If you look back a few days earlier in this list, you'll see my
experiences in installing Ubuntu on older MacOS hardware -- I just went
through the process and documented it there -- and there are various
resources on the web that weren't too hard to find. I'm typing this on
Ubuntu running on a MacBook 2,1 now.
It has some nice features. But there are warts.
Ken
On 2020-05-09 10:05 p.m., Dmitri Zaitsev wrote:
I would be very interested to learn how to avoid the insecure MacOS
software replacing it with that from Linux land. Any good source to
read about it?
On Sun, May 10, 2020, 07:47 Daniel J. Luke <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
On May 7, 2020, at 3:34 PM, Ken Cunningham
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> there are large closed-source surface areas that you aren't
going to be able to keep updated.
>
> You have said that before, and I listened, but:
>
> all my systems live behind a firewall, and none are exposed to
the open web.
> I don’t use any MacOS-era software to access anything outside
the network. Only, really, MacPorts stuff (all with up-to-date
security) and TenFourFox (also built with MacPorts stuff, also
with all up to date security).
... and they're probably all linked with versions of Libsystem
that don't have the most recent patches from Apple (you could
probably be backporting them, but I doubt you're doing that :) ).
> I just don’t see the vulnerability, TBH.
>
> If you know of any, please give me an example. I don’t want to
be stupid about things.
It's risky - the majority of bugs that Apple releases security
patches for are in components that exist in previous Mac OS
versions. Maybe those versions don't have those problems (but they
probably do). Maybe no one is exploiting them.
If you are firewalling and monitoring both inbound and outbound
traffic, maybe you've set things up so that you can run a
vulnerable system safely. Most people aren't capable of doing
that. These kinds of things are hard to do well - if you've got a
strong perimeter, but vulnerable systems inside - it just takes
one problem with your perimeter security and an attacker has
access to everything you thought was secured by your perimeter
security.
> The time daemon, maybe? I heard there was something about that
daemon,
yeah, it's had a bunch of problems.
> but it just checks Apple’s time server.
how do you know? (hint: ntp uses udp and also bgp-interdomain
routing is still largely insecure).
> I could replace that too, I guess...
At that point, if you're not using any MacOS software - why are
you running Mac OS at all? That hardware can run an OS that's
still getting security patches and run all of the unix-y software
that's in Macports without the risk.
(Of course, Mac OS UI and hardware drivers are generally better,
so I understand there may be reasons why people might want to do
this - but I think it's too easy to overlook the potential downside).
[This is probably off-topic for macports, so I'll refrain from
typing more]
--
Daniel J. Luke
