macOS Big Sur 11.2 Beta 2 Removes Feature Letting Apple Apps Bypass Third-Party Firewalls and VPNs

[MacRumors]

macOS Big Sur 11.2 beta 2, which was released yesterday, eliminates a feature that allowed Apple apps bypass third-party firewalls, security tools, and VPN apps, according to reports from ZDNet and security researcher Patrick Wardle.

macOS Big Sur 11 included a ContentFilterExclusionList that let Apple's apps like the App Store, Maps, iCloud, and more to avoid firewall and VPN apps that users had installed. These apps were not able to filter or inspect traffic for some built-in Apple apps.

Security researchers believed that the feature, found last October, was a major security risk as malware could be designed to latch on to a legitimate Apple app and bypass security software. Users who had VPNs installed also risked exposing their real IP address and location to Apple's apps.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1349488392732491776

Apple told ZDNet last year that the list was temporary and the result of a series of bugs related to the deprecation of network kernel extensions in macOS Big Sur. Apple has been addressing those bugs, and in the second beta of macOS Big Sur released yesterday, removed the ContentFilterExclusionList from the macOS code.

When macOS Big Sur 11.2 sees a release, Apple apps will be compatible with VPN apps and will no longer be able to bypass firewalls and other security tools.

Article Link: macOS Big Sur 11.2 Beta 2 Removes Feature Letting Apple Apps Bypass Third-Party Firewalls and VPNs

 

[farewelwilliams]

seems like it would fix the safari leaking the user's history despite having VPN on

 

[robotica]

Good news!

 

[-BigMac-]

Apple allowed to bypass firewalls/security software?

What an unfortunate “bug” this mustve been for Apple before it was found

 

[LFC2020]

The rollout of iOS M1 mac apps has been very disappointing, these lazy developers need a kick up the backside.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

'We have another candidate for our "Is This A Feature Or Is This A Bug?" bingo.'

Ha ha that cracks me up!

 

[BWhaler]

It should have always been this way, but I’m pleased Apple is making the appropriately change quickly. Thank you.

 

[DailySlow]

Excellent news - been aching to move to Big Sur (love the place - LOL) but holding back until VPN's would function there (plus other Objective see tools) - wife is itching to do so for work and will do so as soon as the update to 11.2 is out.

 

[Realityck]

The rollout of iOS M1 mac apps has been very disappointing, these lazy developers need a kick up the backside.

iOS? This is against Big Sur 11.2 Beta 2.

 

[Cosmosent]

That's absolutely Fantastic News !

Hopefully soon, AAPL will need to play by ALL the same rules it makes third-party App Devs play by !

At least those of us who Adhere to the rules.

Next up, hopefully, NO favoritism towards Apple's apps WRT skirting App Permissions, which I've definitely caught them violating !

 

[ikramerica]

That's absolutely Fantastic News !

Hopefully soon, AAPL will need to play by ALL the same rules it makes third-party App Devs play by !

At least those of us who Adhere to the rules.

Next up, hopefully, NO favoritism towards Apple's apps WRT skirting App Permissions, which I've definitely caught them violating !

I think the logic is that “we know our apps are safe” but of course, they don’t know that and can’t know that.

 

[hortod1]

The older I get the more this might as well be a foreign language

<sigh>

 

[Apple_Robert]

Excellent news - been aching to move to Big Sur (love the place - LOL) but holding back until VPN's would function there (plus other Objective see tools) - wife is itching to do so for work and will do so as soon as the update to 11.2 is out.

SurfShark is the only brand name VPN I have seen with Silicon support thus far. Nord and PIA are dragging their software heels.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Glad to see Apple changed course and put power back in the user's hands.

 

[adamjackson]

It's not purely how a company conducts business but how they respond when people identify and make noise about flaws. Intentional or not by Apple, I'm glad they changed course here.

 

[KaplanMike]

Now if only Big Sur will bring back the simple pleasure of deleting Messages with a single click.

 

[aidler]

So with 11.2 I can finally update to Big Sur.

 

[LeadingHeat]

So does this mean split tunnel VPNs won’t work anymore? Or is it still up to the service to implement it or not?

 

[kildraik]

Excellent. Great news for all.

 

[schlitzz]

Is the Safari performance a little snappier?

 

[Tech198]

This sounds like it was a bad idea from the start. but its beta, so no problem

 

[chucker23n1]

The older I get the more this might as well be a foreign language

<sigh>

Apple recently started requiring third party software who want to control network traffic (such as firewalls) to intercept it a different way. They documented and explained the new way, and it's been mostly fine. However, they then exempted some of their own software from this new way.

A security researcher example: they want to observe how an app communicates with the network, how its behavior changes when they limit some of that communication, etc. They weren't able to do that with some of Apple's apps. For example, if App Store or Find My had a security bug related to network communication, they would have a hard time finding out. Not only can they not control the traffic from those services, they can't even see it.

A more general-purpose example: you're on cellular (or some other metered connection), and use an app like Trip Mode to limit data usage. Well, you can't see the data some of Apple's stuff uses. App Store or Software Update download a large update in the background? Trip Mode won't be able to tell you.

There were probably some reasons Apple did all this in the first place (for example, one might argue that macOS needs to be able to download updates to Xprotect malware definitions no matter what), but there's also a fair bit of hubris involved. It feels like once they did decide to make that exemption list, all kinds of software teams internally signed up to be added, and that's just opening the floodgates for trouble.

Anyway, all this, it appears, is now resolved.

 

[Anthony Sullivan]

Apple told ZDNet last year that the list was temporary and the result of a series of bugs related to the deprecation of network kernel extensions in macOS Big Sur. Apple has been addressing those bugs, and in the second beta of macOS Big Sur released yesterday, removed the ContentFilterExclusionList from the macOS code.

Apple is a joke these days.

 

[calstanford]

That was one seriously dumb and insecure feature to begin with. I wonder who approved that.

 

[Westside guy]

I think the logic is that “we know our apps are safe” but of course, they don’t know that and can’t know that.

Well, I think the logic is "do as I say, not as I do"... or was, until they got caught.