Security in Leopard

People are posting that the firewall in Leopard basically *****, true or not? I have mine set to block all incoming connections and I have the Stealth Mode enabled, is this enough? Is there the need for a third party firewall software?
And what about virus protection. I was recommended to use ClamXav, but when it runs it shows down my Macbook SO MUCH! so Im not using it. Other virus protection software requires that you pay, which isn't a problem if it is needed, so does anyone have any good software recommendations? Firstly, is additional virus protection needed? There is a debate over that, some people think Macs don't get viruses, but nothing is ever guaranteed. Any suggestions?

Yes, blocking all connections and enabling stealth mode is sufficient. As for antivirus, just do a search within the Apple discussions and you'll find plenty of annoying threads on this topic. At a bare minimum, a tool such as Norton AntiVirus will detect Windows viruses (e.g. mail attachments) and keep you from passing them on to others.
Message was edited by: sysadmin

Similar Messages

How do I set security on Leopard to prompt admin password before any changes - eg new instal , updates etc. Used to have this before recent upgrade to leopard

How do I set security on Leopard to prompt admin password before any changes - eg new instal , updates etc.
Used to have this before recent upgrade to Leopard and keen to keep this function

Run from a standard account and not an admin one.

Can't print to Adobe PDF 7.0 on Mac OS, is it still supported?

I use Adobe Acrobat Standard 7.0 on a PC running XP SP3 to create large format PDFs from JPEGs and TIF images; it works great for creating PDFs from technical drawings, etc. simply by "printing" to the Adobe printer from most any application.
To the point of this post, I also have Adobe Acrobat Pro 7.0 on a Mac running OS 10.5.6. While the Acrobat Pro software does its thing ok to merge PDF files and images to create a new file from within Acrobat, however, for the life of me, I can't get the Mac to actually print from another application to the Adobe PDF 7.0 printer (e.g. even from Photoshop or Illustrator which should be about as compatible applications as there could be for use with Acrobat)
On the Mac, Adobe PDF 7.0 shows up as a choice for a printer and allows all sorts of page output size and quality choices, (just as it does on the Windows version), however, nothing actually happens when I hit "print", the printer status window shows it as being "paused", but nothing can be done to "unpause" it, hitting "resume printer" generates the error message "Operation Could not be completed ... client-error-not-possible". I have updated to the latest revisions available for this 7.0 version of Acrobat Pro, but no luck.
Since I see similar comments / questions for later versions of Acrobat for Mac, think that this issue must be something about the Mac OS and the Adobe printer settings not "playing nice" with each other.
It really irks me to need go over to the PC to do something the Mac can't finish ... Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated ... Thanks in advance!

According to Adobe's support document on compatibility with Leopard:
http://www.adobe.com/support/products/pdfs/leopardsupport.pdf
Acrobat 8 "Requires update to v8.1.2 for full compatibility with Leopard."
As for Acrobat 7:
"While older Adobe applications may install and run on Mac OS X Leopard, they were designed, tested, and released to the public several years before this new operating system became available. You may, therefore, experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution."
The fix described above may solve the problem in the short term -- which is likely caused by improvements to security in Leopard that make it harder for processes to write files to disk.
If you're using Photoshop and Illustrator, then you can save the file directly as a PDF. No need to print to PDF. (Though of course, if you're using CS2, there may well be other problems with PS and AI on 10.5.)
You may be interested to learn that even in Acrobat 9 on Snow Leopard, the Adobe PDF print queue is completely deprecated, and you have to use a "Save As Adobe PDF" option under the PDF button in the print menu.
There are of course ways round this. I use a CUPS backend that saves PostScript to a folder that Distiller watches. However, the ability of the print system to write files to the user spaces has been tightened up even more in 10.6.
The final point worth making is that you really should apply the system update to 10.5.8. There is absolutely no reason not to, and lots of reasons why you should. 10.5.7 contains lots of improvements to the reliability and stability of your system, for starters. Including improvements to the printing system.

Software Update Server + Caching Service Questions

Hello everyone.
I'm currently trying to finish setting up our Caching service along with SUS and am running into some issues I hope to get some help with. Our environment is configured as the following:
-- OS X Server 3.1.1 with clients running OS X 10.8.5 and 10.9.2.
-- All machines are bound and receiving GP via an AD environment using Centrify.
-- GP pushes out the following two scripts to all machines:
* sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.appstore restrict-store-softwareupdate-only -bool yes --> Setting which disables all aspects of the App Store except for the Updates section
* sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL http://it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us:8088/catalogs.sucatalog --> Setting which redirects all of our machines to point to our SUS within our AD environment.
The problem I'm having is that I believe the Caching Service is working properly (at least with the 10.9.x clients) but it doesn't look like it is with the 10.8.5 clients; the same with SUS but for all clients. I have two machines with clean images running 10.8.5 and 10.9.0 that I took on 03/05/14; after applying the images and going to Software Update before joining them to my AD environment the following shows as available:
10.8.5. via Software Update --> Java for OS X 2013-005 1.0, Safari 6.1.3
10.8.5 via Caching --> Nothing appears.
10.9.0 via Software Update --> Digital Camera RAW Compatability Update 5.04, iBooks Update 1.0.1, iTunes 11.1.5, Java for OS X 2013-005 1.0, OS X Update Combined 10.9.2, Remote Desktop Client Update 3.7.1
10.9.0 via Caching --> Keynote, Numbers, GarageBand, Pages, iMovie, iPhoto
Once I join them to my AD environment and have the scripts run on the machines the following appears within Software Update on both machines:
10.8.5 Clients --> Nothing appears!
10.9.0 Clients --> Keynote, Numbers, GarageBand, Pages, iMovie, iPhoto
It looks like Caching is working properly but I'm wondering why nothing shows up on my 10.8.5 clients but I'm guessing it's because the Java and Safari updates are with SUS? I'm also guessing the other updates showing up on my 10.9.0 clients are specifically for Mavericks and hence why they're not also appearing on my 10.8.5 clients? Of course the main issue here is that I can't get my machines to see SUS properly.
I'm happy to supply any logs or anything else that would help get this issue resolved. It's really driving me nuts! **** a Starbucks GC or other compensation is in it if someone can help me!
Thanks in advance!

MrHoffman,
According to SUS I currently have 769 updates and they are all downloaded. When I check all of the logs I see the following:
Access Log
(The following is what I see below repeatedly for the past couple of weeks; the only change is the IP address.)
10.210.5.230 - - [04/Apr/2014:16:16:28 -0700] 80 GET "/catalogs.sucatalog" 200 320 "-" "Software%20Update (unknown version) CFNetwork/596.5 Darwin/12.5.0 (x86_64) (MacBookPro9%2C1)"
10.210.7.121 - - [04/Apr/2014:16:20:42 -0700] 80 GET "/catalogs.sucatalog" 200 320 "-" "Software%20Update (unknown version) CFNetwork/596.6 Darwin/12.5.0 (x86_64) (MacBookPro8%2C2)"
10.210.4.131 - - [04/Apr/2014:16:25:27 -0700] 80 GET "/catalogs.sucatalog" 200 320 "-" "Software%20Update (unknown version) CFNetwork/596.5 Darwin/12.5.0 (x86_64) (MacBookPro9%2C1)"
Error Log
[Fri Apr 04 08:07:46 2014] [error] [client 10.210.5.177] File does not exist: /Volumes/Repository/Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html/favicon.ico
[Mon Apr 07 07:34:37 2014] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down
Syntax error on line 288 of /Library/Server/Software Update/Config/swupd.conf:
DocumentRoot must be a directory
[Mon Apr 07 07:35:26 2014] [notice] mod_bw : Memory Allocated 32 bytes (each conf takes 32 bytes)
[Mon Apr 07 07:35:26 2014] [notice] mod_bw : Version 0.8 - Initialized [1 Confs]
[Mon Apr 07 07:35:26 2014] [notice] Apache/2.2.26 (Unix) configured -- resuming normal operations
Service Log
(Everything from today so far..)
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Performing scheduled sync.
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>:
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: swupd_syncd 10.9 (156) for OS X Server 10.9 (Darwin/x86_64)
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: ========== Sync Started ==========
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Checking service data location: /Volumes/Repository/Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Retrieving catalog list
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Retrieving deprecated udpates list
Apr 7 03:00:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:00:02 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:00:03 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:00:03 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:00:04 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Updating local catalog: index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:02:40 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-copy (ALL) option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:02:40 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-enable option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:02:41 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Updating local catalog: index-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:04:13 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-copy (ALL) option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:04:13 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-enable option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:04:14 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Updating local catalog: index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:07:21 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-copy (ALL) option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:07:21 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-enable option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:07:22 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Updating local catalog: index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 03:08:59 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-copy (ALL) option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:08:59 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: * Auto-enable option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 03:09:00 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Updating product updates information
Apr 7 03:09:01 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Starting product update downloads
Apr 7 03:09:04 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[23996] <Info>: Sync Complete
Apr 7 07:35:15 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Verifying Software Update catalog configuration.
Apr 7 07:35:15 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Performing scheduled sync.
Apr 7 07:35:15 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>:
Apr 7 07:35:15 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: swupd_syncd 10.9 (156) for OS X Server 10.9 (Darwin/x86_64)
Apr 7 07:35:15 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: ========== Sync Started ==========
Apr 7 07:35:15 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Checking service data location: /Volumes/Repository/Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html
Apr 7 07:35:15 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Waiting for service data volume...
Apr 7 07:35:22 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Retrieving catalog list
Apr 7 07:35:28 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Retrieving deprecated udpates list
Apr 7 07:35:29 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 07:35:31 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 07:35:32 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 07:35:34 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 07:35:36 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Updating local catalog: index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 07:38:10 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: * Auto-copy (ALL) option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 07:38:10 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: * Auto-enable option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 07:38:11 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Updating local catalog: index-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Apr 7 07:39:32 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: * Auto-copy (ALL) option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 07:39:32 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: * Auto-enable option is ON. Applying option to eligible products.
Apr 7 07:39:33 it0038-mmd.coveroregon.us swupd_syncd[186] <Info>: Updating local catalog: index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

No Mavericks software updates on my SUS

I just checked the available updates on my OS X server and noticed there are no Mavericks updates. For example, the Mavericks 10.9.1 update is not listed. Is there a way to refresh this so these updates are downloaded and enabled. I'm running SUS in "Automatic" mode and have selected "Check for Updates".
Thanks

I'm not sure how to enable caching server... I'll do a search and see what I can come up with.
I ran a couple of swupd_syncd commands and got the following.
Mavericks-Server:~ macserver$ swupd_syncd -sync
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>:
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: swupd_syncd 10.9 (155) for OS X Server 10.9 (Darwin/x86_64)
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: ========== Sync Started ==========
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Checking service data location: /Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving catalog list
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: Metaindex file save failed (/Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html/catalogs.sucatalog.alternate)
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: Public (exported) metaindex file save failed (/Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html/catalogs.sucatalog)
Jan 6 15:01:26 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving deprecated udpates list
Jan 6 15:01:27 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: Download for "Deprecations.plist" failed (reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.))
Jan 6 15:01:27 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:28 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Warning>: Download for "index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.download" failed (reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.))
Jan 6 15:01:28 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (STANDARD): index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:30 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Warning>: Download for "index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.download" failed (reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.))
Jan 6 15:01:30 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: All download attempts failed for catalog index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:30 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:31 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Warning>: Download for "index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.download" failed (reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.))
Jan 6 15:01:31 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (STANDARD): index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:35 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Warning>: Download for "index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.download" failed (reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.))
Jan 6 15:01:35 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: All download attempts failed for catalog index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:35 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (SECURE): index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:36 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Warning>: Download for "index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog.download" failed (reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.))
Jan 6 15:01:36 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Retrieving remote catalog (STANDARD): index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:40 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Warning>: Download for "index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog.download" failed (reason: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.))
Jan 6 15:01:40 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: All download attempts failed for catalog index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Jan 6 15:01:40 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: Unable to retrieve one or more of the catalogs listed in the index
Jan 6 15:01:40 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Error>: Unable to retrieve catalog(s) from the Apple server
Jan 6 15:01:40 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6197] <Info>: Sync Complete
Mavericks-Server:~ macserver$ swupd_syncd -showDeprecated
Jan 6 15:02:31 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6243] <Info>: Checking service data location: /Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html
Jan 6 15:02:31 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6243] <Info>: Retrieving catalog list
Jan 6 15:02:31 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6243] <Error>: Public (exported) metaindex file save failed (/Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html/catalogs.sucatalog)
Jan 6 15:02:31 Mavericks-Server.local swupd_syncd[6243] <Info>: Retrieving deprecated udpates list

Where's my Firewall tab?

Hey all. I've seen from other posts that Firewall settings are in the Sharing preferences. I can't seem to find anything related to it in the Sharing preferences. Any ideas? TIA!

I love my macbook!!!! wrote:
Hey all. I've seen from other posts that Firewall settings are in the Sharing preferences. I can't seem to find anything related to it in the Sharing preferences. Any ideas? TIA!
They moved from sharing to security in Leopard. Also the choices are more limited.

Airport turns off when idle

When I leave my computer on for a long time, I notice that when I come back to it, the Airport is not connected to my wireless network. My preferences under Energy Saver is not to go to sleep mode when it's under AC Power. Are there any settings to not turn the Airport off?
I'm using a Macbook air.

Raisen wrote:
I'm using the latest version of the Tomato firmware on a Linksys router. I believe it has to do with Leopard because I have a Win machine that stays on 24/7 and the net never goes down.
Thank you for your suggestion.
I know nothing about Tomato firmware. You need to install the proper Linksys firmware from the Linksys website.
As you will find by searching this forum, nearly everyone says that their router works with Tiger, with PCs, etc etc. That is unimportant. Leopard security demands the very latest router firmware. It's really that simple.
I had the exact same issue with both my routers until I updated the firmware. And yes, it worked with my PCs and my Tiger OSs but not with Leopard. After updating the firmware the routers now work with Leopard too. It's not Leopard - it's a security compatibility issue. Tiger and PCs are less secure and less demanding of security than Leopard.

Warning "anti-viral" trojan virus circulating using apple icon

I accidently loaded a trojan virus when I thought I was downloading an anti-viral program sent from Apple - they use the Apple logo. It then results in continuous pop-ups of *********** sites. Apple tech support could not help but I found a website providing instructions to remove the malware. Website is called "bleeping.com" Yes, the irony of the name given what I had to get rid of - be careful.

This was "news" three weeks ago. And every day here, but mostly over on forum for Snow Leopard
There are dozens of articles, threads, links on how to help, as well as on what it is.
Apple Community threads "macdefender"
What is odd is a policy of turning customers away.
Microsoft links fake Mac AV to Windows scareware gang
http://www.reedcorner.net/news.php/?p=82
MacInTouch - security discussion
The most common and popular AV mentioned -
ClamXav
Intego Software
Mac BitDefender
Norton for Mac
Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition
MACDEFENDER Malware
ZDNet Security
Snow Leopard malware attacks
New MAC OS X scareware delivered through blackhat SEO
MacDefender Trojan
http://www.reedcorner.com/guides/macvirus/

Security updates for snow leopard

Hello Apple People,
I seem to be getting conflicting advice around upgrading my browser.
I'm on Snow Leopard on a mid-2009 Macbook. As I'm not receiving security updates and there are some websites telling me I need to upgrade, I decided to buy Mountain Lion from the online Apple Store. I couldn't redeem the code. I spoke with Apple who said I didn't need to get ML anyway, that I'd been given the wrong advice in-store and that I can go straight to Yosemite. They are refunding me which is good. Still, I'm no further ahead. I had prepared the way for upgrading: added 2GB RAM so I have 4GB. I've installed Office 2011 so that I shouldn't lose my Word 2004 docs. I have an external hard drive that I back up using Time Machine.
My concern is that I am vulnerable security-wise. Can anyone suggest what I do next? Maybe maximise my security settings? How can I find these?
Thanks.

Nothing compels you to keep using Safari. Firefox and Chrome work very well with Snow Leopard and are kept up to date. Interesting that the people who handled your problem with Mountain Lion were so eager to push you to Yosemite, rather than fix the problem.
The other thing you can do right now is go into your System Preferences/Date & Time and turn off "Set date and time automatically". You can fix this vulnerability yourself with a little not-too-difficult work:
http://www.macissues.com/2014/12/24/how-to-manually-patch-ntp-for-os-x-10-6-and- 10-7/
I am not at all expert in using Terminal to do stuff like this, but I was able to assemble the necessary peices and get it done. It is well worth it to me to be able to keep using the best OS Apple has produced in the OS X era.
Regardless of which one you choose, there is no support for older apps that dowork with Snow Leopard because it has Rosetta, which allows continued use of PPC applications. Sounds like you are preparing for that end of things.
There are many changes to the user interface in both Mountain Lion and Yosemite, and they are generally not improvements. There are problems with improper external disk ejection in both of them that will apparently never be fixed by Apple. You should make a bootable clone of your Snow Leopard system in case you want or need to keep using it. This would involve using an external HD other than your current Time Machine disk. Not a big expense, as it affords you an additional, fully functional backup, and it would be better than burning your bridges by installing over your currently functioning system.

AppleTV no longer shows up in iTunes after Snow Leopard security update?

I just installed the latest security update for Snow Leopard and now my AppleTV no longer shows up in iTunes. I don't know for sure if the security update is actually the cause, but I was able to connect not even an hour earlier in the evening.
Anyone else seeing this behaviour? I've power cycled the ATV, along with my router with no change.

Could be the same problem others are having with latest version of iTunes. See this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2403159&tstart=0

Leopard Server 10.5.2 hosed after Security Update 2008-002 v1.1 Server

I am running Leopard Server 10.5.2 on a Mac Pro 2x3.2 GHz quad core xeon. I did a software update today which included Security Update 2008-002 v1.1 Server. I did disk verify and permissions repair on as usual before the update. Afterwards, I found that I could not log into my local user account with administrator privileges. I can log in as "root" using the local administrator password. All my users can log in. But all the groups have disappeared, and so have the wikis associated with these groups. The data seems to be there in /Library/Collaborations, however.
This was a simple server configuration with 5 users - I was essentially using only the groups wiki function. The server had no client machines. Its not like I had a complex configuration. I am absolutely mystified - spent an hour on the phone with Apple support and they took all the server logs for analysis. I was wondering if anyone else had this update go wrong in a similar configuration.
I would be very grateful for any advice!

I had the same thing happen. It took me a while to figure out why because I installed the update before the weekend and then came in on Monday and nothing worked. I've searched around quite a bit and found some people had the same problem but haven't found a solution. Right now my server is sitting there useless, even after reverting to a backup before the update.
Did you or anyone else find a solution to this?

Can't complete Leopard Security Update

I've tried to update to Leopard Security Update 2012-003 through the software update tool and direct download, but in both cases the intallation process is stopped because the intaller insists that Safari is closed in order to finish the process. Safari is closed, though, but it won't recognize this. Note sure how to proceed with this.
Any thoughts?

Great news, great to hear, thanks!
10.5 doesn't require it as often as 10.4 did, but still useful, especially combined with a SAfe Boot that Repairs the Disk & clears many stale caches!

Functional Security Software for Snow Leopard?

Hi everyone. I just made the move to Snow Leopard (10.6.1), and I'm curious about what security software is decent and available for SL. My school provides access to Symantec AntiVirus for OS X, but unfortunately the only version they provide is incompatible with Snow Leopard. I've been trying out ClamXAV, but on Snow Leopard it crashes quite frequently, and isn't very good at catching threats. I can't find much else out there that might be a good security solution...
Today during a scan ClamXAV caught something called "PHP.Defash.B" in my Opera cache folders. I deleted the file, but I know it's never that easy! I never thought I'd see the day when a Mac could be infected by anything, but I'm slowly realizing that times are changing. Can anyone tell me what software would be best to use to keep things secure and stable, preventing Trojans, Hacks, and other malware? Thanks!
Message was edited by: Carbonyl

Snow Leopard's anti-malware measure has been regarded as rudimentary at best.
The only complaint I've seen has been a claim that it only scans things that have been downloaded by Safari, but I only saw that in one place and have no way to verify whether or not it is true. It's hard to find malware information that doesn't come from the makers of anti-malware software, which can hardly be considered unbiased sources. They want you to buy their software, after all!
If you've found a decent source where someone not affiliated with one of these companies has done some testing, I'd like to see it. (Not being sarcastic... I really would like more information, which seems to be sparse so far. Everyone seems to be taking Intego's word on the matter despite their obvious bias.)
It's limited to two trojans, and doesn't seem to be something that will evolve over time.
Currently, all Mac trojans in the wild are variants of the two that are detected. Whether or not this means that it will detect all these variants is unclear, but it seems odd that Apple would spend the resources to add this feature and not spend a tiny fraction more to add definitions that would match all current Mac trojans. Until I see a report from an unbiased source saying "I tested every known Mac trojan (and here's a list) and it didn't detect these," I'm going to assume that Apple didn't do something that makes no sense whatsoever.
As to whether it will evolve over time, I'm not sure why you think it wouldn't. The current design makes it very easy to update a single, small definitions file with a security update.

AFP securely from Tiger client to Leopard X Server

I originally posted this just after New Years. I'm hoping now that more people are back from vacation that I can get an answer. Please help!
We recently upgraded our X Server to Leopard. We can't seem to determine how to transfer files securely over AFP from a Tiger client machine to the X Server. Has anyone figured out how to do this?

I suggest posting to the Server Products forums.

Juniper Java Secure Application Manager does not work with Snow Leopard

Anyone else having issues as well? I'm not using a client - its basically the Java based application manager for VPN connections to work (so I can remote desktop to my work PC).
Once logged in, it gives a "Restart your browser" error.
Thanks for your help

OK - so I got it to work. Here's what I did. Let me know if it works for you:
I wasn't able to follow the instructions exactly as noted in the original link I posted above.
The terminal command, specifically wget would not work - there is no wget.
I manually downloaded the Java 1.5 version, by following the link (just clicked on it). I 'unzipped' it and moved it into the library/frameworks/JavaVM.framework/versions folder.
So now the 1.5.0 is not an alias (as it is by default in SL), but the older version of Java.
I then followed the instruction related to changing the order in JAVA PREFERENCES.
The final stop - and I think this is key, is that I forced Safari to start in 32 bit mode. You can do this by going to Applications, highlighting Safari and hitting CMD-I. Then check the 32 bit option.
Start Safari, go to the appropriate URL and login. The Java Secure Application Manager should then start as it used to do in Leopard. You should be all set.
Hope this helps - let me know if someone has questions.

Security in Leopard

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