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Apple's apps bypass firewalls like LittleSnitch and LuLu on macOS Big Sur

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1183 points robenkleene | 4 comments | 20 Oct 20 15:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.728s | source
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3pt14159 ◴[20 Oct 20 16:03 UTC] No.24838967[source]▶
This is one of those tough cases where software cuts both ways.

Some people are smart, informed developers that install a trusted tool to monitor their traffic and have legitimate reasons to want to inspect Apple traffic. They're dismayed.

Most people are the opposite and this move protects the most sensitive data from being easily scooped up or muddled in easily installed apps, or at least easily installed apps that don't use zero days.

Is the world better or worse due to this change? I'd say a touch better, but I don't like the fact that this change was needed in the first place. I trust Apple, but I don't like trusting trust.

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1. addicted ◴[20 Oct 20 16:16 UTC] No.24839126[source]▶
Is there anything Apple can do that makes their platform less accessible to the users that you would not support?
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2. 3pt14159 ◴[20 Oct 20 17:27 UTC] No.24840075[source]▶
Absolutely. For example, I think that the lockdown of the bios was a move that hobbled developers like myself that installed custom bios extensions. I used to be able to run raw linux on real hardware. Now I need to use a commercial virtual machine just to get the dev environment I want.

The difference between the two is subtle, but true. I want true masters that understand what the tradeoffs are to make those hard choices for themselves. I want the rest of the world to have a blanket of privacy and security that protects everyone.

Especially the elderly that are too trusting with what they believe.

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3. mdoms ◴[20 Oct 20 18:40 UTC] No.24840886[source]▶
Interesting that it's only the thing that personally affects you that you object to
4. addicted ◴[20 Oct 20 21:39 UTC] No.24842628[source]▶
I appreciate the response. I suspect you’re missing the many ways in which this change can negatively impact valid and fairly frequent advanced usages of macs, in a way similar to the BIOS change you mentioned.

When I was in college, Little Snitch was an absolute must for using Macs in our networking labs, because it was the best way to analyze and control our network. Without it the mac was not a feasible option.

This change by Apple would have essentially eliminated the macs use in several of these experiments, and I suspect that’s true today as well.

Further, this has a regular advanced user impact as well, for users on metered networks who would like to control their data usage.