[Discuss] OSX Mavericks root exploit, and Safari

[Edward Ned Harvey (blu)]

I'd like to alert people that OSX Mavericks has a root exploit that will not be fixed. All Mac users must immediately update to Yosemite in order to maintain any semblance of security.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/04/latest-version-of-os-x-closes-backdoor-like-bug-that-gives-attackers-root/

Also, having recently done this upgrade myself, I was almost immediately annoyed that Apple is trying to cram Safari down your throat - If you haven't launched Safari, they pop up a notification where your only choices are "Try Now" and "Later" which will repeat a few days later.

Also, if you use some other browser such as Chrome or Firefox, OSX will harass you to use Safari when you close it.  The "You should switch to Safari instead of Chrome" harassment will repeat once every few days upon closing the non-Safari browser.

Safari is terrible in terms of security. Nobody should use it.

To disable these annoyances, you can use this script I wrote. I recommend you don't trust me - I'm a stranger on the internet - You should first just run the curl command to see what the script does, and then repeat the curl command piped into bash to actually execute it. Just paste this onto a Terminal prompt:

                curl -s https://clevertrove.com/safariAnnoyance.sh | bash