Apple promises it isn’t spying on Mac users to find out which applications they are using. The company was forced to make this clear after a server glitch caused users to realize that Gatekeeper in macOS sends a message to Apple whenever they open an application.
macOS 10.15 Catalina is ruthless about launching unknown apps. Unless your app comes direct from the App Store, or the app’s developer got the app notarized by Apple, it won’t launch. Double click on it, and you’ll see a warning — and nothing else. There’s no option to say you trust the app and launch it despite Catalina’s warnings.
But you can still launch those apps. It’s just that Apple hides the controls in the hope that you’ll give up. It’s petty, and it shows a lack of respect for you, the user. However, it’s also dead easy to fix this problem. Let’s see how to launch any app on macOS Catalina.
Apple has confirmed that all macOS apps will need to be notarized to be accepted by Gatekeeper after its Mojave 10.14.5 update.
The requirement applies to new and updated apps and all software from developers who are new to distributing with Developer ID. In a future version of macOS, notarization will be required by default.
There’s a new method to let Mac users know that the software they’re installing isn’t loaded with malware. It’s called notarized apps, and Apple urges developers to use it.
Right now, getting apps notarized is optional. Eventually, it’ll be a requirement. That’s a bonus for Mac users.
Security researchers have discovered a nasty bit of Mac malware similar to OSX.Dok trojan, which can bypass Apple’s GateKeeper feature.
The new bug, dubbed OSX.Bella, behaves and distributes itself in a completely different manner than OSX.Dok. But once installed, it executes a script that’s just as damaging.
OSX/Dok, a new strain of “major scale” malware targeting macOS users, can bypass the Gatekeeper feature that’s designed to block malicious software.
The newly identified trojan, which prevents you from doing anything on your Mac until you install a bogus software update, also goes undetected by many antivirus programs.
Yet another strain of malware targeted at Mac users has popped up this week to prove you shouldn’t disable the Gatekeeper feature baked into OS X. “OSX/Keydnap” disguises itself as an innocent text or image file, then installs malicious code onto your Mac.
We all know Apple’s are much safer than Windows PCs at keeping out the malware, right?
Researcher Patrick Wardle has been trying to make sure of that for months now as he pokes holes in Apple’s current protection scheme, Gatekeeper.
In fact, he’s gotten past Apple’s latest patch to its software security system in literally five minutes.
Apple’s Gatekeeper feature was designed to keep even the most advanced users from accidentally installing malicious software on their computers, but a super-simple exploit lets hackers sneak malware onto your Mac.
The exploit was discovered by Patrick Wardle, director of research at security firm Synack. Wardle found that the exploit is made possible thanks to a key design shortcoming in Gatekeeper that lets an attacker use a binary file already trusted by Apple to execute malicious files.
Here’s how it works:
A new Mac malware has been found in the wild that allowed attackers to steal data and install unauthorized apps on a compromised machine. What makes this malware different than other recent Mac malware, though, is that it breezes right past Gatekeeper… and the people behind it might have been gunning for the life of their malware victim.
