{"id":17077,"date":"2013-08-22T13:18:23","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T20:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?p=17077"},"modified":"2013-08-22T18:12:33","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T01:12:33","slug":"nsa-tips-for-hardening-macs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/nsa-tips-for-hardening-macs\/","title":{"rendered":"NSA Offers Tips for Hardening Macs \u2013 But There&#8217;s a Catch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a document floating around with tips written by the NSA for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nsa.gov\/ia\/_files\/factsheets\/macosx_hardening_tips.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">making Macs more secure<\/a>, which is being met with equal amounts of head-scratching and approval. First of all, and here&#8217;s the catch, it only contains tips for hardening Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), which begs the question: How concerned about security are people running a 6 year old version of the OS? If for some reason you are compelled to run an antiquated operating system, it certainly couldn&#8217;t hurt to use these tips to tighten your system up a bit. Beyond that, it brings up some salient points that can be summed up with general rules.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Principle of Least Privilege<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-17099\" alt=\"TapedWebcam\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/TapedWebcam.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/TapedWebcam.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/TapedWebcam-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/TapedWebcam-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In short, it&#8217;s good security policy to deny access or turn things off if there&#8217;s no need for it, because each extraneous moving part is another thing that could be used against you. There are several tips anyone can do, and a few things that are for the more tech-savvy. Either way, you can find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nsa.gov\/ia\/_files\/factsheets\/macosx_hardening_tips.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">more specifics in the document<\/a>, which may vary in usefulness if you&#8217;re running a more recent version of OS X.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Put a piece of opaque tape over your webcam if you&#8217;re not using it.<\/li>\n<li>Turn off network interfaces (e.g. Bluetooth, WiFi, Airport, IPv6) in System Preferences if or when you&#8217;re not using them.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t use your admin account unless there&#8217;s some specific need for admin-level access.<\/li>\n<li>Deselect &#8220;Allow guests to connect to shared folders&#8221; in System Preferences.<\/li>\n<li>Secure Users&#8217; Home Folder Permissions. (This is one of those advanced tips)<\/li>\n<li>Turn off services in LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents if you&#8217;re not using them. (Consider this an advanced tip too)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Turn Off Automatic Access<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SafariSafeFiles.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-17095\" alt=\"SafariSafeFiles\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SafariSafeFiles.png\" width=\"280\" height=\"65\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SafariSafeFiles.png 280w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SafariSafeFiles-150x34.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Apple does a lot of things to make your life easier, but also might make it easier to shoot yourself in the foot security-wise (or allow someone else to!). Undoing these things is generally best left to folks who are more technically adept, but there are a couple of items that mere mortals can safely do.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Set your Firmware Password. (Advanced)<\/li>\n<li>Disable Setuid and Setgid Binaries. (Advanced)<\/li>\n<li>Disable &#8220;Open Safe Files After Downloading&#8221; in Safari&#8217;s Preference menu.<\/li>\n<li>Disable Automatic Login in System Preferences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Turn On Security Features<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FileVault.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17097\" alt=\"FileVault\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FileVault.png\" width=\"484\" height=\"146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FileVault.png 484w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FileVault-150x45.png 150w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FileVault-300x90.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Okay, this one is more obvious. If your software provides a way for you to make your setup more secure, do it. These are all easy things you can do to increase your security.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn on FileVault in System Preferences<\/li>\n<li>Turn on the Firewall in System Preferences<\/li>\n<li>Enable Software Update in System Preferences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re not too weirded out about taking security tips from a government agency that may be rifling through your digital drawers, there are some interesting tips to be had. (That said, none of the NSA&#8217;s tips are going to stop them from getting your\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/unpacking-the-nsa-scandal-what-is-metadata\/\" target=\"_blank\">metadata<\/a>.) If you&#8217;re looking for more ways to secure your Mac, here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-to-securely-set-up-your-new-mac\/\" target=\"_blank\">our take on setting up your machine securely<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">photo credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/kikus\/8973807974\/\">kikuyumoja<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/photopin.com\">photopin<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\">cc<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a document floating around with tips written by the NSA for making Macs more secure, which is being met with equal amounts of head-scratching and approval. First of all, and here&#8217;s the catch, it only contains tips for hardening Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), which begs the question: How concerned about security are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[174,453,168,365],"class_list":["post-17077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-how-to","tag-mac","tag-nsa","tag-os-x","tag-security-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO Pro 5.0.1.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is a document floating around with tips written by the NSA for making Macs more secure, which is being met with equal amounts of head-scratching and approval. First of all, and here&#039;s the catch, it only contains tips for hardening Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), which begs the question: How concerned about security are\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lysa Myers\"\/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/nsa-tips-for-hardening-macs\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO Pro (AIOSEO) 5.0.1.1\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Mac Security Blog - Keep Macs safe from the dangers of the Internet\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NSA Offers Tips for Hardening Macs \u2013 But There\u2019s a Catch\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a document floating around with tips written by the NSA for making Macs more secure, which is being met with equal amounts of head-scratching and approval. 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