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Apple Pushes Unwanted Software To PCs, Again
itwbennett writes "Blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols wags his finger at Apple for indiscriminately pushing the iPhone Configuration Utility 2.1 update out to Windows users, since it is a tool for business system administrators to set up and administer corporate iPhones — the blogger himself (and practically every other iPhone user) not being of the corporate iPhone user persuasion. But more than just unnecessary, the update actually puts him and millions of other iPhone owners/Windows PC users at increased risk by installing 'not just a configuration program, but the Apache Web server as well,' says Vaughan-Nichols. 'A Web server like the one Apple [is] adding to your PC... [is] a gateway just asking to be hammered on by an attacker. Managed properly Apache is as safe a Web server as you'll ever find, but ordinary PC users shouldn't try to manage it, and even an expert can't do anything with it if they don't know it's there.'" Reader CWMike notes that Apple pulled the iPhone Configuration Utility from the update list after a few hours.
the update actually puts him and millions of other iPhone owners/Windows PC users at increased risk by installing
Millions? Lets see here, the update was only recommended for a few hours and was quickly pulled. How many people do you think update constantly? If Windows updates are any indication (and most just install in the background with almost no user interaction) chances are very few. We aren't talking about "millions" but a few thousand in the worst case.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I'm not so sure if asking me if I'd like to update/install something is the same as having it "pushed" to me. I had the Apple Software Update thing pop up on me the other day, I unchecked the items I didn't want (the iPhone Config Util being one of them), and I went ahead and updated the software that I did want. So how exactly are they "forcing" this one me?
I have the iPhone Configuration Utility installed on a work machine as we support a few dozen iPhones at work. Just checked, and there's no Apache process (just an iPCU.exe) when running the app. One of the links in the summary also mentioned using a browser against localhost:3000 for configuration, netstat shows no process listening on that port.
They push Yahoo! toolbar unless you uncheck the box.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Sun was pushing the Bing toolbar with a pre-checked box until last week... now they're pushing Carbonite 30-day trialware the same way.
No I can't find the Apache server other than the one I installed on purpose.
Why bother
Bvllshit. http://httpd.apache.org/security/vulnerabilities_22.html
Quicktime Alternative, FTW.. No iTunes, no iPhone, no iToilet...
Except that we are not talking about OS X. We are talking about MS Windows, which does not come with Apache, so that is why it might be installed.I see not documentation on it being installed. I see a number of items that must be installed to support the utility.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Maybe you just failed to notice that Bonjour, QuickTime, and MobileMe are all tied to iTunes for functionality.
MobileMe is tied in to iTunes for iPhones, Bonjour is for iTunes Sharing, and QuickTime is required for iTunes functionality.
Safari has been known (recently) to prompt for optional installation, but is not checked for installation by default. Your wife would have to check the box and click the install button to "accidentally" install Safari. Also, she is prompted to install these items because the Apple Software Updater process is running on startup. Whoever installed iTunes failed to read and uncheck the box for it to not be installed.
Since when has "virtually no" meant "no"? IIS6.x has had eight vulnerabilities in its seven years of existence (only seven if you search CERT). Less than one a year. IIS7.x has had two in two years (three if you search CERT, plus one "unreliable"). One a year. Apache 2.0.x has had TWENTY-FIVE, and Apache 2.2.x has had TWENTY SEVEN.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
By the same token you can click on Microsoft's updates and, you know, actually read what they are for and what they do. They even have a link to tell you.
Err... Most of the time.
Fairness in our bashing would go a long ways.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Safari used to be checked by default.
I remember being quite annoyed at it.
I think it's a sekrit ploy by Steve Jobs to focus the negative virus/malware based attention away from Apple and toward Microsoft.
What better way to add fuel to the "Apple doesn't get viruses" lie than to have Apple install not just an exploitable software, but a fucking web server, which can be used to proliferate more worms/malware/viruses on the Windows machines.
I would say that's exactly what is happening, especially when a different post here mentions that this "update" was "intended" for corporate IT administrators... I'm a systems administrator; do you have any fucking clue how pissed off I would be to find out that Apple just turned my network of workstations into a network of web servers? Thankfully we don't have any automatic updates turned on, and every time I update our images I intentionally neglect iTunes and Quicktime.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck