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Apple Admits to ‘Misleading’ Firewall

Jimmy 2004

Jimmy 2004

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Apple has admitted that the firewall in its new Leopard OS X may be misleading to users, after complaints that the "Block all incoming connections" setting was not all that it was made out to be.
The 'Block all incoming connections' setting for the Application Firewall allows any process running as user "root" (UID 0) to receive incoming connections, and also allows mDNSResponder to receive connections. This could result in the unexpected exposure of network services.
Click to expand...
As a result, the company has quickly released a patch to fix this issue, which also fixes a flaw that lets processes running as root through the firewall even if they are added to the list of blocked applications, and an issue which means an application needs to be restarted before changes in firewall settings will take affect for it.

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Last edited:
Thanks wiak for this useful story.
 
Apple misleading...Never...
 
Silly Apple... ZoneAlarm FTW!
 
Jimmy 2004 said:
Apple has admitted that the firewall in its new Leopard OS X may be misleading to users, after complaints that the “Block all incoming connections” setting was not all that it was made out to be.

As a result, the company has quickly released a patch to fix this issue, which also fixes a flaw that lets processes running as root through the firewall even if they are added to the list of blocked applications, and an issue which means an application needs to be restarted before changes in firewall settings will take affect for it.

Source: ZDNet.com
Click to expand...

I think the title of this post is misleading. Your talking about a flaw/bug in a firewall. This is something Apple fixed after users began to notice this. Title should be changed to something more accurate.
 
Ravenas said:
I think the title of this post is misleading. Your talking about a flaw/bug in a firewall. This is something Apple fixed after users began to notice this. Title should be changed to something more accurate.
Click to expand...

Yeah, something like:

"Overpriced computer not nearly as safe as we are all expected to believe"
 
b1lk1 said:
Yeah, something like:

"Overpriced computer not nearly as safe as we are all expected to believe"
Click to expand...

You expected, not I ;) I've never suspected that any computer connected to the internet is safe :)
 
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