In this time where days just blur into each other: we made it to April, everyone!
The video conferencing software Zoom is enjoying new popularity, but also (deservedly) new scrutiny. MacAdmins have been complaining about their absolutely insane installer package for years. Now, the security people are on it.
I repeat my offer: I will donate a code for my book “Packaging for Apple Administrators” to any engineer at Zoom who is working on improving the installer. (The book has helped engineers at other companies.)
Stay Safe!
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News and Opinion
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Bruvik: “Turns out – it is impossible to enter the | symbol on a virtualbox machine on a mac if you have both the guest and host keyboard layout set to norwegian”
- Tim Perfitt: “triple boot successful both with boot files on efi partition and on the volume. next up, quad boot with 2 versions of windows.” (read the thread!)
- Rich Trouton: “Need to quickly check to see if your web server’s system clock has drifted? Here’s a one-liner to check using curl to see if a web server’s system clock has the correct time by comparing it against Google’s”
- Tim Perfitt: “Boot Camp on ARM-based Macs? Possible.”
- Rosyna Keller: “This is a tweetstorm discussing the new features of altool 4.01 (included with Xcode 11.4), changes to the notarization documentation, and a change to notary service requirements, with the far majority coming directly from user requests We’ll start with altool 4.01.” (Thread)
- BBEdit: “ICYMI from yesterday’s 13.1 beta change notes, there’s a little taste of home for TextWrangler customers who are making the switch.” (Image)
- Tom Bridge: “Every. Single. Day. I have to explain how the Screen Recording, Mic and Camera permissions work. Every day. Sometimes a dozen times a day. This sucks.”
Zoom Security and Installer
Note: several MacAdmins have known and complained about this for a long time.
- The ‘S’ in Zoom, Stands for Security – Patrick Wardle, Objective-See’s Blog
- A Message to Our Users – Zoom Blog
- Bart Reardon: “reminder that @zoom_us’s macOS installer is BAD – runs the whole install from the pre-install script without users OK to do so (no, simply running the pkg is not permission to complete the install). this is not ”ease of use“, it’s wholesale abuse of the macOS pkg format.”
- Erik Gomez: “Use the autopkg recipe that removes most of this…”
- Regarding Zoom – John Gruber, Daring Fireball
- 10 Zoom alternatives for more secure, cross-platform video calls – Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac
- Good Apps Behaving Badly: Zoom macOS Installer – Felix Seele, VMRay
Coronavirus and Remote Work
- Minecraft Harmony – Michael Lynn
- COVID – A commitment to Open Source – Erik Gomez
- Shifting to 100 Percent Remote Work: A Guide for IT Admins – Jon Xavier, Fleetsmith Blog
- No More Tips For Working From Home – Tom Bridge
- The Future of Work Is Remote. But What Does That Really Mean? – Mike Ranellone, Jumpcloud Blog
Bugs and Security
- Learn XPC exploitation, Part 1: Broken cryptography – Wojciech Reguła
- So, uh, I think Catalina 10.15.4 Broke SSH? – Tyler Hall (Workaround)
Support and HowTos
- Booting to macOS Recovery or Diagnostics via Jamf Pro’s Self Service – Rich Trouton
- Book update/correction: Managing FileVault in macOS 10.15 Catalina – Frederick Abeloos
- What can you do at the password prompt in Catalina’s recovery mode? – Alan Siu
- Reducing video file size with Handbrake – Jamie Pruden (fixed author, my apologies)
- 2020–002 Update Causes Some Macs to Freeze When Using Video Conf Apps – Mr Macintosh
- How to Integrate Jamf Pro with Google Secure LDAP as a Cloud Identity Provider – HCS Technology Group
- A way to install macOS Catalina guest on VirtualBox on a Mac host – Alan Siu
Scripting and Automation
- Manipulating the Notifications Center with Python – Drew Diver
- Upgrade to macOS Catalina using Self Service with Jamf Pro – HCS Technology Group
- How to Send Jamf Alerts to Slack – HCS Technology Group
- jlehikoinen/DefaultBrowser: Demo SwiftUI app for changing default browser on macOS
Apple Support
- What’s new in Keynote 10.0: Mac, iOS
- What’s new in Pages 10.0: Mac, iOS
- What’s new in Numbers 10.0: Mac, iOS
- Connect a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad to your iPad
- Use a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad with your iPad
- Apple ProRes RAW for Windows 1.0 (Beta)
- Final Cut Pro X – 90 day free trial
- Logic Pro X – 90 day free trial
Updates and Releases
- Munki Catalog Browser
- Dropbox beta for macOS adds desktop, documents, and downloads syncing to match iCloud Drive – Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac
To Listen
- Lock and Code S1Ep3: Dishing on data privacy with Adam Kujawa – Malwarebytes Labs
- FIDO Alliance and the future of passwords – Apple @ Work Podcast
- Jason Dettbarn from Addigy – Mac Admins Podcast
- This Is Not Snake Oil – Command-Control-Power
Just for Fun
Support
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