[X-Newbies] Corrupted User Prefs

[Alex]

On Jun 14, 2005, at 09:57, Michael Winter wrote:

> On Jun 14, 2005, at 1:27 AM, Tony Johansen wrote:
>
>> Regarding:
>> <http://securityawareness.blogspot.com/2005/05/comments-from-mac-
>> expert.html>
>>
>> ' For instance, a problem that was previously not uncommon when using 
>> OS X
>> was having an application refuse to launch, or unexpectedly quitting, 
>> due to
>> a corrupted user preferences file. This problem is all but eliminated 
>> in
>> Tiger.'
>
> I'm still trying to figure out what the OS has to do with it.

Out of context, the phrasing is open to misinterpretation, but it's 
clear if you read the whole paragraph. Randy didn't mean to say that 
Tiger eliminates corruption in pref files, but rather that it attempts 
to fix this issue automatically, by relaunching the app with the 
default prefs. See details in

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301084>

And, btw, there are a couple of inaccuracies in the original link, 
which deals with security, not file corruption. User password is not 
necessary to install spyware if one has physical access -- a bootable 
device, e.g., CD or FW drive, can be used. In Tiger, it is 
theoretically possible to install spyware w/o physical access with a 
widget. It is even conceivable to do so without widgets, piggy-backing 
on sudo. But, it should be stressed that these are conceivable, rather 
than actual, threats.

<0x0192>