MacOS

Intro/links/basics

A basic intro
Security & Privacy Guide
Awesome commands like default TextEdit to plain text
launchd.info “A launchd Tutorial”

Apple Documentation

Security updates list
WWDC Privacy and Security sessions (Videos)

General

iCloud

Adding .nosync to the end of a folder in iCloud Drive stops it being synced (via @jimconacher).

.zshprofile

macOS Catalina and later ship with zsh as the default shell.

Moving to Zsh - Armin Briegel

.hushlogin

Add a .hushlogin file to the directory you terminal starts in to suppress the Last login: message at the top of your terminal.

touch .hushlogin

Lock Screen

Change Key Combo

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts

Click + to add a new one called Lock Screen and set the key combo (eg. ⌥⌘+L)

Stop Wifi Dropping on Screen Lock

cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/
sudo ./airport en0 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO

Disk Images

Random

How to Fix Slow SMB File Transfers on OS X - Dan Roncadin

Homebrew

Homebrew (brew) is a package manager for macOS akin to the Advanced Package Tool (apt) on Debian and Ubuntu.

Taps

Taps are third party repositories for homebrew.

sidaf/homebrew-pentest “penetration testing related tools”

Example

If you run brew tap sidaf/homebrew-pentest you'll be able to install any formulas from the sidaf/homebrew-pentest repository via brew install. brew install panoptic will search the default Homebrew repository then any tapped repositories for a formula with the name panoptic.

Python

As of Homebrew 1.5.0 brew install python installs python3.x not python2.7.x. This was not PEP 394 compliant as running python would execute the python3.x binary which violates “all distributions should ensure that python refers to the same target as python2”.

This was fixed in 1.6.0. brew install python still installs python3.x but will not symlink python to the python3.x binary. Running python will execute the system python2.7.x binary and running python3 will execute the brew python3.x binary.

See Homebrew and Python for more info.

Upgrading Packages

By default Homebrew does not automatically update itself or installed packages. To manually update Homebrew and upgrade all installed packages run:

brew update (Update the formulae and Homebrew itself)
brew upgrade (Upgrade all packages installed by Homebrew)

By default, Homebrew does not uninstall old versions of formula. From time to time you'll want to run brew cleanup to remove old version of formula.

See FAQ for more info.

Virtualisation

VMWare Fusion

We get VMWare Fusion free from VMWare DreamSpark. Used by most mac wankers on the course. Would recommend over all other virtualisation programs for Mac.

Currently does not work with M1 Macs.

Parallels

Apps

General

Amphetamine (App Store) - This app keeps your Mac awake for a set period of time, whilst an app is running, and much more.
The Unarchiver (App Store) Open any archive in seconds
Rocket Slack-style emoji picker for your Mac
Texpad Native Mac OS app with efficient LaTeX environment
DiskMaker X Build an OS X boot disk
BitBar Put anything in your menu bar
DiscreteScroll Stop the annoying mouse acceleration when scrolling in macOS

Programming

For general information see Programmming. This section list macOS specific tools.

Xcode (App Store) Apple's own IDE. Best for C, C++ and Objective-C.
Quiver (App Store) notebook built for programmers
Dash offline access to 200+ API documentation sets

Security/ Privacy

1Password (App Store) Apple device focused password manager
Little Snitch Application firewall
GPGTools/ GPG Suite “Use GPG Suite to encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify files or messages”
Privileges.app “providing a quick and easy way to get administrator rights when needed”

Objective-See

Objective-See was created by Patrick Wardle to provide simple, effective and free macOS security tools. Some of his most useful tools are listed below.

BlockBlock (Beta) Alerts when something is persistently installed
OverSight Monitors and alerts on mic and webcam access
LuLu Open-source application firewall
What's Your Sign? Adds a menu item to Finder.app to view the cryptographic signature of files

Touch Bar

HapticKey “trigger haptic feedback when tapping Touch Bar”

Research

Papers, Slides and Thesis Archive - osxreverser
osx-security-awesome “collection of OSX and iOS security resources”
mac-white-papers "Every OS X/ macOS white paper"

Blogs

The Eclectic Light Company - Howard Oakley (Security, General)
mac4n6 - Sarah Edwards (Forensics)
Objective-See - Patrick Wardle (Security)
derflounder - Rich Trouton (General, Security)
theevilbit - Csaba Fitzl(Security)

Talks

Books

Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach - Amit Singh (2006)
[The Mac Hacker's Handbook](https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Mac+Hacker's+Handbook-p-9780470395363) - Charlie Miller and Dino Dai Zovi (Amazon) (2009)
Mac OS X and iOS Internals - Jonathan Levin (Amazon) (Legit PDF) (2012)

MacOS and iOS Internals (Levin)

MacOS and iOS Internals, Volume I - User Mode - Jonathan Levin (Amazon) (2017)
MacOS and iOS Internals, Volume III: Security & Insecurity - Jonathan Levin (Amazon) (2016)

PreviousLinux Commands for Beginners NextTools

Last updated 3 years ago

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MacOS

Intro/links/basics

A basic intro
Security & Privacy Guide
Awesome commands like default TextEdit to plain text
launchd.info “A launchd Tutorial”

Apple Documentation

Security updates list
WWDC Privacy and Security sessions (Videos)

General

iCloud

Adding .nosync to the end of a folder in iCloud Drive stops it being synced (via @jimconacher).

.zshprofile

macOS Catalina and later ship with zsh as the default shell.

Moving to Zsh - Armin Briegel

.hushlogin

Add a .hushlogin file to the directory you terminal starts in to suppress the Last login: message at the top of your terminal.

touch .hushlogin

Lock Screen

Change Key Combo

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts

Click + to add a new one called Lock Screen and set the key combo (eg. ⌥⌘+L)

Stop Wifi Dropping on Screen Lock

cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/
sudo ./airport en0 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO

Disk Images

Random

How to Fix Slow SMB File Transfers on OS X - Dan Roncadin

Homebrew

Homebrew (brew) is a package manager for macOS akin to the Advanced Package Tool (apt) on Debian and Ubuntu.

Taps

Taps are third party repositories for homebrew.

sidaf/homebrew-pentest “penetration testing related tools”

Example

Python

See Homebrew and Python for more info.

Upgrading Packages

By default Homebrew does not automatically update itself or installed packages. To manually update Homebrew and upgrade all installed packages run:

brew update (Update the formulae and Homebrew itself)
brew upgrade (Upgrade all packages installed by Homebrew)

By default, Homebrew does not uninstall old versions of formula. From time to time you'll want to run brew cleanup to remove old version of formula.

See FAQ for more info.

Virtualisation

VMWare Fusion

We get VMWare Fusion free from VMWare DreamSpark. Used by most mac wankers on the course. Would recommend over all other virtualisation programs for Mac.

Currently does not work with M1 Macs.

Parallels

Apps

General

Amphetamine (App Store) - This app keeps your Mac awake for a set period of time, whilst an app is running, and much more.
The Unarchiver (App Store) Open any archive in seconds
Rocket Slack-style emoji picker for your Mac
Texpad Native Mac OS app with efficient LaTeX environment
DiskMaker X Build an OS X boot disk
BitBar Put anything in your menu bar
DiscreteScroll Stop the annoying mouse acceleration when scrolling in macOS

Programming

For general information see Programmming. This section list macOS specific tools.

Xcode (App Store) Apple's own IDE. Best for C, C++ and Objective-C.
Quiver (App Store) notebook built for programmers
Dash offline access to 200+ API documentation sets

Security/ Privacy

1Password (App Store) Apple device focused password manager
Little Snitch Application firewall
GPGTools/ GPG Suite “Use GPG Suite to encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify files or messages”
Privileges.app “providing a quick and easy way to get administrator rights when needed”

Objective-See

Objective-See was created by Patrick Wardle to provide simple, effective and free macOS security tools. Some of his most useful tools are listed below.

BlockBlock (Beta) Alerts when something is persistently installed
OverSight Monitors and alerts on mic and webcam access
LuLu Open-source application firewall
What's Your Sign? Adds a menu item to Finder.app to view the cryptographic signature of files