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141 Comments
- Iwantawii, on 11/13/2007, -14/+154It's probably just your password, browsing history, and all your pictures.
- wonderchemist, on 11/11/2007, -8/+126Off the top of my head I'll guess this is how .Mac's 'Back to my Mac' feature works.
For those unfamiliar. Back to my Mac allows you to connect back to your Mac from elsewhere. It does so though Apple's .Mac service which keeps tracks of the IP address and names of all your Macs. - dkoon, on 11/10/2007, -17/+85Welcome to digg, a site full of hypocrites. We only care when Microsoft does it, move along.
- Microdot, on 11/11/2007, -4/+46its back to my mac... a feature in the os. wow. lot of paranoid people in here.
- bofhcabbit, on 11/10/2007, -8/+48Yeah, I think it's the fact that it's transmitting encrypted data that makes me worry most of all.
- mattym, on 11/08/2007, -4/+42Dont have .Mac, and my Macbook Pro is not phoning home. Looks like it is .Mac
- inactive, on 11/09/2007, -2/+39That's actually exactly what it is. If you have a .mac account enabled from a previous (or the current) OS install, it will attempt an SSL connection (hence port 443) to authenticate the user with the remote .mac blob. This is really, really not a big deal.
- lxpk, on 11/11/2007, -11/+46Ironically, Digg is spying on my browsing behavior to infer if I actually read the story or not. I want to see someone traffic analyze the transmissions. If they are HTTPS, they probably contain something worth encrypting, which could be personal information.
- chromerium, on 11/08/2007, -6/+38buried for being incorrect sensationalist *****
- jads, on 11/11/2007, -4/+36Like a previous commenter has said, it's probably for the back to my mac stuff. If Apple was collecting information then it wouldn't be using the mac.com domain but apple's own. Besides, after the bother Apple got into with the iTunes Ministore feature, I'd be surprised if Apple was collecting information.
I'd be interested to see a non .Mac subscriber try this to see if it still does the same... - starf, on 11/09/2007, -4/+34Read like an ad for little snitch 2.
But the programs really a must have for osx, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. - Refrozen, on 11/09/2007, -4/+29My Leopard installation is -not- calling home when loginservice is invoked. I just checked using their crappy Little Snitch 2 software. There is no connection made to *.mac.com through natural use of the computer (tried login, tried changing System Preferences, tried all kinds of things).
I do not use .mac. - lxpk, on 11/09/2007, -6/+24I laughed out loud at work in front of my boss because of that comment.
- rspeed, on 11/09/2007, -0/+18I was gonna say that I have been using Little Snitch in Leopard since the first version 2 beta (weeks before the release of Leopard) and I never saw this behavior. Since I don't have .Mac that would probably explain it.
- NSResponder, on 11/08/2007, -4/+22"it's probably for the back to my mac stuff."
It is.
If you do a verbose boot, you can see that "Back to my Mac" starts just before the login window shows up.
-jcr - virtualball, on 11/08/2007, -3/+21I don't have .mac and it isn't phoning home. FUD!
- 0ldmankdude, on 11/08/2007, -4/+21no, it's the elite hacker port that people use to own your box
- colincornaby, on 11/09/2007, -3/+18Gee... it contacts something @mac.com, which would maybe kind of sorta imply that it's part of the .Mac service? Doesn't the .Mac service transmit dyndns information if you opt in?
- gregdigg, on 11/08/2007, -1/+14eye wint too skool to
- Dolomite, on 11/08/2007, -9/+21i'd be a little more worried if my info was sent in the clear
- superrcat, on 11/08/2007, -1/+13It is "Back to My Mac". It is enabled by default if you configure .Mac. To prove this (if you have .Mac configured), go into the .Mac System Preference, choose the "Back to My Mac" tab, click Stop, then click Start again. If you have Little Snitch installed, it will throw up an alert to..."lcs.mac.com"
- Firehed, on 11/09/2007, -3/+14I expect that's right; I'm not a .Mac users and thusly doesn't have Back To My Mac - and I haven't seen this connection warning, using the latest version of LS.
So once again, an OS creates traffic that you weren't expcting, and everyone assumes the worst. It could just as easily been checking for software updates and such - in either case, GOOD traffic. Truth be told, I'm a bit more comfortable with Apple doing it than any other software maker, but that's only because they have their own additional (optional) software packages that tie in with the OS and historically have a pretty good track record. - lxpk, on 11/08/2007, -2/+13Opening the .Mac prefpane does try to connect to mac.com although not lcs.mac.com but that sounds like a likely explanation.
- Firehed, on 11/09/2007, -0/+10I'd be more concerned about browsing digg in front of your boss than laughing at a comment.
- inactive, on 11/08/2007, -2/+12Oh, so its a advert...
- jdkullmann, on 11/08/2007, -2/+11I call Shenanigans - it's Back To My Mac. Either an ad for Little Snitch2, some anti apple fanboi, or just someone clueless.
- ejreynolds, on 11/08/2007, -1/+10yes
- Gryffydd, on 11/08/2007, -3/+12OH MY GOD APPLE IS TAKING THE DATA I CHOSE TO SEND TO THEM OH NOES!!!11!
- digudown, on 11/10/2007, -1/+10And your credit card number so that uncle Jobs can charge you for all downloaded mp3's.
- digudown, on 11/09/2007, -7/+15Because Church of Steve Jobs can do no wrong? It might be transferring your personal info to someone else (Apple) so you should be worried. If it was plain text at least one could have found out if it was personal info or not.
- erictheninja, on 11/09/2007, -1/+9You and I both. i haven't received this message either.
- aazn, on 11/09/2007, -4/+11Wow, submitter just got raped because it was a feature that was opt-in and does what it's supposed to.
- thogue, on 11/08/2007, -0/+7Clear? or not Clear? It does not bother you that you do not what what information is being sent it?
It sure bothers me most of all. What information could they be sending out thats good for you anyway? NONE - 4ndr3w, on 11/08/2007, -0/+7And the FCC needs to know things about my computer why.......?
- inactive, on 11/09/2007, -3/+9notice how the anti-windows zealots always flock to the windows stories? what a bunch of losers
- starf, on 11/08/2007, -1/+7Article:
Apple's Mac OS 10.5 Leopard loginwindow process phones home to lcs.mac.com on port 443 which is only revealed by running the new Little Snitch 2 security monitoring tool.
You can reproduce and deny the suspicious unauthorized outgoing packets by installing Little Snitch 2 beta 10 and rebooting. You can tell it to deny once or forever when it tries this until we discover a legitimate purpose for this transmission.
screenshot of little snitch 2
I googled the strings and Russian hackers are the only ones I could find who have noticed so far in this LiveJournal post which I translated into English. Here's a not entirely innapropriate picture they posted in the thread:
What is going on exactly? Why is Apple contacting itself? Can anyone with more expertise in traffic analysis tell us what is being sent through HTTPS?
Little Snitch 2 For The Win
This is a potentially suspicious behavior but it does bring to our attention the importance of independent security tools like Little Snitch that are not designed by the operating system manufacturer. Without Snitch, there is no easy way for users to audit and control their computer's security independent of the manufacturer's whims.
It also highlights the excellence of Little Snitch 2, which is packed with new visual network monitoring features and a new Star Trek-esque configuration interface.
screenshot of little snitch 2
I recommend 10.5 users download Little Snitch 2 and get control over this kind of suspicious network activity. If Apple is doing it, the rest of your software could be doing worse behind your back. Buy yourself a license for Little Snitch 2 for $25 and support the indy developer because without him we would be at Apple's mercy.
Little Snitch Secures Leopard's Area
Leopard almost copies Little Snitch 1's preference pane and Allow/Deny dialogs with a new Application Firewall under System Preferences Security but they only monitor incoming connections, ignoring outgoing spyware like Leopard's loginwindow. Leopard imitates Little Snitch just in time to be dusted by Little Snitch 2 and caught in the act of apparently breaching user privacy.
Apple Must Explain: Bug or Feature?
I hope someone from Apple responds to this to show either that there is a good reason to justify it or that it will be removed in 10.5.1. Apple's overall security record is impressive compared to Microsoft but we must be ever vigilant to keep them on their toes. The obviousness of this phoning home and the inevitability of all such transmissions being exposed makes it unlikely that this is something really nefarious but even an oversight can breach privacy and great care must be taken by companies like Apple whose software is running on an increasing percentage of our computers worldwide. - bradleyland, on 11/09/2007, -0/+6If you got a notification for every mundane action that your PC performed on a daily basis.... you'd have Vista's UAC. And we all know how well that's been received.
- r3zonance, on 11/11/2007, -0/+6As the address ends .mac.com, it is definitely Apple's .Mac service. This is confirmed by people without .Mac setup against their login not getting this behaviour.
This is lame, at least do research before finding "things wrong with Leopard". Okay there are some legitimate issues (such as "move") but spreading FUD doesn't help anyone, except maybe your sites traffic. - inactive, on 11/09/2007, -1/+7Yes, it could easily be confirmed - just block the access and see it it still works.
- ninetimes, on 11/08/2007, -5/+11That's what I was thinking, and in that case, it doesn't seem too nefarious. "Every time you use Apple's online services, it connects to Apple's servers!!" Um, yeah... what else do you expect?
- bruenig, on 11/08/2007, -0/+5See if you are swearing or not?
- zephc, on 11/08/2007, -0/+4I'm going to portal your mom into my bedroom, via the ceiling.
- webcrumb, on 11/09/2007, -0/+4notice how the anti-ubuntu zealots always flock to the ubuntu stories? what a bunch of losers
- oneoverzero, on 11/08/2007, -0/+4I run linux, so I don't really have much of a right to speak in this thread per se... However, it's entirely possible that they're sending statistical data, which while not /good/ for you isn't really bad either. This also could explain encrypting depending on the nature of the statistics.
- WiseWeasel, on 11/08/2007, -0/+4Once it's in your firewall log, it's too late. This intercepts the transmission as it happens, and allows you to decline it and set up rules to handle it automatically in the future, on a per-process (application) basis. I agree this article read like some Diggvertisement, but Little Snitch is crucial for Macs (as are equivalents for other OSs), and I'm always interested in knowing what info my OS vendor is sending home, so dugg.
- DigDugDigger, on 11/08/2007, -3/+7"I don't have .mac and it isn't phoning home. FUD!"
Same experience here. - allanpat, on 11/08/2007, -0/+4their, they're and there - not there, there and there
go back to 3rd grade. - inactive, on 11/08/2007, -1/+4$25 is pretty steep for such a simple program.
- Monk22, on 11/08/2007, -0/+3i hope your not an IT guy
- WiseWeasel, on 11/08/2007, -1/+4You do know that all your Ubuntu software can still run in OS X using X11, right? You only have to pay if you want the nicely-designed apps with developer support. Choices are a bitch, I know...
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