Re: New Patch Fixes 43 Flaws In OS X, Many Serious

"GreyCloud" <mist@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:r96dnYr3YbQqBvXZnZ2dnUVZ_vqdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Daniel Johnson wrote:
Well, one way is to see what it's advocates have to
say about. OS X had technical measures to protect itself,
I would expect Mac advocates to tout them. But they
do not.

Because it is inherent to UNIX?

Saying this is no more helpful than saying it is "inherent
to Mac OS X". You have not told us what Unix
does (or doesn't do) that produces this result; you
are just waving the word "Unix" around like some
sort of mantra.

And simply because they don't see any problems?
Simplicity itself. You make simple concepts into hard ones.

I think it is reasonable to ask why Mac OS X has such a low
incidence of malware compared to Windows.

I can think of several plausible explainations.

But I observe that Mac advocates *don't* explain it.

I find this telling.

[snip]
Or the fact that Unix is just quite a bit more difficult to intrude upon
than Windows.

Is it? In what way?

Read Stephens book on UNIX programming and you'll find out why.
The answer is too long to post... that's why I suggest to you to read the
most acclaimed book on UNIX. (Note: it covers OS X as well).

I have seen that answer before on this newsgroup, and I think
it means that you have no idea what you are talking about; you
are trying to conceal this fact by referencing a book which you
are confident I won't read. I am then supposed to conclude
that it somehow supports you.

I actually conclude that you have nothing to say and are
just trying to deflect my demands that you say something. :D

[snip]
Mac OS X is not a Unix.

Yes it is. It isn't UNIX®. Read the book.

Er, omiting the registered-trademark symbol does not mean
that "Unix" isn't a registered trademark.

Indeed, at this point that is *all* Unix still is. The term
no longer refers to any particular codebase or anything
like that.

It is Unix compatible, but that's mostly bad from a security
point of view: you get to have things like setuid-root programs
and so on.

Proof?

Hmm.

It is not easy (on Usenet) to *prove* that Mac OS X supports
the Unix security model; but you can check it for yourself if you
have a Mac; you can use Unix command line tools to set up a
setuid-root program and test it. If you do this, you will find that
it works as advertised.

That this is a weakness in the Unix security model is, of course,
quite uncontroversial.

[snip]
Consider the dashboard debacle that occured at the launch of
Tiger (10.4). That revealed a astonishingly cavalier attitude towards
security. And to add to that, they didn't get the problem fixed
until 10.4.2! And *even now*, when the implementation is not so
buggy, it's still less secure than ActiveX.

All that you have said is from ignorance of Unix.

I suspect that I know more about it than you, actually,
but it's still beside the point. It is *not* like Dashboard
came from any Unix.

[snip]


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