Last Updated on 29/11/2020 by Drashti
For all of Apple’s talk of being privacy-first, regularly its advertising talk doesn’t fit up with what it’s really doing. And the modern-day example? Well, it’s Apple apps on Big Sur bypassing firewalls and VPNs.
Apple introduced MacOS Big Sur as the next-generation operating system last week. The update includes a list of new features for Mac machines. However, macOS Big Sur has also been found to contain an issue that causes Apple apps to bypass firewalls and virtual private networks (VPNs). This privacy issue was first noticed in the beta of macOS Big Sur last month. However, Apple has not resolved this at the time of the release of the public version.
The issue was first brought into light in the macOS Big Sur beta by Twitter user @mxswd all the way back in October. They had this to say:
Even though the issue wasn’t revealed and acknowledged by Twitter, It was confirmed by Patrick Wardle, a security researcher at Jamf.
He said that previously, Network Kernel Extension or kext, can be used to implement a comprehensive macOS firewall. Ever since Apple disapproved kexts and replaced it with Network Extensions, the company’s apps began to bypass the filtering system.
According to Wardle, the Mac App Store in Big Sur is able to bypass any firewall set up by a user as its traffic is invisible to firewalls. This has serious security implications for organizations that have set up firewalls to prevent certain applications from using their corporate networks.
In addition to the problem of bypassing firewalls and VPNs, macOS Big Sur appears to have some problems that are bricking some older MacBook Pro models. As reported by MacRumors, multiple users of the late 2013 and mid-2014 13-inch MacBook Pro models report that the latest macOS update is crashing your computers.
Apple is reportedly conscious of the issue because it has been escalated to the Apple assist crew. Nonetheless, the corporate hasn’t but supplied any readability to customers whether or not it might be capable of resolve the difficulty via a software program replace.
So the question that arises here is, whether to upgrade to macOS Big Sur or not?
- Since the brand new MacBook device is laid low with VPN and firewall breaches, there are numerous matters to test earlier than you improve to macOS Big Sur.
- According to 9to5mac, you ought to ensure that Big Sur is like-minded together along with your apps, especially the vital ones. However, in case your tool is already okay with preliminary insects and issues, you could already get the brand new system.
- You also can improve your secondary MacBook to macOS Big Sur in case you no longer use it all the time.
As of now, it is nonetheless tough to recognize why Apple could make it’s very own apps exempt from firewalls and VPNs.Some people attribute it to licensing issues, while others assume the enterprise desires to hold statistics and site visitors from its apps out of VPN servers.
Firewalls and VPNs are one of the many methods wherein purchasers and commercial enterprise customers alike guard their privateness and protection online, so we hope Apple will address this issue soon. Until then though, it can be really well worth preserving off on updating to Big Sur in case you often use a VPN or firewall.
Apple is yet to acknowledge or comment on the issue.
