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• More On Sandboxing

  Alan: So things like “sandboxing” are designed to prevent unforeseen vulnerabilities from being transformed into large exploits. Dino: Yes, as the name suggests, “sandboxing” is meant to contain the spill in the event of a compromise. Sandboxes don’t actually prevent exploits, however. They more prevent those exploits from taking other actions on the system. For example, Google’s Chrome has a very restrictive sandbox for Web rendering processes. And while this won’t prevent an exploit from executing arbitrary code, it will prevent that executing code from harming your system. Alan: You've really been able to adapt your knowledge from PowerPC era to the Intel-Mac era. With the upcoming Snow Leopard, Apple will be implementing features such as ASLR, code signing for kernel extensions, full NX bit support, and sandboxing for many of the main applications. These are all features currently supported by Vista. How is this going to help secure the Mac? How does "sandboxing" really work when Chrome's first exploit allowed remote applications to be launched from Java, and IE8 was recently exploited at this year's CanSecWest? Dino: I haven't looked at Snow Leopard yet due to the pre-release NDA, but I am glad to hear that they will be implementing those features.   Alan: You know actually, as you were saying that, I just realized that I don’t think it’s actually 100% confirmed yet. It’s really just the blogsphere right now. But let’s assume that this is what Snow Leopard will add. How is that going to change things? Dino: I hope their implementations are sound and I will definitely be buying and installing Snow Leopard on all of my systems from Day One. All of these security features hamper attacks at multiple stages. ASLR and NX make it much more difficult for an exploit to inject or re-purpose code in an application. The sandboxing limits the actions that an application can perform so that even if it does begin running attacker-supplied code, the actions that the attacker may perform will be constrained. Finally, kernel extension code signing prevents attackers from installing new software into the core of the operating system. Attackers often install rootkits into the kernel in order to conceal their attacks and maintain access to compromised systems. There is a difference between operating system-level and browser-level sandboxing. Chrome is the only Web browser to implement browser-based sandboxing. This is a highly smart move on their part and the main reason that Chrome was not compromised at Pwn2Own this year. The limitation of Chrome's sandbox model, however, is that it cannot sandbox Web browser plugins such as Flash and Java. These plugins need full access to the system, so the sandboxing system used for Web content renderers cannot be used. The Web content rendering processes are highly limited and cannot touch the file system at all. Breaking out of the Chrome renderer process sandbox would be an impressive feat in itself.

• The Advantage: Running Mac OS X and Windows Vista

  Exaggerated pricing myths on Apple systems aside, Apple’s biggest selling tool is Mac OS X and the fact that you can now run Windows XP or Vista on the same machine native. With BootCamp, you can get the best of both words in a general sense. Let’s make it clear though that if you’re a serious gamer who plays games like Crysis, you would still be held back because of the lack of high-end 3D graphics support. The latest for the Mac is a Radeon HD 3780 — good but not the best available. For most other games and everything else, it really works nicely. Windows drivers for the Mac are fully provided by Apple to enable all hardware on the Mac to work in Windows. So you get a full Mac and a full Windows system. You get the best of Mac OS X and the best of Windows on one machine. At this point, some people will say something like "well the only reason why BootCamp is provided to install and run Windows is because Windows is better." This is not the point. If you already have a PC and enjoy it and find it does everything you need, stick to it. If you’re in the market for a new system to replace a main desktop, this is the article for you. If someone is insistent on one thing, there’s no reason to continue reading. If they’re open to new ideas and new ways of doing something, then read on. The operating system continually refines itself and Apple markets this OS as the ultimate desktop experience. Lest there be any confusion, Apple also sells OS X Server although the market for OS X server is admittedly very tiny. Who needs pretty graphics in a serious server environment anyway? Most of the time, there no head attached to a server — things are administered through a remote terminal. Mac OS X is also based on a very robust UNIX foundation, which lends itself to being quite secure and powerful. However, given that the market share for Macs is much smaller than Windows, its prevalence to attack ratio is also lower. There are simply a greater number of Windows machines to be exploited. If the market shares were reversed, we would see Mac OS X exploited at a far greater level. However, keep in mind that the majority of Internet websites run on a *nix back end, it demonstrates that at the core, there are fewer holes to begin with. At the end of the day, anything that’s used more will no doubt reveal more security holes. An entire in-depth review of Mac OS X Leopard is beyond the scope of this article, and would require adding more than 10 pages, so we’ll leave that for the future. In fact, Apple is preparing the next major release of OS X, called Snow Leopard and we’ll definitely look at that release when it ships. For now, I highly recommend John Siracusa at ArsTechnica’s review of Leopard for a really good understanding of why OS X is so powerful and why it’s very good at scaling into the future. Expect to see things like the new powerful ZFS file system be introduced, which will allow for such features as byte-level delta backups. The lack of a registry makes everything a bit more agile. Applications store their own settings in .plist files or within themselves, making for installs and uninstalls a snap — just drag the application over or delete it. Rarely do you have to worry about lingering or overlapping system files. In a nutshell however, OS X delivers what many Windows users have to install several utilities for — and the majority of the good ones come with a small fee. Let’s take a look at some of these features.

• Apple iMac Display Problems Reported

  Apple M9177LLA Silver 20" Cinema LCD... (10 offers) Online shop Price See more products Over the last month, questionable upgrade pricing (Apple OSX Leopard: More Angry Customers), censorship (Mac OSX Cracked for PCs/More Update Woes (Is Apple Now Censoring Tom's Hardware?), and a bug-ridden operating system (Update: More Leopard Problems Plague Apple) have plagued Apple. While they represent problems for Apple, they are certainly surmountable for a mega corporation. But a new development may not be so easy to repair: Multiple sources indicate that at least some 20 and 24 inch iMacs sold since their debut August 7, 2007 may have shipped with defective displays. The 20 and 24" iMacs, with the Mac OSX Tiger default desktop. A Closer Look At The 20" Display Issue Originally, there was some hope that the 20" issue may be dependant on the video card. Two video cards are available for the 20" iMac: ATI's 128 MB Radeon HD 2400 XT and 256 MB Radeon HD 2600 Pro. However, user reports have confirmed that the problem occurs regardless of the video card Compare Prices on Mac 20" Computers. The problem shows as a change in the display of colors from the top to the bottom of the iMac screen. When looking at the display from a typical front viewing angle a solid colored background appears normal at the top of the screen and gradually changes color as your eye approaches the bottom of the screen. At the bottom of the display, the color appears faded or washed out. Medium blue becomes light blue, and light colors become white. A You Tube video, posted by a Mac owner whose retailer refuses to accept a return of his iMac, illustrates the problem: (iMac screen washed out). Note that the issue is inherent to the display; it occurs regardless of whether you are using the Tiger or Leopard operating system. For that matter, you could be running Windows or Linux on the iMac, and the malfunction would still be there. Although this type of problem may not be serious to someone who uses their Mac for sending emails and browsing the Web, it is likely to be a serious issue to anyone who uses their Mac for such tasks as photo editing or graphic design. And keep in mind that the Mac is marketed primarily as a multimedia platform. As someone who spends a great deal of time using his computer for multimedia work, I would find a display in this condition unusable. You may wonder why users don't notice the problem before buying their iMacs. First, many iMacs are purchased from the Apple website. However, even when looking at an iMac display in a retail store, the issue is not immediately obvious, because iMacs are displayed with colorful desktop graphics. Until you become suspicious that something isn't right and confirm it by using a solid colored desktop, you won't notice that there's anything wrong. And that usually doesn't happen until your iMac is at home or in your office. Both OSX Tiger (previous image) and OSX Leopard (above) have default desktops that make the screen defect hard to detect. Bright retail store lighting may further complicate in-store detection. Join our discussion on this article!