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Major security flaw discovered in Apple software

In an embarrassing moment for Apple, the company’s customers have found a worrying security flaw in the latest MacOS High Sierra operating system for Mac computers that enables logins without entering a password.

The bug allows users to simply type the username root (without a password) if they want to log into the device. This means anybody can access a Mac’s file system, exposing all private documents to the world.

The worst part is that this even works remotely.

Bugs like this are rare occurrences with Apple software. With the previous version of this operating system there were no such issues.



According to Bill Evans, a spokesperson for the company, they were β€œworking on a software update to address this issue. In the meantime, setting a root password prevents unauthorized access to your Mac.”

Tests showed that the bug could be used to change all system settings, including storage drive encryption and the device’s firewall.
The problem was highlighted on Twitter by Turkish software engineer Lemi Orhan Ergin yesterday.

Until Apple has time to release an update for the operating system with patches to fix the bug, it’s fairly easy to solve the problem by simply setting up a password for the user β€˜root’. To do this navigate to System Preferences, choose Users and Group and then click on Login Options on the menu’s left side. Next click Join (adjacent to Account Server) and then Open Directory Utility. Finally, Click Edit in the main menu bar to set up the password.
Edward Snowden, a man who became world famous after leaking vital NSA data to the general public, commented by Tweeting: β€œImagine a locked door, but if you just keep trying the handle, it says β€˜oh well’ and lets you in without a key.”

Although an update is likely in the very near future, you can mitigate this issue by enabling root user on your Mac, you can learn how to this here.

Before you go

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About the author

Chris

I've been a passionate evangelist for Apple and the Macintosh throughout my working life, my first love was a Quadra 605 working with a small creative agency in the south of Norfolk UK in the mid 1990's, I later progressed to other roles in other Macintosh dominated industries, first as a Senior graphic designer at a small printing company and then a production manager at Guardian Media Group. As the publishing and printing sector wained I moved into Internet Marketing and in 2006 co-founded blurtit.com which grew to become one the top 200 visited sites in the US (according to Quantcast), at its peak receiving over 15 million visits per month. For the last ten years I have worked as an Affiliate and Consultant to many different business and start ups, my key skill set being online marketing, on page monetisation, landing page optimisation and traffic generation, if you would like to hire me or discuss your current project please reach out to me here.

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