MacAdmins.news

This week, we got the first betas for macOS 14.5, iOS 17.5, visionOS 1.2 and all the other platforms, as well as new updates for the productivity apps formerly known as iWork.

⚙️ Apple Updates

IT Training

The Apple Device Support and Apple Deployment and Management exams and exam preparation guides are now available in Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

Pages 14.0: Mac, iPhone, iPad, iCloud
Keynote 14.0: Mac, iPhone, iPad, iCloud
Numbers 14.0: Mac, iPhone, iPad, iCloud

🔐 Security and Privacy

How FileVault passwords work, and are they now vulnerable?

recent publicity given to the GoFetch vulnerability in Apple silicon chips has raised concerns that FileVault’s encryption could be broken. This article explains how FileVault works, with respect to its encryption keys and passwords, and considers whether its protection is any weaker.

Jamf Threat Labs dissects infostealer malware

Jamf Threat Labs has observed a creative evolution in the strategies and tactics used by these attackers to target users and steal their data.

Tricking require an admin password to access system-wide settings

Unfortunately the setting doesn’t work as documented, and it can be set to “enabled” while still allowing standard users to modify system-wide settings.

What we know about the xz Utils backdoor that almost infected the world

Researchers have spent the weekend gathering clues. Here's what we know so far.

🔨 Support and Tutorials

Checking bootable systems using bputil on Apple silicon

what makes a disk bootable by explaining more about LocalPolicy, and how you can use the command tool bputil to check it.

Home Screen Layout: When and How to Use It

Assuming, then, that you’re applying Home Screen layouts to the right kinds of devices (i.e. shared ones), there are some general guidelines that you should

🤖 Scripting and Automation

The uptime command is doped on macOS

(Translated from French)

It therefore seems that the macOS uptime command returns completely fanciful values

Simplify macOS App Management in Intune with AutoPkg Tools

The Intune AutoPkg Tools repository houses a script that acts as a wrapper around AutoPkg, a popular tool for automating the packaging and deployment of macOS applications. This script streamlines the entire process of managing macOS apps in Intune, from creation to deletion, using the Intune Uploader set of AutoPkg custom processors.

Packaging Choices — munkipkg, AutoPkg, and GUI-based Tools

I tried using both munkipkg and AutoPkg for this task and compared both with the GUI-based process I had used previously, discovering the advantages and disadvantages of these methods.

♻️ Updates and Releases

iMazing Profile Editor 1.9

Over the last few major releases, macOS has been adding more and more payloads that require you to identify your apps by bundle ID, team ID, or the dreaded code requirement :ghost: Whether it’s PPPC permissions, notifications, parental controls, service management, system extensions, or whatever is announced this June - they all require at least one of these details, and are becoming impossible to avoid.

The App Inspector is here to make configuring these payloads a much easier task. Without leaving iMazing Profile Editor, you can now inspect the apps you are configuring and find not only their bundle ID, team ID, and code requirement, but also other fun details we added like their supported CPU architectures and minimum OS version.