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Internet Security for Your Macintosh: A Guide for the Rest of Us
- By Alan B. Oppenheimer, Charles Whitaker
- Published Jul 6, 2001 by Peachpit Press.
Book
- This product currently is not for sale.
Description
- Copyright 2002
- Dimensions: 7-1/2 X 9-1/4
- Pages: 408
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-201-74969-6
- ISBN-13: 978-0-201-74969-4
Within the past few years, permanent connections to the Internet (cable modems, DSL) have become available for home users in need of faster and more reliable Internet access. And peer-to-peer networking, made popular by the rapid growth of Napster, is everywhere. But these technological advances also open up your computer to security risks. While there are many books available on Internet and network security, there are virtually no books on Macintosh security for home users. Topics covered include: Internet basics, general security principles, physical security, Mac OS security features, viruses, getting started with personal firewalls, analyzing and reacting to security threats, Mac OS X, multiple-Mac households, and Macs at work. Written mainly for Internet-connected Macintosh home users, especially those on permanent connections like DSL and cable modems.
Extras
Case Studies
Click below for Sample Chapter(s) related to this title:
Index
Companion Site
Click below for the Companion Site files related to this title:
OS X Updates
Other Updates
Chapter 2 Study
Chapter 13 Study
Chapter 7 Excerpt
Sample Content
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Excerpts
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Chapter 7
Table of Contents
1. Getting Started.
About This Book. About the Authors.
I. GENERAL SECURITY PRINCIPLES.
2. What, Me Worry?More People on the Net More Often. More People Doing More Important Things. More and More Attacks. Why Me? It Gets Worse. Broadband Connections Are Especially Vulnerable. But I Use a Mac! What, Me Worry Too Much?
3. Physical Security.Things that Can Go Wrong. Physical Security First. Things Will Go Wrong Anyway. Backup options. Good backup procedures.
4. Managing Passwords.More and More Passwords. Web-site passwords. Passwords for other services. Choosing Good Passwords. Making a password hard to guess. Making a password easy to remember. Keeping Your Passwords Secret. Managing Your Passwords. Using the keychain. Other password-management techniques. Dealing with forgotten passwords. Passwords in the Future. Digital certificates. Other password options.
5. Safe Surfing.Safe Web Browsing. Secure and insecure Web pages. Think before you type. Other Web-security issues. Safe E-mail. Sending your e-mail password. Sending e-mail. Sending e-mail securely. Receiving attachments. Other issues with receiving e-mail. Safety with Other Internet Applications.
6. Internet Basics.Infrastructure. Protocols. IP Addresses and Host Names. Static versus dynamic IP addresses. Public versus private IP addresses. Subnet masks Routers. Host names and domain names. The Domain Name System. Port Numbers. The TCP/IP Control Panel. Configuring your Mac for cable-modem access with a dynamic IP address. Configuring your Mac for cable-modem access with a static IP address. Configuring your Mac for dial-up connection. TCP/IP configurations. Mac OS X.
II. SECURING INTERNET SERVICES.
7. Principles of Securing Internet Services.Using Versus Providing Internet Services. Levels of Security. AppleTalk and TCP/IP. Users & Groups.
8. Securing Common Mac OS Internet Services.File Sharing. Risk. Security measures. Web Sharing. Risk. Security measures. Program Linking. Risk. Security measures.
9. Securing Other Mac OS Internet Services.Remote Access. Risk. Security measures. Apple Network Assistant. Risk. Security measures. SNMP. Risk. Security measures. Apple File Security.
10. Securing Third-Party Internet Services.Timbuktu. Risk. Security measures. Retrospect. Risk. Security measures. FileMaker Pro. Risk. Security measures. ShareWay IP. Risk. Security measures. Other Applications. Risk. Security measures.
III. ENHANCING OVERALL SECURITY.
11. Viruses.What Viruses Are. How they work. Where they come from. Types of viruses. What Viruses Can Do. Unintentional damage. Intentional damage. What You Can Do About Them. Going beyond safe surfing. Getting an antivirus application. Installing an antivirus application. Using an antivirus application.
12. Personal Firewalls.Firewall Basics. Firewall types. How firewalls work. Stateful firewalls. Features. Protocols supported. Firewall feedback. Other kinds of attacks. Multihoming support. Outgoing-packet protection. Ease-of-use features. Configuring a Personal Firewall. Allowing access to specific TCP/IP services. Allowing access to all TCP/IP services. Protecting UDP services. Denying access to ICMP. Logging. Setting up notification. Using stealth mode. Configuring a firewall for specific services. Downloading files. Testing a Personal Firewall. How to test your firewall. Testing Mac OS and Multiple Users. Troubleshooting a Firewall. TCP problems. UDP problems. ICMP problems. Network Address Translation. Services and Port Numbers.
13. Analyzing and Responding to Security Threats.Generating Useful Data. Log files. Log-file format. Real-time information. Detecting Suspicious Activity. Establish a baseline. What to look for. Real-time monitoring. Log-file analysis tools. Finding patterns in your firewall.s log. Is it malicious? Investigating and Reporting Suspicious Activity. Finding network administrators. Creating the e-mail. If you can't contact the network administrator. Understanding Common Access Attempts. The Most Common Attacks: A Case Study.
IV. ADVANCED TOPICS.
14. Just Say No to FTP.What Is FTP? Why Is FTP So Bad? Negative security. How FTP decreases security. A real-world scenario: hacking a Web site through FTP. Things can get a lot worse. What Can You Use in Place of FTP? The Macintosh alternative. Windows alternatives. Other alternatives. If you must use FTP.
15. Home Networking.Network Address Translation. How NAT works. Concerns about NAT gateways. All-in-One Home Networking Devices. General Security Precautions for Home Networks.
16. Wireless Networking.How AirPort Works. How AirPort Is Used. Securing AirPort. Too much freedom. Multiple levels of defense. Securing the base station. Public access.
17. Internet Security at Work.Security Goes Both Ways. Centralizing Security. Network-global firewalls. Remote network access. Dial-in remote access. Virtual private networks. Directory services. Network administration. Windows Machines. Interacting with Windows machines. Preventing cross-platform contamination. Securing Macintosh Servers. General server security. WebSTAR security. AppleShare IP security. Security suites for WebSTAR and AppleShare IP. Mac OS X Server. Policies and Procedures. Inside jobs. Formal security policy. Expect the unexpected. Macintosh Networking in Transition. Macintosh network security in transition. From AppleTalk to IP. From Mac OS to Mac OS X. Transition management.
18. Securing Mac OS X.The Mac in Transition. Mac OS X General Overview. Unix. Unix for the rest of us. Mac OS X Networking Overview. Client overview. Services overview. Mac OS X Internet Security. What, me worry? Physical security. Managing passwords. Safe surfing. Mac OS X's model for securing services. Securing Mac OS X services. Viruses. Personal firewalls. Detecting and responding to security threats. Just say no to FTP. Home networking. Wireless networking. Internet security at work.
Index.
Updates
Updates & Corrections
Mac OS X 10.0.4
A somewhat theoretical security hole has been discovered with Mac OS
X if DHCP is used to acquire an IP address (as it is through most
ISPs). If someone has access to your network (either physically, or
through AirPort), they could pretend they were your network's DHCP
server and supply your Mac with faulty authentication information
(through an LDAP server that they set up for this purpose) which
might allow them to log in to services on your Mac with user names
and passwords of their choosing. Such "spoofing" is quite difficult
(to say nothing of actually obtaining access to your network), but is
theoretically possible.
Apple recommends a simple solution to the problem, which is to
configure your Mac to not accept authentication information from an
LDAP server, which is quite easy to do. Simply run the Directory
Access utility and either disable LDAP entirely or LDAP's use of a
DHCP-supplied server. See
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=32478
The following additional security features have been added in Panther
(Mac OS X 10.3)
- FileVault: the system can automatically encrypt your entire home
directory so that, even if someone has physical access to your
machine, they cannot look at your private files. There have,
however, been reports of instabilities associated with FileVault in
early versions of Panther (10.3 and 10.3.1).
- Password rating in Keychain Access: Keychain access now examines
your keychain password as you type it in, and rates that password for
you as to how secure it is. The rating is based on qualities we
describe in chapter 4 of the book.
- Long password support: some services, including log in, now fully
support passwords longer than 8 characters.
- IPsec: the IPsec standard is now supported for VPN access.
- WPA (AirPort Extreme and 10.3 only): if you are using the AirPort
Extreme base station, you can now utilize WPA (WiFi Protected Access)
to better protect your wireless network and encrypt your data. WPA
addresses security weaknesses discovered in WEP (Wired-equivalent
privacy) and is highly recommended. However all machines on the
wireless network must be WPA-capable.
- iDisk: iDisk is even better integrated with the system. The system
can maintain a local copy of your iDisk, increasing performance and
allowing you to copy things to and from your iDisk even when you're
not online. When you next do connect to the Internet, the local copy
is synchronized with your actual iDisk.
1. Section: Physical Security, Page 357-359
Manual login is now enabled through the "Accounts" System Preferences window.
The "Screen Saver" System Preferences window is now called "Screen Effects."
2. Section: Safe Surfing, page 362
The Mail app now includes a number of secure e-mail features, such as
encryption through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and outgoing mail
authentication through SMTP.
3. Section: Mac OS X's model for securing services, page 364
You now create accounts using the "Accounts" System Preferences window.
4. Section: Securing Mac OS X Services, pages 365-370
New services include Windows File Sharing, Apple Events (added under
Mac OS X 10.1) and Printer Sharing. It is especially important to
keep Windows File Sharing disabled (which it is by default) unless
absolutely necessary. Since Windows file sharing is one of the most
often-hacked services on the Net, if you need to enable it, be sure
to use a personal firewall to restrict access to only those users who
need it.
Mac OS X 10.2 also includes the new iChat application. iChat enables
simple chatting (instant messaging) with other 10.2 users as well as
with anyone using the AOL Instant Messenger application.
5. Section: Viruses, page 371
Apple now includes McAfee's Virex anti-virus protection as part of a
.Mac (previously iTools) account.
6. Section: Personal firewalls, pages 371-374
A very basic user interface to Mac OS X's built-in ipfirewall
functionality is now included as a tab in the Sharing System
Preferences window, providing an easy-to-use built-in firewall
solution. This solution provides no logging capabilities, however,
making it impossible to detect and respond to most security threats.
It also does not provide the ability to block (or allow) access by
specific IP addresses. In most cases you will want to look at one of
the many alternative solutions available.
7. Section: Just say No to FTP, page 377
Since Windows File Sharing is now included in the Sharing System
Preferences window, it is now even easier to avoid the use of FTP for
file sharing.
8. Section: Home Networking, page 378
NAT gateway functionality is now included through the "Internet" tab
in the Sharing System Preferences window, letting you easily share an
Internet connection with other machines on your home network.
9. Section: Wireless Networking, page 378
Full support for administrating AirPort base stations is now
included. Access to AirPort networks in available through an icon in
the menu bar, as well as through the Internet Connect application.
10. Section: Internet Security at Work, page 379
Mac OS X 10.2 now includes built-in VPN capabilities, through an
option in the Internet Connect application. Currently only the PPTP
protocol is supported.
Chapter: 18, Securing Mac OS X Mac OS X 10.1 introduces some changes and additional security
issues:
Chapter: 18, Securing Mac OS X With Mac OS X 10.0.4, the built-in ipfirewall software protects
the Classic environment as well as native Mac OS X. So any personal
firewall based on ipfirewall (such as Brickhouse or Norton Personal
Firewall for Mac OS X) should protect Classic with this and subsequent
releases of Mac OS X.
General Mac OS X update:
Panther (10.3) update:
Chapter: 18, Securing Mac OS X
Section: Various (see below)
Page: Various (see below)
Communication over iChat should be considered as insecure.
Additionally, any files exchanged could well contain viruses.
Section: Various (see below)
Page: Various (see below)
Section: Personal firewalls
Page: 374
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