 802 MAC address).
I am not totally sure but I launched dist utility after installing this update, log window flooded with wrong users, permissions. Especially files updated by this install.
Go to Applications/Utilities (Apple+U in finder window) and launch disk utility, click repair permissions.
In fact, its a good idea to do it once in a while.
*eyes other slashdotters warily*
The Mac OS X Software Update prog will run (unless you specifically request it not to) once your system is up and running. You can find the controls for Software Update in your System Preferences (Apple Menu or a shortcut in the Dock).
Enjoy...
The Media Access Controller address is becoming the computing equivalent of the US Social Security Number - (ab)used for things for which it was never intended and is inappropriate.
/dev/random (or your OS's equivalent service) or some other method.
First of all, a MAC address does not uniquely identify a computer - it uniquely identifies a network interface. I have several computers which have more than one Ethernet controller in them, and so they have several MAC addresses associated with them.
Secondly, since almost ALL modern cards allow the MAC address to be changed by software, there is no guarantee that the MAC address is unique.
These two items alone should be sufficient to convince people that using the MAC address as anything other than the physical layer address of a specific Ethernet card is a BAD IDEA.
If you want to generate a unique identifier for a message, use something else - use
www.eFax.com are spammers
Sounds like the Power Management Unit (PMU) needs to be reset. Shut the Mac down, pull the plug. Press the front panel power button to discharge any leftover current in the PS. Open door, remove the logicboard battery (it's the one that looks like a 1/2 AA). There are two versions of the MDD G4, but on the MDD I have access to, the PMU reset is located right next to the ATA cable socket from the optical drives (And is labelled clearly). -THE FOLLOWING IS IMPORTANT- Only press the PMU swith once! All Apple documentation says this. Apparently, multiple presses can crash the PMU so bad that the whole kit-and-kaboodle needs to be sent back to Apple for repair. Wait maybe 30 seconds, then replace the battery, close it back up, plug it back in, and restart. Try a sleep/wake up cycle and see what happens.
They will continue to use the builtin ethernet MAC address to generate IDs, but now they're sticking some random junk on the end and putting them through a hash function first, so the receiver of your message can't get your MAC address from it.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
a) WDS is the common name used for wireless-to-wireless bridging, but it is not actually a ratified standard, it has not even been proposed. It came out of the discussions leading up to WiFi but was deliberately excluded from the standard. Therefore "WDS" can include anything the vendor wants to put under that marketing term, and there is no guarantee (or even reasonable expectation) of interoperability.
b) Apple's implementation for example does work with WPA. Other vendors devices will have different results because WDS ? WDS if you mix vendors.
That's good advice -- but not always practical.
First off, WEP is still better than absolutely nothing. It does prevent the uneducated and unexperienced from snooping in on you -- they have to have a bit of knowledge and put in some effort to see what you're doing.
The big problem with WPA is that not all wireless devices support it. I'm in a nasty catch-22 at the moment on my WiFi network in that I've been contracted to do some development with and against a Palm Tungsten C, which is WiFi enabled, but which has absolutely no WPA support. My base station and other portables support WPA just fine, but I'm stuck with WEP because one device manufacturer for a device I absolutely need has decided not to bother with WPA support.
If I had extra money just laying around with nothing much to do, I'd consider buying another base station to be hooked into my network (heavily firewalled off from the rest of my network) to provide only WEP access, and switch everything else back to WPA. But unfortunately I'm stuck with what I have at the moment, and have to rely on SSH and other encrypted protocols as much as possible to ensure my networks security, as WEP alone, while better than absolutely nothing, isn't enough.
Before I go, an open rant: Palm, take your head out of the sand and realize that we T|C users need WPA protection, just like everyone else.
Yaz.
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