“The Mac OS X Leopard firewall failed every test. It is not activated by default and, even when activated, it does not behave as expected. Network connections to non-authorised services can still be established and even under the most restrictive setting, “Block all incoming connections,” it allows access to system services from the internet. Although the problems and peculiarities described here are not security vulnerabilities in the sense that they can be exploited to break into a Mac, Apple would be well advised to sort them out pronto,” Jürgen Schmidt reports for Heise Security
“Apple is showing here a casual attitude with regard to security questions which strongly recalls that of Microsoft four years ago. Back then Microsoft was supplying Windows XP with a firewall, which was, however, deactivated by default and was sometimes again deactivated when updates were installed. It was also the case that system services representing potential access points for malware were accessible via the internet interface by default. Despite years of warnings from security experts, the predominant attitude was that security must not get in the way of the great new networking functions,” Schmidt reports.
“Then along came worms such as Lovsan/Blaster and Sasser, which rapidly infected millions of Windows computers via security vulnerabilities in system services, causing millions worth of damage. Even today, an unpatched Windows system with no active firewall will be infected within a matter of minutes. However, Microsoft has since learnt its lesson — a serviceable firewall, activated by default, has been included since Service Pack 2. With the standard configuration, no services are accessible from the internet on a Windows system,” Schmidt reports.
Full article here.
Lisa Vaas reports for eWeek, “Instead of addressing perceived flaws in the firewall, an Apple spokesman told eWEEK only that the company ‘takes security very seriously,’ that it has ‘a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users,’ and that it always welcomes feedback on how it can make security better on the Mac.”
Full article here.
Bullshit FUD.
DON’T panic, just use ipfw:
1. If you have OS X Tiger, turn on the firewall in System Preferences
2. Open Terminal in your admin account and type at the prompt: sudo ipfw list
3. Apply these rules to Leopard
4. For more info, type: man ipfw
P.S. Imagine Apple is trying to help you learn something.
Wot! No comment MDN?
…”failed every test” because it was TURNED OFF!!! Wankers.
Windows XP’s firewall may be on by default with SP2, but it has to be disabled to get anything done. Not very helpful.
I’ll start worrying about this as soon as security threats to OS X pass the theoretical stage.
Apple needs to get this fixed asap.
I’ve maintained several Mac computers and servers running every Mac OS X version since 10.0 DP4, and every one of them remained online with a public static IP address on the internet, with no firewall enabled, and I use ARD, AFS, POP/SMTP, etc. No intrusions, no malware. Thwarted bot attempts in the logs, but no successful breaches.
MDN word: deal
This will teach those hacking bastards to allow Leopard to be installed on pc’s!!!!
Those pc’s will be mauled by Win’s viruses, worms, trojans & combo’s of vwt’s to the point where any person having done the deed will be needing to replace their computers rather than disinfecting them.
Mac’s of course will (“Although the problems and peculiarities described here are not security vulnerabilities in the sense that they can be exploited to break into a Mac”,) always run & run & run & run & run……………
That’s pretty serious if it’s true. Apple can’t fall down on the job with security – it MUST keep OS X free from viruses, worms, spyware, etc. or Mac users could face the same sort of future as Windows users.
The last thing Apple needs is a major PR issue over security when no viruses, better security is a big driving point for switchers.
@Developer: RTF article. Even when enabled, the Leopard firewall didn’t work correctly. Shame on Apple.
Leopard firewall is turned off by default? Is this really true?
It’s likely that the firewall is off because the Mac is set up to receive connections from the internet, but that those connections only expose very specific items and are blocked from going anywhere else. Heise simply says, “the problems and peculiarities described here are not security vulnerabilities in the sense that they can be exploited to break into a Mac.”
That said, Apple should comment on this.
OK, I finally got it, and I am loading it now. Been waiting a long, long time for this. I was surprised that there wasn’t much of a line to buy it. Wow, two disc……I didn’t know the Eagles had that much left in them….(I hope it is better than Joni’s “I Hate America” CD I bought last month)
Oh, and death to Jerken Schitt.
I’m not sure how much credibility this author has. He spelled “learned” wrong!
IT master says
this no true
F you windoze suck ass
@ Reality check: every version of Mac OS X has shipped with its firewall disabled. Leopard is no different. It’s just FUD.
Yeah, I thought it was weird that that I had to know enough to go into System Prefs to turn on and configure the Firewall.
Even more surprising given that so much Little Snitch functionality has been co-opted into Leopard.
The only open port on a vanilla Leopard installation is UDP port 88, which is used for Kerberos, a secure authentication protocol developed by MIT.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos_protocol
Just get a damn router
I was surprised when I saw that the firewall wasn’t turned on by default as well. Bad Apple.
@Reality Check: you need to RTFA buddy, and stop spreading your FUD around, because it stinks. Report back with the line just before: “The Verdict” – that’s the one in big fat letters at the end of TFA. Ok?
Gotcha!!!
I am with UltraVisitor on this one: This is just so much FUD until there is a successful exploit of Leopard in the wild. I rate the chances of that happening any time soon as pretty remote. In the meantime, some people will say things like “this sounds serious” while those of us who actually have to deal with network security issues are yawning. The vast, vast majority of personal computers sit behind firewalls in routers and other network devices. You have to get through one of them to get to your PC or Mac. And even if a hacker gets that far, the likelihood of anybody getting into your Mac and doing something harmful is incredibly small. Honestly folks, nothing to see here… move along.
I heard Vista was fast!