LaunchAgents

How to monitor XProtect updates in OS X

Apple's XProtect system (aka File Quarantine) in OS X is a rudimentary anti-malware scanner that will perform a quick check on downloaded files to make sure they do not contain known malware, and will block any versions of Web plug-ins like Java and Flash that have known vulnerabilities.

XProtect runs in the background with no interaction with the user, which is convenient, but it does mean that when it gets updated, users may find themselves unexpectedly unable to access some Web content. Even though quickly updating plug-ins should get you around this inconvenience, it may be useful to know … Read more

Mouse input temporarily freezing after updating OS X

After updating OS X to the latest version, you may encounter a problem where the system seems to freeze temporarily in regular periods. In these instances the mouse pointer will freeze in place though the system appears to continue functioning in the background, and the only way to get the mouse working again is to click and move it around erratically, or even unplug and plug it back in.

This and similar problems experienced immediately after updating is likely from an incompatibility with third-party software, especially that which has scheduling options for running at regular intervals, including update checkers, license … Read more

Luxembourg CIRC develops LaunchAgent monitoring tool for OS X

LaunchAgent scripts in OS X can be used to automatically run programs and scripts and are a common route that malware developers use to run their malware in OS X once either the system is exploited or the user has been fooled into installing malware.

Because of this, I recently wrote a procedure for how OS X users can set up notifications that warn whenever changes are made to the various LaunchAgent folders and thereby help detect such attacks, which have been used in some recent and notable malware scams in OS X including DNSChanger, MacDefender, and the most recent … Read more

Monitor OS X LaunchAgents folders to help prevent malware attacks

Recently the Mac platform has been hit with a few malware attacks, the most notable being the Flashback malware. The same vulnerabilities that this and others have used are now cropping up in other malware as well. These include yesterday's news of the SabPab malware and its MacKontrol variant, and also the Olyx malware that is a variant of the Tibet malware we previously discussed.

Some of these attacks are targeted for specific groups in China or Tibet, but others like Flashback are more widespread and have targeted as many Mac systems as possible, by exploiting vulnerabilities in the … Read more

Investigating a 'Throttling respawn' error in the OS X Console

The system console lists much of the output of running programs as they perform various tasks, which includes errors and warnings that are not otherwise shown to you. For instance, if you can't start up Web sharing on your system but don't see any error messages, then you can check in the Console utility to see if any console messages are generated there when you try to enable Web sharing.

Even if you do not know what the error messages mean, you can copy them and ask people about them to get more insight into how to troubleshoot … Read more

AppleScript Fun: Automatically changing Safari's downloads folder

While the various programs and services on a computer are meant to offer you convenience, there are times when you may need to do repetitive tasks using the various tools and programs on the system. In these cases, the use of scripting tools can be exceptionally useful. Unlike programming, scripting is when you take a set of current tools and utilities and automate their interactions with commands. For instance, with Javascript you can tell a browser to change the way it renders HTML content, or with Automator you can tell the Finder to organize files in a certain way.

Recently … Read more