Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-09-22

As I am preparing to travel to JNUC next week, I don’t really have much insightful, or even witty intro… We got an iOS update and a new round of betas. Even if I am distracted, we got some wonderful posts by wonderful people sharing their knowledge and insights. Go read those and many thanks to authors for sharing.

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If you are also at JNUC, I have some Scripting OS X shebang “#!” stickers for those who know to ask (and as long as the supply lasts).

If you ordered MacSysAdmin T-Shirts last year, you also got a surprise Scripting OS X shebang sticker. If you order a MacSysAdmin T-shirt this year (and you still can), you will get a different Scripting OS X sticker. Many thanks to Mischa van der Bent who turned my idea into a great design. You should order a MacSysAdmin T-shirt whether you want the sticker or not, to support the conference which is online October 4–7.

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

macOS Ventura and iOS 16

macOS and iOS Updates

Security and Privacy

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Apple Support

Updates and Releases

To Listen

Support

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

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Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-09-16

The first of several major Apple OS releases this Fall were iOS 16 and watchOS 9, which were released this week, together with the new tvOS and HomePod software, as well as the new iPhones 14, iPhones 14 Pro, and Apple Watches.

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There is much to like in the new the new iOS 16 and watchOS 9, even for MacAdmins. But the most promising new technologies, such as the improved Declarative Device Management and Managed Device Attestation will take a while to be adopted by the management systems and admins. But I see some really useful applications for deployment with those.

Even though the release of macOS Ventura 13.0 will not be until “October,” we did get updates for macOS Big Sur 11.7, macOS Monterey 12.6, iOS and iPadOS 15.7. (Guess who accidentally upgraded their phone to 15.7 first…) No security update for macOS Catalina, which is not surprising as Apple “retires” updates for major macOS versions after two years. Catalina was the last macOS to use the ’10’ version number that was with us since the early Mac OS X public betas.

The versioning of Big Sur is interesting, as Apple decided this particular security update deserves ‘11.7’ rather than ‘11.6.9,’ even though the build number still starts with ’20G’. I am not complaining, this versioning is a welcome improvement over the previous list of security updates with a year and a number.

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News and Opinion

macOS Ventura and iOS 16

iOS 16

Note: according to the Security Updates page there seems to an iOS 16.0.1 update which is also mentioned in this support article. It might be for only for the iPhone 14 generation and seems to fix an issue where Messages and FaceTime don’t recognize the phone number.

watchOS 9, tvOS 16 and HomePod

Xcode and Swift

Articles

macOS and iOS Updates

macOS Monterey 12.6 and macOS Big Sur 11.7

iOS and iPadOS 15.7

Safari 16

Articles

Social Media

  • William Smith: “We’ve been excited to share this for a while and it’s finally here Jamf customers can now upgrade their own Standard Jamf Cloud instances ahead of scheduled upgrades by signing in to account.jamf.com, choosing Products > Pro and clicking Upgrade.”
  • William Smith: “For Microsoft Office for Mac customers: Version 16.67 releases in mid-November. It will support macOS Ventura 13.0, but more importantly it will end support for macOS Catalina 10.15 and receive no further updates.”
  • mikeymikey: “I don’t see people talking about/knowing about this command much on macOS: security verify-cert -v https://URLGOESHERE The security manpage has some great extra detail about the verb” (Thread for more detail)

Security and Privacy

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Apple Support

Updates and Releases

To Listen

Support

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

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!

Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-09-09

The first Apple event this Fall is over. We got new iPhones, AirPods Pro and Apple Watches, including the new Apple Watch Ultra. Even though I don’t do any sports at the extreme level this watch is designed for, (some might argue I don’t do any sport at all which would be only a mild exaggeration) I am very tempted by the Ultra. Maybe it is time to refresh my diver’s license after ~20 years…

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iOS 16, watchOS 9 and tvOS 16 will be released September 12. iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura are now marked as “Coming this October.” We also got release candidates for iOS and iPadOS 15.7 and macOS 12.6, which will probably be released alongside iOS 16.

This was the first event this fall. I expect at least one more, but more likely two events, which will cover the remaining product lines. Most relevant to MacAdmins, Apple said they would transition the entire Mac product line to Apple silicon in two years. This self-imposed deadline runs out this November and the Mac Pro is the remaining Intel Mac on the product line. (You can also still order an Intel Mac mini, but might also just be Apple’s option if someone requires Intel for backwards compatibility.) It should be interesting to see what Apple has in store for the Mac and the iPad, later this year.

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

macOS Ventura and iOS 16

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Updates and Releases

To Listen

Support

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

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!

Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-09-02

September! Summer is winding down and we are looking down the season of Apple events. It starts next week Wednesday with an event that Apple labeled “Far Out.”

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We did get a few interesting releases this week, such as TwoCanoes Xcreds 2 and a new Munki 6 beta. But mostly it seems everyone is either just returning from summer vacation or holding their breath for next week.

The Fall conference is getting close with JNUC (hybrid), MacSysAdmin (online) and Objective-by-the-Sea (in-person) coming up and MacAD.UK has opened the registration for their event next spring. You can always see all conferences on my overview 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

macOS and iOS Updates

Security and Privacy

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Updates and Releases

To Listen

Support

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

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!

Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-08-26

Back from the summer break! Though for travel scheduling, this post is happening at an unsual time of day. It does seem like everyone else kept working, as a lot of interesting posts have accumulated.

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Apple also continued with the beta releases for macOS Ventura and iOS 16. They have already announced an event on September 7. This will presumably be focussed on the iPhone and maybe the Apple Watch. In any way, this means that the releases of the systems currently in beta is closer than you might think. How is your testing going?

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📰News and Opinion

🌼macOS Ventura and iOS 16

⚙️macOS and iOS Updates

🐦Social Media

  • Timothy Perfitt: “you know when you open a profile on macOS in the Finder, it doesn’t open System Preferences and just says “go find it yourself, fancy pants”? Turns out that you can set up a launchdaemon to open it for you. Read on, fancy pants.” (Thread)
  • Zachary Cutlip: “I set up a Raspberry Pi as a Time Machine server, and made it look like an Xserve in Finder (Set fruit:model = Xserve under [global] in smb.conf)”

🔐Security and Privacy

🔨Support and HowTos

🤖Scripting and Automation

🍏Apple Support

♻️Updates and Releases

📺To Watch

🎧To Listen

🎈Just for Fun

📚Support

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

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 12.5 and iOS 15.6

macOS Monterey 12.5

iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.6

watchOS 8.7

tvOS 15.6

Other Updates

Community

Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-07-15

macOS Ventura and iOS 16 went public beta this week. We also got a release candidate for macOS 12.5 and iOS 15.6. Just is case you were wondering if it was time to relax yet.

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Talking about time to relax: this will be the last news summary before the summer break. The Scripting OS X News Summary will return on August 26, just in time for the last phase of the iOS 16 and macOS 13 beta phase.

Hope you get some relaxation in, too!

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News and Opinion

macOS Ventura and iOS 16

Social Media

  • Mr. Macintosh: “This means that if you have macOS systems running 12.2.1 and lower, you will still need the full installer to upgrade to Ventura. If you have Macs running 12.3 and newer, you can upgrade to Ventura with the new faster & smaller delta upgrade.”

Security and Privacy

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Apple Support

Updates and Releases

To Listen

Support

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

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!

Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-07-08

We have not reached the summer doldrums yet, as we got new betas (number five) for the macOS 12.5 and iOS 15.6 updates. The macOS update seems to break a lot of AppleScript functionality, so let’s hope this is not the last beta. We also got the third beta for macOS Ventura and iOS 16, with a surprise announcement from Apple that they are adding a new ‘Lockdown’ heightened security mode for sensitive users, to both iOS and macOS.

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New macOS ‘covid’ Malware Masquerades as Apple, Wears Face of APT

A fake VPN delivers a Sliver implant with a further malicious payload. APT or Red Team? The IoCs can look the same to defenders.

Continue Reading Here >

Yesterday, we had the first post-pandemic Dutch MacAdmins meeting hosted by Adyen in Amsterdam. It was great to see so many people face-to-face again, but I also like that we had nearly as many attendees online than in person. Thanks to everyone who helped organize this and who attended.

Talking about conferences, you can buy MacSysAdmin Online 2022 T-shirts. Remember that viewing the session videos will be free, but with the T-shirt purchase you help support the people who make all of this possible. Last year, there were also Scripting OS X stickers that came with the shirt, and we may have some plans for this year…

If you still have room in your closet for another piece of clothing, you can buy more apparel (or a tote bag or a mug) and support the MacAdmins Foundation. Got to have something to wear for the next MacAdmins meeting.

If you think your company or product is a good fit to sponsor this newsletter, please contact me!

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

macOS Ventura and iOS 16

macOS and iOS Updates

Security and Privacy

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Updates and Releases

To Watch

To Listen

Support

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

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!

Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-07-01

Today is the first day of July which means that 2022 is half done. For me, this always comes as a bit of a surprise. Every day and week seem to be crammed with more and more news, events, and things to do and often seem interminable. But, days and weeks as a plural seem to be just flitting by.

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Use of Obfuscated Beacons in ‘pymafka’ Supply Chain Attack Signals a New Trend in macOS Attack TTPs

A new typosquatting attack against the PyPI repository targets enterprise Macs with a distinctive obfuscation method.

Continue Reading Here >

In other “where has the time gone” related news: the first iPhone was released 15 years ago this week. Back then, the iPhone was obviously the beginning of something new, though no-one, or very few, grasped just how big and transformative smart phones were going to be, for Apple, the industry, and society as a whole.

Apple is special to have several products that disrupted their markets, but the iPhone stands out even among these. A mobile super computer with always-on connectivity in your pocket was imaginable before, but the reality exceeded most fiction and fantasies, and in many ways ran off in directions that weren’t anticipated at all.

Of course, the success of the iPhone and all the related products also transformed the company from permanently “beleaguered” to a multi-trillion-dollar company, which created several markets in its periphery. The “people who manage Apple devices for organisations” or “MacAdmins” niche is of course one of these markets and one I am very happy to provide some service to. This niche existed 15 years ago, but on a very different scale.

By coincidence, the iPhone arrived about 15 years after I took the first steps in the “Mac admin” space, when I started working with some companies helping them manage their “Macintosh” deployments in 1992. So much manual work back then…

Let’s see what the next 15 years bring!

Aside from reminiscing, July 1st also means that summer is here (in the Northern hemisphere) and some things really are slowing down a bit. Hope you will some time off to relax and enjoy!

If you think your company or product is a good fit to sponsor this newsletter, please contact me!

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

macOS Ventura and iOS 16

Security and Privacy

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Updates and Releases

To Listen

Just for Fun

Support

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

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!

Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-06-24

Things are calming down with the upcoming summer. We did get a series of new betas for macOS Ventura and iOS 16 this week.

(Sponsor: SentinelOne

CrateDepression: Rust Supply-Chain Attack Infects Cloud CI Pipelines with Go Malware

Mac and Linux users were targeted with Mythic payload as attackers sought to infect entire user populations at once through a malicious Rust crate.

Continue Reading Here >

In personal news, Covid has finally caught up with me after dodging it for more than two years. My symptoms are mild, thanks to being vaccinated, but I couldn’t attend and present at the Jamf Nation Live event in Munich, something I had been looking forward to very much. Many thanks to Mischa and Rob who jumped in and covered my sessions and all the other Jamf co-workers in Munich. Maybe next year…

If I can’t present in person, I will present remotely. Next week, June 30, I will remotely present on Patch Management at the MacAdminsUA meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine!

If you think your company or product is a good fit to sponsor this newsletter, please contact me!

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

macOS Ventura and iOS 16

Social Media

  • Thomas Larking (LinkedIn): “This week my team and I released Munki to our entire fleet. We took our time to build it right and I wanted to share some quick thoughts about skill and background diversity on my team…”
  • Salajander: “hdiutil, hidutil, and hiutil are all valid commands on macOS.”
  • Anthony Reimer: “I’ve updated my Mac Obsolescence Chart with the upcoming MacBook Pro and Air models, plus I’ve marked the models for which Monterey will be their terminal OS.”

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Apple Support

To Watch

To Listen

Support

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

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!