The latest version of Apple's macOS operating system, macOS High Sierra, has been released. If you have upgraded your system already, how did the upgrade go? Did you encounter any problems? If you have not yet updated, why have you chosen not to?
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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Apple made its latest OS update available Monday, but the release of High Sierra was tainted somewhat by the fact it comes replete with a critical vulnerability that allows an attacker to dump plaintext passwords from the macOS Keychain.
Researcher Patrick Wardle, chief security researcher at Synack, discovered the issue in early September and privately disclosed to Apple. The disclosure, however, did not preclude Apple from making High Sierra public yesterday. Wardle said in a post published yesterday that he expects a patch to be forthcoming.
The vulnerability is not exclusive to High Sierra; Wardle said he also tested it on Sierra, and that it appears El Capitan is vulnerable also.
Wardle did not provide specific information on the vulnerability, other than to say that non-privileged code or a malicious application could gain illicit access to the Keychain and steal passwords. He said the bar is set low in terms of ease of exploit.
Wardle emphasized too that an attacker would already have to be on a Mac machine in order to carry out his attack, and that the Keychain would have to be unlocked, which it is by default when the user logs in.
"Theoretically, this attack would be added as a capability or as a payload of such malware," Wardle wrote. "For example, the malware would persist, survey the system, then use this attack to dump the keychain."
-- submitted from IRC
Previously: Ad Industry “Deeply Concerned” About Safari’s New Ad-Tracking Restrictions
Ask SoylentNews: How did Your Upgrade to macOS High Sierra Go?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:32AM (11 children)
What is this "macOS" of which you speak, and where can I download it from? You do know this is SoylentNews? Only TMB and crm3824 use Mac.
(Score: 2) by TGV on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:40AM (7 children)
You can download it from apple.com: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201475 [apple.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:53AM (6 children)
NO, I cannot.
Why would I subject myself to such walled garden monopoly, when I could run a free and open Operating System?
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by lx on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:26AM (3 children)
Grow up.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:41AM
Flox off, you two letter, sub 2k uid, partisan wombat! I support your right to free speech absolutely, just don't be such a dick.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Type44Q on Thursday September 28 2017, @02:59PM
An emotional response disguised as a logical response... to a logical point. Zero actual rebuttal (not that that would have been possible, given the self-evident nature of said point).
You brought a spitwad to a gunfight. Well-fucking-done, lightweight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:43PM
Icks.
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Thursday September 28 2017, @02:02PM (1 child)
My reason: to port my software for benefit of users who suffer Macs. But no way in hell I'm buying grossly overpriced Apple hardware, and hackintosh failed to install on either of last two Intel machines I own within the limit of effort I consider acceptable. Thus, no, sorry, no working OSX builds of my free software.
This stands in contrast to the other evil company, who provides gratis native toolchains, doesn't oppose free cross toolchains, and sometimes even give out licenses for fully working versions (like Windows Insider Edition).
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @03:29PM
This worked for me. And not an overpriced chunk of Apple hardware in sight.
https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/138887-setting-up-apple-mac-os-x-10-12-on-esxi-6-0-host-as-a-vm [spiceworks.com]
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:55PM
Indeed. Most of us here have at least heard of the major operating systems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @10:08PM (1 child)
Actually I am quite happy with my MacOS Sierra. I can't remember exactly where I downloaded it from, but the process may have included some peer to peer file sharing software. Mine runs happily inside a VirtualBox on a regular PC. Similar installations can run directly on the iron. It's actually not a terrible effort. Paternalistic end-user experience, a.k.a iTunes is of course an abomination but the developer experience is actually not terrible.
At the moment I run the following operating systems
Windows 10, developer mode, windows sub-system for linux
Mac OS X Sierra, all developer accounts and options active
Elementary Linux, a few minor mods to render it usable but actually this thing is pretty great out of the box
I find the three systems to be very close in terms of user experience with the linux system maybe edging out the competition due to it having the most mature and refined Terminal application
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday September 28 2017, @10:56PM
Your credentials accepted, Sir!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:37AM (1 child)
But first mac then M$, I thought you all just upgraded to gentoo? am I mistaken?
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:12AM
I upgraded to devuan and fscking my head in Gentoo for yearsssss.....
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:56AM (1 child)
The pucker factor was pretty high on the filesystem conversion, but everything seems to be running fine.
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @09:09PM
Yeah, mine updated fairly quickly on both sides of that part of the process. But I did get pretty worried when the progress bar froze in place for 40 minutes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:21AM (1 child)
I somehow managed to avoid it. It might be related to still having GWX control panel installed from last time they tried to force an upgrade, or it might be related to the question assuming that everyone has a Mac...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @09:40AM
This says more about your assumptions than the assumptions of the OP
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:30AM
I skipped Sierra, because my wife and I were not yet ready to drop iPhoto for the inferior Photos. Now that High Sierra includes massive improvements to Photos, we should be good to go.
More importantly, High Sierra offers a 'fix' to the issue of iTunes removing the ability to download iOS apps for syncing to iDevices. The Mac can now hold a cache of downloaded Apple content (e.g. App Store apps) that are downloaded from the Mac when any device on your network requests it. Great for when you have to update multiple iDevices. This will also make the iOS 11 upgrade across 2 phones and 3 iPads (family) a lot faster.
Ars Technica has a fairly good review [arstechnica.com] as usual.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Thursday September 28 2017, @08:06AM (1 child)
I use Linux, you insensitive clod!
Is this upgrade business as usual for MacOS users (start the upgrade, take a break, job done), or is it problematic, in which case an article about the problems related to the upgrade would have been more relevant?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @05:16PM
I'm still waiting to download SGI IRIX 6.5.31. Anyone see that out on the street yet? It has only been 11 years since 6.5.30, so .31 should be out anytime now I suppose...
The good news is that Firefox 2.0.0.22 pre-release, the latest I can find that works on IRIX, can't be upgraded to Firefox 57, so I'm not going to lose my add-ons as long as I stick to IRIX!
(Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Thursday September 28 2017, @08:52AM (4 children)
Raped and killed my wife to only spared me and the children as witnesses for its joyful slaughter but not before breaking our knees, severing our arms and tends while hanging us as decoration up the nearest tree.
Siri kept screaming "Why are you holding me wrong?!" repeatedly as High Sierra drove off with my car.
1/5 I like the new emojis.
compiling...
(Score: 4, Funny) by Nerdfest on Thursday September 28 2017, @09:41AM (2 children)
Pfffft. As if an Apple OS would rape your wife.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday September 28 2017, @11:49AM
I think it was channeling the spirit of Steve Jobs while it was doing it. Explains why I just found the dissected body of my neighbor's cat strangled with the cord of a 1 button mouse in the middle of a rounded corners pentagram that had Aliter Cogitate™ written with blood at the top center of each section.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:09PM
Yes, but it's not above raping wallets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @12:25PM
Great....now I have clean all of my coffee from my monitor :-(
Knew I should've waited until after breakfast before reading this Site.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @08:58AM
macfags are too dumb to provide anything of value
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday September 28 2017, @09:21AM
Is High Sierra to Sierra as Mountain Lion was to Lion (and Snow Leopard to Leopard)?
I can understand having to use similar names while sticking to the Felidae theme (oblig. [xkcd.com]), but now they've switched to Californian geography, why re-use?
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Thursday September 28 2017, @10:14AM
Pretty seamless upgrade. Got a message on my iPhone that iOS was switching to the new media format because I upgraded my MacBook. I switched it back to jpeg.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by damnbunni on Thursday September 28 2017, @11:08AM (5 children)
I only update my Mac's OS when they stop releasing security updates for the one I'm using.
If it wasn't for that, I'd still be on Snow Leopard. Because the UI just keeps getting ass-ier and there haven't been any new OS features that interest me in the least.
I don't really give a crap about the new file system, I don't use Photos or Safari, I don't use h265 video because I'd rather deal with h264's larger files than h265's way higher CPU requirements, my GPU doesn't support the Metal API, I don't use Siri (hell, my machine doesn't even have a microphone), I wish I could remove the emoji I've already GOT and screw adding more.
And my really big concern: I dual-boot 10.6 Snow Leopard because I have old software I need for a few things that won't work under 10.7 or later. And my Mac is all-SSD. I haven't been able to find a straight answer on whether the update will force ALL SSD partitions to the new filesystem - which would break my Snow Leopard install.
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Thursday September 28 2017, @11:53AM
After poking around some more, I did find an answer. The update only changes the file system on the boot partitions, other partitions on the drive are unchanged. The reason appears to be 'because that would break Boot Camp'.
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Thursday September 28 2017, @12:16PM (3 children)
Ah Snow Leopard, my favorite Mac OS. Many would agree with you that it was the high point for Macs before Apple soiled it with iOS crap.
Also why not emulate Snow Leopard if you need it? Not an ideal situation but it'd work regardless of the underlying FS.
(Score: 3, Informative) by damnbunni on Thursday September 28 2017, @02:21PM (2 children)
Because I never got it to work properly in VirtualBox, and VMWare and Parallels refuse to allow Snow Leopard to run because only the server version is licensed for VM client use.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @03:33PM
https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/138887-setting-up-apple-mac-os-x-10-12-on-esxi-6-0-host-as-a-vm [spiceworks.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by fyngyrz on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:50PM
FYI: I run the server version of Snow Leopard in a VMWARE VM on a 12/24 core 2009 mac pro otherwise running 10.12.6. It's a pretty good solution – it's great to have both OSs up and running and talking to one another through the filesystem and network – except for one thing - the sound doesn't work, which can be a real problem. This is officially acknowledged by VMWARE in the form of a "sound is unsupported" remark for 10.6.8 server installs.
You can't even stick a USB sound device on it to get around it. Just doesn't work. VMWARE has been unresponsive on the matter, which is not a huge surprise, although it certainly is disappointing to see them fail to support such basic system capabilities.
If the sound issues don't put you off, you can legally and easily buy the server version from Apple for about $20 or so. Just call 'em, explain that you need to run 10.6.8 in a VM because [reasons], and they'll ship you a new-in-the-box copy out of a warehouse somewhere. They were very helpful to me just a few months ago when I set this up, and VMWARE did indeed recognize the server install properly and sets the up the VM without complaint.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @01:45PM
I think I've reached my limit.
https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-apple.html [gnu.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:31PM (1 child)
Our fairly powerful Mac Pro tower is missing something required by High Sierra, so it is not upgradable. It's the highest power computer we have in the house, and we have several. Of course all the others run Linux, and when the MacOS on the Mac Pro goes out of security update support, it will move over as well.
We are reconsidering Apple for future computers due to this. It's great hardware, but we can build a great system and run Linux without worrying about the OS not being upgradeable, and do it for less money.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday September 30 2017, @11:08PM
I've heard several years ago that Linux has trouble running reliably on Macs. Is that still true? I'm considering a dual boot transition scenario -- Linux and MacOS. Possibly several Linuxes.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Thursday September 28 2017, @05:15PM
Worked without a hitch. Even blander than before though; the icon for the App Store, for example, is solid white and unrecognisable unless you have prior knowledge of what it used to represent.
(Score: 1) by jman on Friday September 29 2017, @09:54AM
To all the "Walled Garden" haters, it's still BSD under the hood, so can be managed.
By far, my '09 MBP is the computer I've used for the longest time (going back to the C64, the first 'puter I bought as an adult. A whole $250! Same cost as my first 40 meg Seagate drive some years later), and I've worked the hell out of it.
It's extremely stable, though when compiling or running Adobe I do kinda wish I could have more than 8GB of memory.
Unfortunately for their immense, overflowing coffers, due to Apple's insistence that I no longer be able to upgrade my own memory, or even generally repair my own machine, until that situation should change it'll be the last purchase they get out of me (phone and tablet are Android).
Sure, if PS/AI/ID/TB/FF/Etc. are all loaded at once (as is usual), things may tarry a little, but no way in hell am I going to spend $3500 for a machine I can't fix.
(Had thought when Mac Pro came out in '13 they were giving a shout out to folks that actually use them as the tools they are, not fancy, expensive and disposable TV's, but apparently they changed their mind.)
So, the upgrade went swimmingly ... as my hardware won't support it, am still on El Capitan, and will remain that way until this box finally dies, at which time I'll probably build a modern one (or buy a nice strong Intel-based laptop) and put Hackintosh on it.
Guess I'm getting into the Grumpy Guy stage, as I won't be upgrading FF past v56 either, since Tab Groups is considered "Legacy", and there's just not enough free time to figure out how to convert it to WebExtensions.