[Discuss] Most Dangerous Operating System

[Richard Pieri]

On 5/8/2012 9:37 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> protected by their relatively low installed base. Early on, the Mac
> filesystem did not have some of the inherent ownership/permission
> schemes that Linux and Unix has, but I'm not sure if that is true any
> longer. It was designed for ease of use. However, now there are Mac

OS X has always had POSIX file attributes.  Attribute Data records 
(ACLs) existed in HFS+ since version 10.0 but the tools for manipulating 
them weren't included in the OS until version 10.4.

What has been problematic is how those attributes are used, or not used 
as the case sometimes is.  Apple sees and presents Macintosh as a 
single-user device.  In retrospect, much of what is wrong with OS X's 
implementation goes back to that.  Remember what I wrote about locked 
doors in the post-it note password vault thread?  It doesn't matter to 
Apple if passwords are exposed in a log file because nobody else uses 
that Mac.

> specific viruses. One of the guys in an adjacent office has been the
> recipient of a Mac virus. No OS is immune to attacks. One of the issues
> I have with some Linux distros is the dumbing down. Fortunately in
> Linux, our customer base is a bit more sophisticated. As far as Apple is

This combined with the relatively low install base of Linux desktops and 
portables is why hardly anyone is bothering with endeavors like finding 
DRI vulnerabilities to exploit.  Someone savvy enough to choose a Linux 
desktop is less likely than Joe Average to fall victim to phishing 
attacks and the like that could be used to launch such exploits.

-- 
Rich P.