Longer summary this week to catch up on the last three weeks of traveling!
The last post celebrating the 100th email resulted in quite a few new subscribers. Welcome!
I posted my speaking and training class schedule for the next few months. It’d be great to meet you somewhere!
If you would rather get the weekly newsletter by email, you can subscribe to the Scripting OS X Weekly Newsletter here!! (Same content, delivered to your Inbox once a week.)
On Scripting OS X
News and Opinion
- On Switching from iPad to Chromebook in School – Fraser Speirs
- Jamf Acquires Digita Security, Creators of Enterprise Endpoint Protection Built Exclusively for Mac – Jamf
- Digital Afterlife – Robin Laurén
- Last Week on My Mac: Apple Remote – Howard Oakley
- Apple subsidiary FileMaker returns to its original name from the ’80s – Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge
- How Apple reinvents its core business to keep growing – Jason Snell, Macworld
- Apple Releases USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter with HDMI 2.0 Support – Tim Hardwick, MacRumors
- Searching for gold with habitat restoration in mind – Apple (via Dave Marra)
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Denise Yu: “I illustrated my three favourite binaries”
- Pepijn Bruienne: “To my surprise we recently updated the Authorization Plugin documentation. Surprise because it’s not seen a lot of change in recent times, but you get TWO new callbacks, RemoveHintValue and RemoveContextValue!”
- Mr. Macintosh: “2019–004 for High Sierra 10.13, Sierra 10.12 and BridgeOS have been re released! I will update the main article and reply to this post when I have the new build numbers.”
- Rosyna Keller: “The updated Hardened Runtime docs are out! The overview includes more information on how to enable it in Xcode and explains that the hardened runtime is designed to stop certain classes of exploits.” (Thread)
- Phil Stokes: “Thanks to @SentinelOne @patrickwardle, my free ebook of How To Reverse macOS Malware is now available. Learn to set up a safe Mac test lab, find malware samples, static + dynamic analysis. eBook is free; tools you need are free.”
- Ronald Oussoren: “The version 6 branch of PyObjC has finally caught up with the current beta: tests pass in macOS 10.15 beta 5 with Python 3.8b3, including bindings for all new frameworks.”
- Edward Marczak: “Support local meetups! Particularly in tech: we need more discussion between disparate teams. There’s undoubtedly a meetup near you that matches your style. Support can mean presenting, but also just showing up. Without you, these gatherings go away. With you, they get stronger.”
Bugs and Security
- The Ultimate Guide to Passwords in 2019: Length, Complexity & More! – Jon Xavier, Fleetsmith Blog
- Apple Hands Hackers Secret iPhones In A Bid To Boost Security, Sources Say – Thomas Brewster, Forbes
- It’s easy to roll out endpoint security when you don’t give a sh*t about your employees – Jason Meller, Kolide
- KNOB Attack
Support and HowTos
- Compressor Tips and Tricks – DAM SAN
- Some things I wish I had know before starting to automate Mac Developer ID Notarization – Frank Reiff
- Apple has released High Sierra and Sierra Security Updates 2019–004 again – Howard Oakley
- Mounting FileShares with Jamf Connect Verify – Frederick Abeloos
- New Full Installer of Mojave 10.14.5 (18F2059) released after 10.14.6??? – Mr Macintosh
- Fix Adobe app 64-bit compatibility errors on macOS – Adobe Support (via Steve Moser)
- 10.14.6 Supplemental Update Released to fix Wake From Sleep Problems – Mr Macintosh
- Enabling debug logging for the JAMFSoftwareServer log on Jamf Pro limited access nodes – Rich Trouton
- Mojave 10.14.6 Supplemental Update does bring some EFI updates – Howard Oakley
- Living with Desktop & Documents in iCloud – Howard Oakley
- Launching the SwiftPM Library – Dave Verwer
- How Long to the Major macOS Text Editors Take to Open Huge Files? – BirchTree
- Use preferences to manage privacy controls for Office for Mac – Microsoft Docs (via Robert Hammen)
- iMac screen flickers when using Outlook for Mac – Office Support (via Robert Hammen)
- Notarization Follow-Up and Video – Tom Bridge
- Implementing Google Chrome security best practices with Fleetsmith – Jon Xavier, Fleetsmith
- Fizsh – Ryan Dotson
- Privacy and Consent changes in Microsoft Office 16.28 – Kevin M. Cox
- Global defaults in macOS Mojave – Howard Oakley
- macOSUpdate with secureToken – Joshua Miller
Scripting and Automation
- Building customized postinstall scripts for AutoPkg recipes – Rich Trouton
- Automate and Distribute Apple Shortcuts – Charles Edge
- Automate those apps. Get some robot love – DAM SAN
- t-lark/Auto-Update: Automatically update apps with jamf policy driven workflows
- Demo Data as Code – Thomas A. Limoncelli, ACM Queue
Apple Support
- Hardened Runtime Entitlements – Apple Developer Documentation
- Use Apple products on enterprise networks – Apple Support (Finally!)
Updates and Releases
- Jamf Pro 10.14 (and a 10.14.1 update)
- AutoPkgr 1.5
- Tim Perfitt: “Initial incorporation of MicroMDM with MDM and DEP into MDS 2! Check it out. Test out the build.”
- WhiteBox – Packages 1.2.6
- SimpleMDM: “SimpleMDM now supports SAML auth, User Enrollment, and custom welcome screens during the enrollment process.”
- VMware Fusion 11.1.1
- NetNewsWire 5 Public Beta
- gregneagle/pycreateuserpkg
- LAPS for macOS
- Fleetsmith August Update: Egnyte, Catalina, bridgeOS bug fix
To Watch
To Listen
- Episode 131: A Roadmap for macOS Security, with Jesse Endahl – Mac Admins Podcast
- Episode 132: Greg Neagle’s Panoply of Python – Mac Admins Podcast
- Episode 133: Sunburst and Luminary, with Don Eyles – Mac Admins Podcast
Just for Fun
- Timo Elliott: “How to evaluate your existing enterprise infrastructure…” (click for cartoon)
- Ed Marczak: “We have a long way to go in exploring this medium. ” (read linked thread)
Support
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