Protect Knight Mac OS

OS X doesn’t protect your data from apps you download, so you’ll need to do that yourself. Apple does try to make sure you don’t install anything without thinking about it, and has tools to. Upgrading the IBM Spectrum Protect Client to version 8.1 on a Mac OS X system, can leave some files and directories belonging to previous installation and using old product naming convention. For example, after a successful upgrade, a directory called 'Tivoli Storage Manager' can still be found.

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System Integrity Protection (SIP,^[1] sometimes referred to as rootless^[2][3]) is a security feature of Apple's macOSoperating system introduced in OS X El Capitan (2015) (OS X 10.11). It comprises a number of mechanisms that are enforced by the kernel. A centerpiece is the protection of system-owned files and directories against modifications by processes without a specific 'entitlement', even when executed by the root user or a user with root privileges (sudo).

Apple says that the root user can be a significant risk factor to the system's security, especially on systems with a single user account on which that user is also the administrator. SIP is enabled by default, but can be disabled.^[4][5]

Justification[edit]

Apple says that System Integrity Protection is a necessary step to ensure a high level of security. In one of the WWDC developer sessions, Apple engineer Pierre-Olivier Martel described unrestricted root access as one of the remaining weaknesses of the system, saying that '[any] piece of malware is one password or vulnerability away from taking full control of the device'. He stated that most installations of macOS have only one user account that necessarily carries administrative credentials with it, which means that most users can grant root access to any program that asks for it. Whenever a user on such a system is prompted and enters their account password – which Martel says is often weak or non-existent – the security of the entire system is potentially compromised.^[4] Restricting the power of root is not unprecedented on macOS. For instance, versions of macOS prior to Mac OS X Leopard enforce level 1 of securelevel, a security feature that originates in BSD and its derivatives upon which macOS is partially based.^[6]

Functions[edit]

System Integrity Protection comprises the following mechanisms:

• Protection of contents and file-system permissions of system files and directories;
• Protection of processes against code injection, runtime attachment (like debugging) and DTrace;
• Protection against unsigned kernel extensions ('kexts').

System Integrity Protection protects system files and directories that are flagged for protection. This happens either by adding an extended file attribute to a file or directory, by adding the file or directory to /System/Library/Sandbox/rootless.conf or both. Among the protected directories are: /System, /bin, /sbin, /usr (but not /usr/local).^[8] The symbolic links from /etc, /tmp and /var to /private/etc, /private/tmp and /private/var are also protected, although the target directories are not themselves protected. Most preinstalled Apple applications in /Applications are protected as well.^[1] The kernel, XNU, stops all processes without specific entitlements from modifying the permissions and contents of flagged files and directories and also prevents code injection, runtime attachment and DTrace with respect to protected executables.^[9]

Since OS X Yosemite, kernel extensions, such as drivers, have to be code-signed with a particular Apple entitlement. Developers have to request a developer ID with such an entitlement from Apple.^[10] The kernel refuses to boot if unsigned extensions are present, showing the user a prohibition sign instead. This mechanism, called 'kext signing', was integrated into System Integrity Protection.^[4][11]

System Integrity Protection will also sanitize certain environmental variables when calling system programs when SIP is in effect. For example, SIP will sanitize LD_LIBRARY_PATH and DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH before calling a system program like /bin/bash to avoid code injections into the Bash process.^[12]

Configuration[edit]

The directories protected by SIP by default include:^[13]

• /System
• /sbin
• /bin
• /usr
• /Applications

/usr is protected with the exception of /usr/local subdirectory. /Applications is protected for apps that are pre-installed with Mac OS, such as Calendar, Photos, Safari, Terminal, Console, App Store, and Notes.^[13]

System Integrity Protection can only be disabled (either wholly or partly) from outside of the system partition. To that end, Apple provides the csrutilcommand-line utility which can be executed from a Terminal window within the recovery system or a bootable macOS installation disk, which adds a boot argument to the device's NVRAM. This applies the setting to all of the installations of El Capitan or macOS Sierra on the device.^[4] Upon installation of macOS, the installer moves any unknown components within flagged system directories to /Library/SystemMigration/History/Migration-[UUID]/QuarantineRoot/.^[1][4] By preventing write access to system directories, the system file and directory permissions are maintained automatically during Apple software updates. As a result, permissions repair is not available in Disk Utility^[14] and the corresponding diskutil operation.

Reception[edit]

Reception of System Integrity Protection has been mixed. Macworld expressed the concern that Apple could take full control away from users and developers in future releases and move the security policy of macOS slowly toward that of Apple's mobile operating systemiOS, whereupon the installation of many utilities and modifications requires jailbreaking.^[2][15] Some applications and drivers will not work to their full extent or cannot be operated at all unless the feature is disabled, either temporarily or permanently. Ars Technica suggested that this could affect smaller developers disproportionately, as larger ones may be able to work with Apple directly. However, they also remarked that by far most users, including power users, will not have a reason to turn the feature off, saying that there are 'almost no downsides' to it.^[1]

See also[edit]

• Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux)

References[edit]

Protect Knight Mac Os Downloads

1. ^ ^abcdCunningham, Andrew; Hutchinson, Lee (September 29, 2015). 'OS X 10.11 El Capitan: The Ars Technica Review—System Integrity Protection'. Ars Technica. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
2. ^ ^abCunningham, Andrew (June 17, 2015). 'First look: OS X El Capitan brings a little Snow Leopard to Yosemite'. Ars Technica. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
3. ^Slivka, Eric (June 12, 2015). 'OS X El Capitan Opens Door to TRIM Support on Third-Party SSDs for Improved Performance'. MacRumors. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
4. ^ ^abcdeMartel, Pierre-Olivier (June 2015). 'Security and Your Apps'(PDF). Apple Developer. pp. 8–54. Archived(PDF) from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
5. ^'Configuring System Integrity Protection'. Mac Developer Library. Apple. September 16, 2015. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
6. ^Garfinkel, Simon; Spafford, Gene; Schwartz, Alan (2003). Practical UNIX and Internet Security. O'Reilly Media. pp. 118–9. ISBN9780596003234.
7. ^'About the screens you see when your Mac starts up'. Apple Support. August 13, 2015. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
8. ^'About System Integrity Protection on your Mac'. Apple Support. May 30, 2016. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
9. ^'What's New In OS X - OS X El Capitan v10.11'. Mac Developer Library. Apple. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016. Code injection and runtime attachments to system binaries are no longer permitted.
10. ^'Kernel Extensions'. Mac Developer Library. Apple. September 16, 2015. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
11. ^'Trim in Yosemite'. Cindori. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
12. ^Walton, Jeffrey (March 28, 2020). 'Nettle 3.5.1 and OS X 10.12 patch'. nettle-bugs (Mailing list). Retrieved 13 July 2020.
13. ^ ^ab'How to Check if System Integrity Protection (SIP) is Enabled on Mac'. OS X Daily. August 1, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
14. ^'OS X El Capitan Developer Beta 2 Release Notes'. Mac Developer Library. Apple. June 22, 2015. At section Notes and Known Issues. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
15. ^Fleishman, Glenn (July 15, 2015). 'Private I: El Capitan's System Integrity Protection will shift utilities' functions'. Macworld. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

External links[edit]

Before macOS, and before OS X, there was just Mac OS. This is often referred to as “Classic” Mac OS. It includes System 1 all the way up to Mac OS 9.x. I started using a Mac with System 6 on a Macintosh Classic. Then I moved up to a Macintosh IIsi running System 7. Finally, after the PowerPC transition, I used a Power Macintosh 8500 which ran all of the later versions of “Classic” Mac OS. I was recently having a conversation with another developer who grew up using Macintosh computers and we were both reminiscing about some of our early development experiences on Mac. While System 6 was the first Mac OS version I used, I didn’t start really writing Mac apps until the Mac OS 8 era. This got me thinking that it might be interesting to spend some time re-learning “Classic” Mac OS app development.

As I mentioned previously I didn’t really start programming until Mac OS 8 and by then CodeWarrior had solidly cemented itself as the IDE of choice for Mac developers. I decided for this exploration that I wanted to stick to early Mac software as much as possible. I chose to only look for tools that were available for Mac prior to the 1990s.

Since I no longer have any physical “Classic” Mac hardware I decided to turn to emulation. I’ll go over some of the more populator emulators and why I chose the one I did.

SheepShaver

SheepShaver emulates a Power PC Macintosh. It was originally created for BeOS back in 1998. Since then, it has become an open source project. It’s capable of running Mac OS 7.5.2 through 9.0.4. If you’re interested in running the more recent versions of “Classic” Mac OS this is probably the emulator you should choose. Mac OS 7.5.2 was released in 1995 and in turn SheepShaver doesn’t fit my criteria of sticking to software and tools available prior to the 1990s.

Basilisk II

Basilisk II emulates a 68k Macintosh. Originally released in 1997 by the same developer as SheepShaver. It’s capable of running up to Mac OS 8.1. This is another very popular emulator and a lot of people looking to emulate 68k Macintoshes choose this one. It is also open source, however it is no longer being maintained.

Mini vMac

Mini vMac is a spinoff of the vMac project. It also emulates a 68k Macintosh. It has a focus on the early Macs with the default build emulating a Macintosh Plus. Mini vMac is capable of emulating up to Mac OS 7.5.5. It’s also open source and unlike Basilisk II is still being maintained.

So what’s the difference between Mini vMac and Basilisk II? The FAQ page for Mini vMac has a great explanation.

The biggest current difference is that Mini vMac emulates the earliest Macs, while Basilisk II emulates later 680x0 Macs. The fundamental technical difference is that Basilisk II doesn’t emulate hardware, but patches the drivers in ROM, while Mini vMac emulates the hardware (with the exception of the floppy drive).

The consequences are that some of the earliest Mac software will run in Mini vMac and not Basilisk II, while much of the later software will run in Basilisk II and not Mini vMac. For software that will run in either, the emulation in Mini vMac can be more accurate, while Basilisk II offers many more features (including color, larger screen, more memory, network access, and more host integration).

Mini vMac aims to stay simple and maintainable. So Mini vMac only has compile time preferences, where as Basilisk II has many run time preferences. And Mini vMac uses a rather simple emulation of the processor, compared to Basilisk II, which could make Mini vMac slower.

The fact that Mini vMac focuses on early Macs and ealy Mac software it fit my criteria well. It has a good Getting Started page as well as a collection of other Tutorials to help you get system software and get up and running. I went through all of the tutorials and now have a working emulated Mac Plus running System 6.0.8.

With an emulator up and running I next needed to find software. Luckily, there are a few sites that host repositories of software for old Mac OS versions. The following sites have been some of the most helpful in terms of finding old software:

I mentioned earlier that CodeWarrior was the IDE of choice when I started Mac development but since it came out in the 90s it didn’t fit my criteria for early Mac development. Additionally while C/C++ had become the language of choice for the Mac in the 90s, back in the 80s Pascal was by far more common. I also needed an IDE that supported System 6.

While looking for Pascal compilers I came across two main contenders: Borland Turbo Pascal and THINK Pascal. Both seemed like good potential candidates. They had versions that came out in the late 80s and supported System 6. THINK Pascal seemed to be fairly popular during the era.

An alternative, that I had used a handful of times before CodeWarrior, was the Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop (MPW). MPW was the development environment provided by Apple. In the 80s it was quite expensive. It had a 68k assembler, a pascal compiler, and (new for MPW 2.0) a C compiler as well. This seemed like a fun choice because of the range of languages supported but also because it was the official offerring provided by Apple. After downloading MPW 2.0 from the software links above I had a working development environment.

Protect Knight Mac Os X

The last thing I needed were some good programming books from the time period. I found a wonderful resource in the Vintage Apple website.

Here’s a list of the books I’ve found most useful so far:

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Inside Macintosh Volumes I - III cover everything you would ever want to know about the early Mac and how it worked. It also covers all of the OS managers and their API’s as well. Inside Macintosh Volume IV covers changes for the Macintosh Plus, which is helpful since Mini vMac emulates a Macintosh Plus. The other two books have some good information about MPW itself and how it works as well as some okay intro to Mac programming.

Protect Knight Mac Os Download

With an emulated Mac configured and an IDE chosen I’ve started to write some little test programs in Pascal. While I’ve never written a Mac program in Pascal, I have written many Delphi applications on Windows. I’ve also started to search out some old Mac viruses from the 80s to take a look at how they worked. Overall, I find it a nice change of pace to be able to boot into System 6, do some coding, play some old games and remember a time when computers were a lot less complicated to use.

Protect Knight Mac OS