On Nov 21, 2007, at 7:00 AM, Dave Piscitello wrote:
> 4) provide a "do not allow *any* inbound connections" choice, and
> accompany this with a warning that says, "if you do this you will
> block the following applications. Choose this option if you are
> connecting to an untrusted network (public WiFi, ...)

This is a very risky idea: networks should never be trusted. Apple
gets this one somewhat right by not giving the false impression of
security the way Windows (and certain Linux firewall GUI tools) do.

That's one of the reasons why I haven't joined in this thread earlier:
there were some minor UI improvements to be made to the firewall
prefpane and 10.5.1 basically took care of those. Everything else is
really misdirected because no modern operating system really has a
firewall problem. What we have are insecure applications and poor
compartmentalization - we can't use the firewall to prevent a Safari
or Mail exploit and that's the way most systems are rooted these days.

We really should be focusing on sandboxing - not just the remaining
system daemons but also the various internet-facing applications. 10.5
has the basics but it's missing a framework to simplify the process of
locking down an application. There are a few missing features (e.g.
there should be a way to differentiate attempts to open a file which
are in response to a user action) but most of what's missing is an
attempt to make a very easy framework for developers who do the right
thing to have secure apps (e.g. writes limited to, say, Library/
(Application Support|Preferences|Cache)/$BUNDLE_ID; network access
only as specified) and a heavy campaign to encourage developers of
internet-facing apps to use this framework.

Chris0? *?H?÷

 ?0?

10 +0? *?H?÷


 ?)0?â0?K 
-? ç?2??óXÇrÈsS0
 *?H?÷


0b10 UZA1%0#U
Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd.1,0*U#Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA0
071116222345Z
081115222345Z0F10UThawte Freemail Member1#0! *?H?÷


chris (at) improbable (dot) org0 [email concealed]?
"0
 *?H?÷



?
0?

?

Ö)ÔÒéùp¢E?ÍðZ~?èÄÊ<ÒþÛQåxW5W`ÿ"¢¦?úñkºFð^êÈñðI?¢àÖm(?Þ6cõè[aÇõ§
¤?E®w?÷°¶Å:ÆJ¹Â[?}Sß?¦
e
¦-y]ÍÆÉàÐ`vÂJxbMf?D^d?¼u?
Bºd®~ÀBîÚ*ü¿AJ_?=Ìð=¤þ6?µø?¨&¿N/Úk²ï
r5.i%¼:"t¨¦eÒ9æÇ"?Éè?@?S2ÄN~e?UtsÏÛ=p©Ùæn?Û1ÝH¹fôjÚ65nùÌ~ªâݱ
Ð
DvL±ð½ü?u

£10/0U0chris (at) improbable (dot) org0 [email concealed]U

ÿ00
 *?H?÷


»-Ö³6i|·6ÚÅ?HÌÖ«Ë!-'e»ébТ+?
õ¹íåFª>?vC|ó?Á}ÿu-5¡öbÝÞrCÈ?¬×}²gñ?{a>ìÇnçP
EDÎMî
??é@FÜ
Eоêrü¦Úsäl?ïÚí.?ë¦?+<é?®?Þ0??0?¨ 


0
 *?H?÷


0Ñ10 UZA10UWestern Cape10U Cape Town10U
Thawte Consulting1(0&UCertification Services Division1$0"UThawte Personal Freemail CA1+0) *?H?÷


personal-freemail (at) thawte (dot) com0 [email concealed]
030717000000Z
130716235959Z0b10 UZA1%0#U
Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd.1,0*U#Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA0?0
 *?H?÷



0?Ä¦<UsUûN¹Ê?ZhÀupßéÿ£ì½Íõ[òv½:aò¿QÎ
ÔåP
0×cZ,?p?ÝÉð+?Zª?qV˯<çñ?6$*Ï+Õó?w=¾+þ»>¿@?dק¦»?eÑÅ*T?H§¶Ñ<
a@dr`·û

£?0?0U

ÿ0

ÿ
0CU<0:08 6 4?2http://crl.tha
wte.com/ThawtePersonalFreemailCA.crl0U
0)U"0 ¤010UPrivateLabel2-1380
 *?H?÷


H?ÑP?ê.Ì
£f¬g¯¬¾Â¡C??L!¸ø6ª-?6/ÀôP ?p<ý­áabÃÙ:~?±?Å?t?%P?bÇÛ'qW%Ý©?9?? Oe_?Ú÷÷?ÖÆN®öê4å[5MwãV!x?Ü!5Þ$±ÓFÿ]_eO1?0?

0v0b10 UZA1%0#U
Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd.1,0*U#Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA-? ç?2??óXÇrÈsS0 + ?
o0 *?H?÷

1 *?H?÷


0 *?H?÷

1
071121210241Z0# *?H?÷

1ãõ+]0:-a?9[IûU¶Ð¬'0? +

?71x0v0b10 UZA1%0#U
Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd.1,0*U#Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA-? ç?2??óXÇrÈsS0?*?H?÷

1x v0b10 UZA1%0#U
Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd.1,0*U#Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA-? ç?2??óXÇrÈsS0
 *?H?÷



?
#7SJDô>Ù¤?ýKsµCË·)½F¾ú2Õ?Åüóx¾?À÷h¥.%?òëIå?Ô?i±õ,por²àó?Õ)¶Z»³P1Ròú
é»?WX;µÏÌ(íKGrÌ)Ðkò!trNa°¾Ñ`ÑÍé?=Û?ÈùC£ÂøÏO=tэÎ3qá?¶HÙÊÈÏ
?cå¨Íº?@c_W??o?¯·mcÈêI !²³?OWöädïÈõAãökÓiîÉÈWÐãÑ
?Dâz ;µ¦+Þ? ÞB'~Âz6².AñvéoGßb*°hô¯«?8?¡ò_è0

[ reply ]