Category: Weekly News

The month of May is like “advent for Apple fans.” WWDC is looming in a few weeks. Most of the dust from previous system releases has settled. Things have been fixed, or we have gotten used to the workarounds. Anticipation and dread for the next round of releases is rising. Sometimes, Apple even opens a door or two and releases something which didn’t fit in the keynote.

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MacDevOps YVR have announced their speaker line-up for their virtual conference in June, and I am very proud to be among all these amazing speakers. You can still register for the event from June 15–17. You can also order MacDevOpsYVR 2022 t-shirts and hoodies!

Also the dates and location for this year’s Objective by the Sea were announced: It will go from October 3–7, in Spain, near Barcelona.

As always, I keep a list of conferences, their dates and other important links, such as calls for presentation and session video archives from previous conferences on my conferences page.

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.)

News and Opinion

• Microsoft Edge Overtakes Safari as World’s Second Most Popular Desktop Browser – Tim Hardwick, MacRumors
• Toxic Superiority in IT: How it Hurts Us All – Mobile Jon
• Kaseya Owner Funds Apple Device Management Software Platform Mosyle – Joe Panettieri, ChannelE2E
• Some Reasons why Installers are a mess – John C. Welch

Social Media

• tlark: “ATTN MDM vendors. Please take a long good look at Munki, it is what IT admin/eng want. We don’t want complex systems that require GUI clicking. We just reduced our level of effort by ripping out third party app deployment/patching from our MDM and deployed Munki in AWS” (Thread)

Security and Privacy

• Some Thoughts on Privacy, “Privacy”, and Mastodon – kbps (The way I use social media—I assume everything on social media is public—these privacy issues don’t concern me, but everyone should be aware of them.
• Apple, Google, and Microsoft commit to expanded support for FIDO standard – Apple
• Apple Silicon Exclusively Hit With World-First “Augury” DMP Vulnerability – Francisco Pires, Tom’s Hardware

Support and HowTos

• Honestpuck/NIST-macos-security-HOWTO: HowTo incorporate the NIST ‘macOS Security Compliance Project’ Into Jamf Pro
• How to Build Custom Osquery Tables Using ATC
• Another ARD offline issue – Eric Hemmeter
• zsh Tip: Preview and undo command line substitutions – CLI Notes (the shortcut is ‘ctrl-underscore’ or ‘shift-ctrl-minus’, neat!)
• Unified Logging for macOS, an introduction – Skartek
• The File Table: Osquery’s Secret Weapon – Fritz Ifert-Miller, Kolide Blog
• The Great Debate: Should You Set Up Users as Admin or Standard? – Steven Vogt, Kandji Blog
• How to Calculate Patch Management Costs – Kelsey Kinzer, JumpCloud
• The Beginner’s Guide to Mobile Device Management – Ashley Gwilliam, JumpCloud
• Alphabet Soup & Language Gaffs  – Pam Lefkowitz, JumpCloud

Scripting and Automation

• Downloading Crowdstrike via API for Fun and Profit – Richard Purves
• Launching Scripts #4: AppleScript from Shell Script – Scripting OS X

Updates and Releases

• What’s new in Microsoft Intune, May 2, 2022 – Microsoft Docs
• Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 144 – WebKit
• Munki 5.7.0 Beta 2
• Jamf Pro 10.38

To Watch

• The Great Debate: Admin or Standard Users? – Kandji

To Listen

• Roundtable – Mac Admins Podcast
• Listening to the Mac Admins Podcast with automatic live captions – Emily Kausalik
• Mac Admins Podcast — New Tumblr site with an amazing retro look
• Balanced Billing & The “Partner Plan” With Richard Wingfield Of Envision Design — Command-Control-Power
• We love what we do – Chris Chapman, MacStadium – MacDevOpsYVR
• Getting to Know App Installers with Justin Clark. Patch Management Revamped – Jamf After Dark
• What are the real-world benefits of Apple Business Essentials? – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter
• Mastodon

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

It was a comparatively quiet week regarding Apple and macOS news. Aside from Apple making the first self repair options available, and reporting another blowout quarter.

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The news is that Elon Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter seems to be succeeding. This upsets many, and I cannot say I am excited about this myself. I don’t see much merit in the promises of the prospective new owner, and much potential to change Twitter for the worse.

That said, I have no plans to discontinue the @scriptingosx Twitter account, at least not yet. The advantage of having my website on my own domain, is that I am mostly independent of any specific social media. I cross-post from the blog to various social media and other platforms. Twitter and LinkedIn have the largest number of followers and generate the most traffic back to the site.

I have had a Mastodon (a free, open source, federated social media) account scriptingosx@mastodon.social since 2017 and seen an uptick of new followers in the last few days. (Welcome! You can join a Mastodon server here.) Traffic from Mastodon now exceeds traffic from Scripting OS X’s Facebook page, and is quickly catching up with Apple News traffic. All of these are very low numbers compared to Twitter and LinkedIn.

Scripting OS X also has an RSS feed, so you can add it to your very own curated list of news feeds in your favored RSS News reader. Start with NetNewsWire if you don’t have one yet.

Finally, you can subscribe to the Scripting OS X Weekly News Summary by email. If you are reading this, it is likely that you are already a subscriber, so thank you. But maybe you know a co-worker or other MacAdmin somewhere who isn’t yet and I would very much appreciate if you suggested this News Summary to them. Thank you!

macOS Server

• Jieves: “A few notes depended to what @bynkii had to say about OS X server…” (Thread)
• End of the road: Apple is killing macOS Server, the place where Mac OS X began – Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica
• MacOS Server, Adieu – John Gruber

News and Opinion

• Apple Launches Self Service Repair Store – Stephen Hackett, 512 Pixels
• Apple’s Self Service Repair now available – Apple
• Apple Reports Second Quarter Results – Apple

Social Media

• Kat’s Mastodon Quickstart for Twitter Users – Kat Marchán
• Steve Troughton-Smith: “From the start, we knew the App Store was a symbiotic environment designed to create value-add for Apple devices by giving devs great tools to make apps to entice customers to Apple, whilst also ensuring to deny devs any ability to ever remotely threaten Apple’s position of power” (Thread)
• Mr. Macintosh: “Wondering why the Self Service store doesn’t look like an Apple website? The site is run by 3rd party partner ‘SPOT’ Service Parts Or Tools was incorporated on Dec 1, 2021 The original Apple announcement was on Nov 17, 2021 Total time = 5 months from announcement to live date”

Security and Privacy

• What does APT Activity Look Like on MacOS? – Jaron Bradley, The Mitten Mac
• 6 Unexpected Roadblocks Organizations Face with Zero Trust – Ashley Gwilliam

Support and HowTos

• How macOS manages M1 CPU cores – Howard Oakley
• Inside the new macOS update log – Howard Oakley
• Xsan Software Updates on macOS Monterey – Eric Hemmeter
• Mac Logging and the log Command: A Guide for Apple Admins – Mike Boylan, Kandji
• How Patch Policies & User-led Enrollment Change Organizations – Tom Bridge, JumpCloud Blog
• Which SSDs can you boot your M1 Mac from? Do hard disks work too? – Howard Oakley
• AD bind apocalypse – Patrick van Nerum
• Bindpocalypse 2022: An update to CVE-2021-42287 – Sean Rabbit, Jamf Blog

Scripting and Automation

• Postman Advanced: Passing Data – The Geeky Gordo
• therealmacjeezy/JamfAuth: A python script to authenticate with the Jamf Pro API
• Launching Scripts #3: from AppleScripts – Scripting OS X
• Dig into zsh: How to Function (part 2) – CLI Notes
• Safer Client API interactions in Jamf Pro? (Zapier Example) – macnotes

Apple Support

• What’s new in firmware updates for AirTag
• Fonts included with macOS Monterey (updated)

To Listen

• Why software has so many vulnerabilities, with Tanya Janca – Lock and Code, Malwarebytes Labs
• Google Workspace integration will drive the use of Managed Apple IDs – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
• Let your Conscience Be your Guide – Command-Control-Power
• Bart Reardon – Mac Admins Podcast
• MDO:YVR the Lifestyle Brand – MacDevOpsYVR
• Getting to know App Installers with Justin Clark – Jamf After Dark

Just for Fun

• Bring the MacBook Back — Basic Apple Guy

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter
• Mastodon

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Yesterday, Apple updated the support article on macOS Server stating the app has been discontinued. They also announced that the Fleetsmith service, which they have maintained since the acquisition in 2020 will be discontinued in October.

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The end of both macOS Server and Fleetsmith do not come as a surprise. Apple gutted the functionality of macOS Server in 2018. Back then I wrote a post with my thoughts, and they still hold up well. Most management features and workflows now come from hosted cloud services.

All that was left were Profile Manager and Open Directory. With the release of Apple Business Essentials there is no need for macOS Server/Profile Manager and Fleetsmith to continue. There will surely be missing features and elements, and it will be the MacAdmin’s job to identify these and find workarounds and alternative solutions. For example, Apple Business Essentials is currently only available in the US. MacAdmins in other regions have to look at third party solutions.

File Sharing, Time Machine Server, Content Caching, and Xsan are now part of ‘normal’ macOS. Xcode Server moved into Xcode and then into the cloud.

The macOS Server app cannot be found in the Mac App Store anymore. You can still find it in the list of purchased apps. macOS Server 5.12.2 will be the last update. It should continue to work on Macs running Monterey, but the description in the Mac App Store explicitly points out it will “not be compatible with future versions of macOS.”

Nevertheless, this is a moment to be nostalgic about Mac OS X Server.

Mac OS X Server 1.0 was released before Mac OS X for the client, mostly as a proof of concept, but also as a platform for some services, such as Apple FileSharing, NetBoot and WebObjects. Together with the Xserve and Xserve RAID, Mac OS X Server was part of a strategy to provide services and management to fleets of Macs, in a time where support from third-parties was challenging to non-existent. Even though the path wasn’t always smooth, or even clear, it was an important part of what made enterprise style deployments of Macs possible.

Apple canceled the Xserve and changed the distribution and price model of Mac OS X Server in 2011, and an era ended. Apple ceded most of the services to third parties, some of which were and are rivals, such as Microsoft and Google. With few exceptions, Apple always seemed to be following instead of leading in this field and in the end, the commitment wasn’t there. Nevertheless, the modern tools for MacAdmins: MDM, Automated Device Enrollment, and all the various workflows, all have their roots in the previous server tools.

Because Apple’s tools, documentation and support were often… a challenge, this time also generated the MacAdmin community, in mailing lists like ‘mac-enterprise’, IRC chat rooms and later the MacAdmins Slack. This is also when the MacAdmins culture of sharing and open source emerged, which is still alive and well.

In most ways, Mac OS X Server ended in 2011, then again in 2018. What was left was finally discontinued yesterday. But, during its lifetime, Mac OS X Server and the many people who worked on and with it, defined and earned a place for Macs and Apple devices in organisations and enterprises.

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.)

macOS Server

• Farewell macOS Server – Ben Toms
• Apple discontinues macOS Server – Rich Trouton
• Apple Discontinues macOS Server – Wayne Dixon
• Tom Bridge: “I started using OS X Server in the 10.2 days, using OpenDirectory to manage the users at NCEE.” (Thread)
• Apple Discontinues macOS Server – Juli Clover, MacRumors
• OS X Server is Gone – John C. Welch
• Apple Pulls the Plug on macOS Server – Stephen Hackkett, 512 Pixels
• Adieu Mac OS X Server– Guillaume Gète.

MacAdmins on Social

• Glenn Fleishman: “As Apple expands communication safety to the UK (on-device AI-based ID of images with nudity for kids < 18), note the version rolled out doesn’t include an option for parental notification (for under 13). Apple proposed that as two separate options, but hasn’t added the second.”
• Rich Trouton: “In the wake of macOS Server being discontinued, a non-zero number of folks will now need to look at migrating away from Open Directory to something else. Charles Edge has guidance available“

Security and Privacy

• CVE-2022-21449: Psychic Signatures in Java – Neil Madden

Support and HowTos

• Adventures in Fast User Switching on macOS Monterey – Kevin M. Cox
• Application Layer Firewall Logging in macOS Monterey – Nate Felton
• Erase and reconfigure your Xsan MDCs – Eric Hemmeter
• When the macOS Monterey Copy Window… Disappears – Guilleaume Gète.
• The IT Field of Dreams – Pam Lefkowitz, JumpCloud

Scripting and Automation

• The networkQuality Is Not Strained – Brock Walters, Jamf Nation Community
• JamfPackageUploader ‘JCDS-mode’ for a new way to upload packages to Jamf Cloud – Graham R Pugh
• Building a Privileges installer package using AutoPkg – Rich Trouton
• Launching Scripts #2: Launching Scripts from Finder – Scripting OS X
• Dig into zsh: How to Function (part 1) – CLI Notes

Apple Support

• Apple Business Manager release notes
• Apple Business Essentials release notes
• Apple will discontinue Fleetsmith service on October 21, 2022
• About macOS Server 5.7.1 and later
• Apple Platform Deployment: Document revision history (several updates)
  • Choose an MDM solution
  • Intro to planning your MDM migration
• Lights Out Management MDM payload settings for Apple devices (Updated)
• LOM example configuration and command issuance

Updates and Releases

• UI Browser to Be Retired – Michael Tsai

To Watch

• MacAD.UK 22 Session Videos
• Marriott Library – Apple Infrastructure, April 2022

To Listen

• Internet Filtering with Rob McCartney – Mac Admins Podcast
• My Stupidity Makes You Smarter — Command-Control-Power

Just for Fun

• Mr. Macintosh: “Apple Developer wallpaper using the Human Interface Guidelines Graphics. ProDisplayXDR resolution. Dark Mode and Light Mode. 8 Mac, 3 iOS, & 1 Apple TV/Home designs Created by u/Yuahde“
• Apple Studio Display Schematic – Basic Apple Guy

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Even though it is a long week-end here this news summary still delivers!

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates and I hope you get a bit of a reprieve this week-end either way.

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(Sponsor: vast limits)

uberAgent: application usage monitoring

uberAgent is an innovative user experience monitoring product for macOS and Windows. uberAgent’s highlights include detailed information about application performance, network reliability drill-downs, application usage metering, browser performance, and web app metrics. Try for yourself and get your free 100 user community license at uberagent.com.

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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.)

News and Opinion

• An Open Letter from the CEO of Puppet: Puppet + Perforce – Puppet Blog (Puppet does not have much footprint in Mac management any more, but it used to)
• Tim Cook Attacks Sideloading in Privacy Keynote – Michael Tsai

MacAdmins on Social

• Matt Godden: “If you’re using macOS HighSierra or Sierra, iCloud has stopped working / can’t log in, and you can’t access icloud.com in Safari – here’s a solution: Install the Apple IST CA 2 – G1 certificate, and everything will work again.” (via Michael Tsai)

Security and Privacy

• First Malware Targeting AWS Lambda Serverless Platform Discovered – Ravie Lakshmanan, Hacker News
• “Your AppI‌e‌ ‌l‌D‌ ‌‌h‌‌a‌‌s‌‌ ‌‌b‌‌e‌‌e‌‌n‌‌ ‌‌l‌‌ocke‌‌d‌‌” spam email takes you on a website mystery tour – Christopher Boyd, Malwarebytes Labs

Support and HowTos

• Customizing MunkiReport: Dashboards – DAM SAN
• The kernel and extensions 1: To Mojave – Howard Oakley
• The kernel and extensions 2: Secure Boot – Howard Oakley
• What Success Looks Like For You – Pam Lefkowitz JumpCloud
• Presenting with an iPad – Robin Laurén
• Guide for Apple IT: Zero-Touch Deployment for Mac – Kandji Blog

Scripting and Automation

• Non-Apple Daemon Services – Nate Felton
• Making a custom Nudge launch agent – Alan Siu
• Launching Scripts #1: From Terminal – Scripting OS X
• On env Shebangs – Scripting OS X

Apple Support

• Final Cut Pro 10.6.2
• Motion 5.6.1
• Compressor 4.6.1

Updates and Releases

• AutoPkg 2.5.0 Beta

To Watch

• MacAdmin Monthly – 2022-04-12 – YouTube

To Listen

• MacOS Malware: Myth vs. Truth – Threatpost Podcast
• Where device management meets device security – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
• Ed Marczak – Santa is not corporate malware – MacDevOpsYVR
• Customer Success with Laurence Leong – Jamf After Dark
• Why data protection and privacy are not the same, and why that matters – Lock and Code, Malwarebytes Labs
• Got Fiber? – Command-Control-Power
• Apple in the Enterprise: A 2022 Report Card – Mac Admins Podcast

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Apple announced dates for WWDC ’22: June 6–10. The conference will be online again, but there will be a live audience “to watch the keynote and State of the Union videos” at Apple Park. This implies that these sessions will also be pre-recorded. Is the era of Apple live events over?

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(Sponsor: vast limits)

uberAgent: application performance monitoring

uberAgent is an innovative user experience monitoring product for macOS and Windows. uberAgent’s highlights include detailed information about application performance, network reliability drill-downs, application usage metering, browser performance, and web app metrics. Try for yourself and get your free 100 user community license at uberagent.com.

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After last week’s surprise update, Apple released the first round of betas for macOS 12.4 and iOS 15.5 and siblings. We also got new versions of the apps formerly known as iWork: Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.

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.)

📰News and Opinion

• WWDC22. Call to code – Apple Developer June 6–10

🐦MacAdmins on Twitter

• Léo Natan: “Do you prefer the old style macOS alerts? There is a way to get them globally for AppKit in Big Sur and Monterey: defaults write -g NSAlertMetricsGatheringEnabled -bool false” (via Michael Tsai)
• Nathaniel Strauss: “TIL HomePod can install wireless profiles”
• mikey: “If you’ve updated to macOS 12.3.1 your /etc/pam.d/sudo will have been reset, here’s a programatic way to (re-) enable using TouchID to authenticate sudo“

🔐Security and Privacy

• Apple Neglects to Patch Two Zero-Day, Wild Vulnerabilities for macOS Big Sur, Catalina – Joshua Long, Intego Mac Security Blog
• Hunting Spring4Shell, another Java-based exploit – Jamf Blog

🔨Support and HowTos

• How To Securely Sync Your Synology NAS with P5 – DAM SAN
• All you need to know about Managed App Configuration for iOS – Marco Eidinger
• Do These Jeans Make Me Look Fat? – Pam Lefkowitz, JumpCloud
• 4 Ways to Reset Your Mac Password – Kelsey Kinzer, JumpCloud

🤖Scripting and Automation

• Zero-touch, zero-user deployment – Fabien Conus
• Use shellcheck with BBEdit – Scripting OS X

🍏Apple Support

• Pages 12.0: Mac, iOS, iCloud
• Keynote 12.0: Mac, iOS, iCloud (no update notes for iCloud yet)
• Numbers 12.0: Mac, iOS, iCloud
• Use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote with Box

♻️Updates and Releases

• Jamf Pro 10.37.2
• Simple Package Creator 1.5
• Payload-Free Package Creator 2.4
• Munki 5.6.4
• Safari Technology Preview 143

🎧To Listen

• MacAD.UK 2022 – Mac Admins Podcast
• Interview with John O’Fallon of Maxum, Makers Of Rumpus — Command-Control-Power
• Catching Up with Shania – MacDevOpsYVR

🎈Just for Fun

• Infinite Mac: An Instant-Booting Quadra in Your Browser – Persistent.info (Background story to the virtual System 7 and Mac OS 8 links shared last week.)

📚Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Yesterday morning, I glanced at the list of links so far and thought it’d be a quiet week… And then surprise update week happened!

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(Sponsor: Mosyle)

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Aside from suprise updates, we also got the SixColors Apple in the Enterprise Report Card. Many thanks to Jason Snell for putting this together and to everyone who contributed!

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.)

macOS Monterey 12.3.1 and iOS 15.4.1

macOS Monterey 12.3.1

• What’s new in the updates for macOS Monterey
• What’s new for enterprise in macOS Monterey
• Security content of macOS Monterey 12.3.1 – Apple Support

iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4

• About iOS 15 Updates
• About iPadOS 15 Updates
• Security content of iOS 15.4.1 and iPadOS 15.4.1 – Apple Support

watchOS 8.5.1, tvOS and HomePod

• About watchOS 8 Updates
• About Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD software updates
• About Software Updates for HomePod

Apps and Services

• Apple Business Manager release notes
• Apple Business Essentials User Guide (updated)
• What’s new in Apple Configurator for iPhone
• Apple Business Essentials now available for small businesses

Reactions

• macOS Monterey 12.3.1 Update! Fixes Monitor, Bluetooth & Security Issues – Mr. Macintosh
• What has changed in Monterey 12.3.1? – Howard Oakley

News and Opinion

• Apple Silicon, pandemic, drive Mac enterprise growth, admins say – Jonny Evans, Computerworld
• Apple in the Enterprise: A 2022 report card – Jason Snell, Six Colors

Security and Privacy

• CVE-2022-22616: Simple way to bypass GateKeeper, hidden for years – Mickey Jin
• Jamf Threat Labs identifies Safari vulnerability (CVE-2022-22616) allowing for Gatekeeper bypass – Jamf Blog
• How a macOS bug could have allowed for a serious phishing attack against users – Guilherme Rambo
• Spring Framework RCE, Early Announcement
• Spring4Shell Vulnerability – Aaron Kiemele, Jamf Nation Community
• Jamf Pro 10.37.1 Upgrade Reschedule Notice – Kaylee Carlson, Jamf Nation Community
• Forcedentry: Sandbox Escape – Google Project Zero

Support and HowTos

• Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager Terms Update: March 31, 2022 – Ben Toms
• Intel Virtualization and Apple Silicon – Steve Troughton-Smith
• Adobe Admin Console Packages and AutoPkg – Ben Toms
• Experience Matters: How Patch Management and Zero Touch Change Organizations – Tom Bridge
• What is triald and why is it taking so much disk space? – Howard Oakley
• Using an Outbound Proxy with Jamf Pro running on Jamf Cloud – macnotes
• What Is Least Privilege and Why Do You Need It? – Molly Murphy, JumpCloud
• Training Day – Pam Lefkowitz, JumpCloud
• What It Takes to Get Buy-In on Zero Trust – Kate Lake, JumpCloud
• Top 5 Useful Mac Terminal Commands For IT Admins – Kelsey Kinzer, JumpCloud

Scripting and Automation

• Using Postman with Jamf Pro Part 4 – Variables & Runners – The Geeky Gordo
• Apple Device Lifecycle Management with Jamf Pro – Thijs Xhaflaire, Jamf Blog

Apple Support

• macOS wireless roaming for enterprise customers (updated)
• About Managed Apple IDs for business (updated)
• About Managed Apple IDs for education (updated)

Updates and Releases

• swiftDialog v1.10
• New Option Gives Admins Finer Control Over Auto App Notifications – Kandji Blog

To Listen

• User Groups with Adam Burg – Mac Admins Podcast
• Telling stories securely, with Runa Sandvik – Lock and Code, Malwarebytes Labs
• EdFarm drives change in student’s lives through Apple’s technologies – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
• In A Bit Of A Crisis – Command-Control-Power
• Baez Cloud –  MacDevOpsYVR

Just for Fun

• Infinite Mac: Mac OS 8, System 7 (emulation in the browser)

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Update week! We got macOS 12.3, iOS 15.4 and all the siblings this week. Did you already update? Your users?

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(Sponsor: Mosyle)

The Fusion of Apple MDM, Identity, Patching & Security.

Mosyle Fuse is the first and only product to bring a perfect blend of an Enterprise-grade MDM, an innovative solution for macOS Identity Management, automated application installation and patching, and purpose-built multi-layer endpoint security, all specially designed for Apple devices used at work at a price point that’s almost unexplainable.

Click here to learn more!

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My most anticipated and now favorite feature in these updates is Universal Control. You can tell it still has a few rough edges (despite the delay, Apple still labels it as ‘beta’) but it is already eminently useful. The (already high) usefulness of my iPad Air 4 increased dramatically. Universal Control lets the iPad do what does best, while still being just a trackpad swipe away from the Mac.

But Apple gives and takes away. Long forwarned, this update really removed the Python 2 binary, and yes, some admins, and developers were still blindsided. I have built a summary of links to posts, issues and solutions on my weblog and will keep updating that post over the next few weeks.

Apple developers must be taking a well-deserved break, beacuse we have not seen the macOS 12.4 beta yet. Any day now. Remember to remove the developer/beta profile!

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.)

macOS 12.3 Monterey and iOS 15.4

macOS Monterey 12.3

• What’s new in the updates for macOS Monterey
• What’s new for enterprise in macOS Monterey
• Security content for macOS Monterey 12.3
• Security content of macOS Big Sur 11.6.5
• Security content of Security Update 2022-003 Catalina
• macOS Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation

iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4

• About iOS 15 Updates
• What’s new for enterprise in iOS 15
• About iPadOS 15 Updates
• What’s new for enterprise in iPadOS 15
• Security content of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4
• iOS & iPadOS Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation

watchOS 8.5

• About watchOS 8 Updates
• Security content of watchOS 8.5
• watchOS Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation

tvOS and HomePod

• About Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD software updates
• What’s new in tvOS 15 for Apple TV
• Security content of tvOS 15.4
• tvOS Release Notes – Apple Developer Documentation
• About Software Updates for HomePod

Apps

• Security content of Safari 15.4
• New WebKit Features in Safari 15.4 – Jen Simmons, Jon Davis, WebKit
• Xcode 13.3 (Mac App Store, Developer Downloads)
• Swift 5.6 Released! – Ted Kremenek, Swift.org
• Security content of Xcode 13.3 – Apple Support
• Logic Pro 10.7.3 (Mac App Store)
• Security content of Logic Pro X 10.7.3
• GarageBand 10.4.6 (Mac App Store)
• Security content of GarageBand 10.4.6

Reactions

• macOS Monterey 12.3 Update (Spring Release) What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
• macOS Big Sur 11.6.5 Update (20G527) What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
• Apple has released Monterey 12.3, Big Sur 11.6.5 and Catalina SU 2022-003 – Howard Oakley
• iOS 15.4 Emoji Changelog – Emojipedia
• macOS 12.3: The Magic of Universal Control and More – John Voorhees, MacStories
• iOS and iPadOS 15.4: Hands-On with Universal Control, Face ID with a Mask, and More – Federico Viticci, MacStories
• Apple Releases iOS 15.4, iPadOS 15.4, macOS 12.3 Monterey, watchOS 8.5, tvOS 15.4, and HomePod Software 15.4 – Josh Centers, TidBITS
• macOS Monterey 12.3 removes Python 2: Link collection – Scripting OS X
• What has changed in macOS Monterey 12.3? – Howard Oakley
• Which of Monterey’s features aren’t available where? – Howard Oakley
• Update now! Apple fixes several serious vulnerabilities in iOS and macOS – Pieter Arnitz, Malwarebytes Labs
• Guide for Apple IT: App Deployment for macOS – Kandji Blog
• Guide for Apple IT: Apple Business Manager – Kandji Blog

Support

• Use your HomePod on an 802.1X Wi-Fi network
• Universal Control: Use a single keyboard and mouse between Mac and iPad
• Use Face ID while wearing a mask with iPhone 12 and later

Security and Privacy

• Jamf Threat Labs identifies Safari vulnerability (CVE-2022-22616) allowing for Gatekeeper bypass – Jamf Threat Labs

Support and HowTos

• What Is Shadow IT? You Can’t Solve It by Blocking It – Jason Meller, Kolide
• Windows file shares are still buggy on macOS; it’s time to fix it once and for all – Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac
• Understanding TCO and Your Stack – Pam Lefkowitz, JumpCloud
• Challenges & Considerations for macOS Patch Management – Kelsey Kinzer, JumpCloud
• Ansible with dedicated SSH Keys – Robin Laurén

Scripting and Automation

• Random 6-Digit PIN, Calling Okta API, and Sign-In Based on Location – Max Katz
• Brainstorm 2022: Practical Automation for Apple Devices – Rebecca Latimer
• Macjutsu/super: S.U.P.E.R.M.A.N. optimizes the macOS software update experience
• Nudge Extension Attribute – Mostly Mac

Updates and Releases

• SuperDuper 3.6 – The “Roll Up Some Fixes” Release!
• AutoPkg 2.4.1
• BBEdit 14.1.1
• Introducing gnes: Reverse engineering the NetworkExtension API – Erik Gomez
• Update: Installomator 9.1
• FastScripts 3.1: Streamlined Regular Expressions – Red Sweater Blog

To Listen

• Josh Seyer – Mac Admins Podcast
• Getting On The High Horse — Command-Control-Power
• Why did Bowdoin College choose Apple? – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
• Log All The Data with Tom and Dan from Snowflake – MacDevOpsYVR
• De-Googling Carey Parker’s (and your) life: Lock and Code S03E06 – Malwarebytes Labs

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Apple’s “Peek Performance” event this week, delivered plenty of great news. A new iPhone SE, which is mostly identical to the 2020 model, but now uses the A15 chip. Green color choices for the iPhones 13 and 13 Pro. A new iPad Air, using the M1 chip. And then… a new desktop Mac model called “Mac Studio” using the M1 Max or a doubled up M1 Mac chip which Apple calls the “M1 Ultra.” And a new 27″ 5K Studio Display to go along with the Mac Studio.

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These are great products that will certainly fill many checkboxes in many people’s and organization’s wish lists. Untypically for Apple, there were a few hints on what is yet to come. At the end of the video, John Ternus (SVP of Hardware Engineering) mentions, there is “just one more product to go: the Mac Pro, but that is for another day.” Earlier in the event, John says the M1 Ultra will be the last chip added to the M1 family.

This sets up the intriguing question on how an Apple silicon based Mac Pro will exceed the performance set by the Mac Studio. Some speculate the Mac Pro will be the first Mac to get the next generation Apple silicon chip. However, announcing the M2 with the Mac Pro, would stifle demand on all the other Mac models though, as people will hold off purchases until those product lines are updated, as well. Apple runs a risk of “Osborning” their most popular Mac product lines. It is more likely the M2 will be introduced with the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or a successor model to one of these.

We also learned which Mac model will not transition: The 27″ iMac disappeared from the Apple Store this week. Apple seems to consider the Mac Studio with Studio Display a valid replacement. This combo may seem much more expensive than the base iMac 27″, but the Studio Display will likely outlive the Mac it is purchased with, making the direct comparison difficult.

Interestingly, the Intel Mac mini is still available. Keep in mind that if you need an Intel Mac for Bootcamp or compatibility testing on the Intel platform and older versions of macOS, you should either make plans to retain Intel Macs past the usual lifetime in your organization or puchase a Mac mini or Mac Pro now.

The persistence of the Intel Mac mini calls attention to a strange omission in Apple’s Macs with Apple silicon product line: there is no Mac desktop using the M1 Pro. You can get the iMac 24″ and Mac mini with M1. Mac Studio comes with M1 Max and M1 Ultra. The Intel Mac mini sort of fills the spot where a Mac mini or Mac Studio with the M1 Pro would be. (Both price and feature wise.) It might be that Apple needs all the M1 Pro chips they produce to satisfy demand of the MacBook Pro and we will have to wait for more availability until we see desktop Macs with that chip. This gap is even more annoying beacuse it matches the needs of MacAdmins very well.

Either way, exciting times for the Mac, with more interesting things to come!

Oh, the new Mac Studio will require macOS 12.3 and ship next week, so we will also get the macOS 12.3 update next week, which should not come as a huge suprise as Apple released 12.3 RC to AppleSeed this week.

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.)

News and Opinion

• Apple’s new strategy is to give, not tell, users what they want – John Porter, The Verge
• The missing mid-range desktop Mac – Dan Moren, Six Colors
• New Mac Studio and Studio Display Change Mac Buying Calculus – TidBITS

Security and Privacy

• A Practical Guide to Securing Your Mac – Thorin Klosowski, Wirecutter
• Beyond the good ol’ LaunchAgents, 29: amstoold – Csaba Fitzl
• The Top 5 Zero Trust Misconceptions, Clarified – Kate Lake, JumpCloud

Support and HowTos

• Deploying universal purchase App Store apps to macOS with Jamf Pro – Emily Kausalik
• Explainer: TLS, VPN and Private Relay – Howard Oakley
• What’s in an app’s signature? – Howard Oakley
• Fully Automated Lab iMac Deployment with Jamf Pro & ADE, Part 6: Post Series Summary – Gray
• Using macOS installer disk images to boot VMware Fusion virtual machines to macOS Recovery – Rich Trouton
• Xsan Software Updates on macOS Monterey – Eric Hemmeter
• Communication: a Two-Way Street – Pam Lefkowitz, JumpCloud
• Remote Work Requires Specific Policies – Brenna Lee, JumpCloud

Scripting and Automation

• Respecting Focus and Meeting Status in Your Mac scripts (aka Don’t Be a Jerk) – brunerd
• Fun with Get-Command – John C. Welch
• sep/Notifier: Automatically email Macfolk their pending updates
• How to use dockutil in a script – Mischa van der Bent
• Repairing Broken Jamf Enrollments for Fun and Profit – Richard Purves
• How to use undocumented web APIs – Julia Evans (via Elliot Jordan)

To Watch

• Mac Studio Apple Event Breakdown with Tom Bridge – Kelly Guimont, The Slice
• March 2022 , MacAdmins Meeting – Marriott Library

To Listen

• Apple Business Essentials – Mac Admins Podcast
• IT Essential Oils – Command-Control-Power
• Per Oloffson MunkiReport Quick Fix – MacDevOpsYVR
• Flashcast 08: Peek Performance – Mac Admins Podcast

Just for Fun

• Young people, a tech tip for you. Listen up! – Steve Hayman

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Apple has announced an event for next week. Of course, we don’t know what Apple is going to introduce then, but the fifth beta for macOS 12.3 that we got this week, may be the last. How is your testing going? Have youound all the uses of the Python 2 yet?

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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.)

News and Opinion

• Apple Event: March 8, 10am PST
• Happy Birthday to us – Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi
• How Apple should help Ukraine by fulfilling its promises – Howard Oakley

MacAdmins on Twitter

• cdros: “A pattern I’ve seen in many places. Companies hire adults, thrust technology at them, provide little training, and distrust the actions of employees.” (Thread)
• Asia Orangio: “I’m seeing a lot of people who are surprised to learn their favorite software has been built and/or marketed by a Ukrainian team. Here’s a running list of them (plus how you can help Ukraine fight back)” (Thread)

Security and Privacy

• Is Grammarly a Keylogger? What Can You Do About It? – Jason Meller, Kolide
• Find You: Building a stealth AirTag clone – Fabian Bräunlein, Positive Security
• Give Me Some (macOS) Context…. – Cedric Owens
• The Conti ransomware leaks – Malwarebytes Labs
• macOS Red Teaming: Get Active Directory credentials from NoMAD – Wojciech Reguła
• Keeping your Apple devices safe from phishing threats – Jamf Blog

Support and HowTos

• Apple Removing Python 2.7: What Admins Need to Know and Do – Kandji Blog
• ProfileCreator Manifests Now Available for Jamf – Elliot Jordan, Jamf Blog
• Fully Automated Lab iMac Deployment with Jamf Pro & ADE, Part 5: User Ready – Gray
• Use Jamf Self Service to Enable TouchID for sudo – Mostly Mac
• iCloud Private Relay: information for Cloudflare customers – Rustam Lalkaka, Cloudflare Blog
• How Monterey checks apps and executable code – Howard Oakley
• Top (Mostly) Free and Awesome Tools for IT Admins – Pam Lefkowitz, JumpCloud

Scripting and Automation

• Output the Date and Time in AutoPkg Recipes – Matthew Warren
• How to reinstall the Jamf Framework through the API – Thijs Xhaflaire, Jamf Blog

Updates and Releases

• osquery 5.2.2 (Apple silicon native)
• Nudge 1.1.6.81324 (Pre-release) (testers needed)
• dockutil 3.0.0
• Carbon Copy Cloner 6.1

To Listen

• John Hutchison on Octory – Mac Admins Podcast
• The Case Of The Weeping Wall Wart – Command-Control-Power
• How is Apple Silicon being perceived in the enterprise? – Apple@Work, 9to5Mac
• All About Scripting with Armin Briegel – Jamf After Dark
• How Crisis Text Line crossed the line in the public’s mind: Lock and Code S03E05 | Malwarebytes Labs
• Hackindockertosh – MacDevOpsYVR

Just for Fun

• mpw-emu: Emulating 1998-Vintage Mac Compilers – Ninji’s Website (via mikeymikey)

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators

Apple keeps working towards the “Spring release” of macOS 12.3, iOS 15.4 and siblings with a fourth beta round. Last year’s Big Sur 11.3 “spring release” was in late April while in 2020 Catalina 10.15.4 was released in late March. So, we have one or two months to go.

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As mentioned before (not just by me), the macOS 12.3 update will remove the Python 2 binary. This should not come as a surprise, but apparently there are still some vendors and developers that are not prepared. Test your deployment workflow and all the software on the beta and notify any vendors of failing installations, applications and tools.

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.)

News and Opinion

• PSU MacAdmins 2022 Update (see also my conferences page)

MacAdmins on Twitter

• Scripting OS X: “Apple remains on track to transition all Mac models to Apple silicon. The “two-year” timeline expires either in June (2y after the announcement at WWDC 20) or in November (2y after the first M1 MacBooks) If you require Intel Macs for testing, VMs, or compatibility, buy them now!” (short thread)

Security and Privacy

• NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-219 (Draft), Automated Secure Configuration Guidance from the macOS Security Compliance Project (mSCP)
• Bypassing Apple’s AirTag Security – Bruce Schneier
• T2 Mac security vulnerability means passwords can now be cracked – Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac–

Support and HowTos

• Jamf Pro Server software no longer supported on macOS as of Jamf Pro 10.37.0 – Rich Trouton
• Printing 16-bit Colour in Photoshop – Anthony Reimer
• Ensure your VMware Fusion Macs enroll in Jamf as Computers, not Devices – Alan Siu

Scripting and Automation

• ljt 1.0.0, a little JSON tool for your shell script
• Fully Automated Lab iMac Deployment with Jamf Pro & ADE, Part 3: Preparing for Application Deployment – GrayW
• Using custom variables in an AutoPkg recipe to set version information – Rich Trouton
• JamfPatchUploader: Automate Jamf’s Patch Management with AutoPkg – eisenschmiede.com
• Querying Spotlight APIs With JXA – Cedric Owens
• Publishing Python Packages to AWS CodeArtifact Using Github Actions
• Fully Automated Lab iMac Deployment with Jamf Pro & ADE, Part 4: Deploying our Applications – GrayW

Apple Support

• Gathering GitHub Release Versions without Assets with autopkg – Bryson Tyrell, Jamf Engineering Blog

Updates and Releases

• Installomator 9.0.1
• dockutil 3.0.0-beta.2
• erase-install.sh 26.0

To Watch

• Programmatic AirPrint in the Enterprise – A.P. Orlebeke

To Listen

• Alexander Kaltsas – MacAdmins Podcast
• VPN For Clients – Command Control Power
• Prima Virani: Marie Kondo of Code – MacDevOpsYVR

Just for Fun

• Mac Source Ports (via mikeymikey)

Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Twitter

If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!

• macOS Terminal and Shell
• Moving to zsh
• Packaging for Apple Administrators