coolfactor

macseeker said:

john.b said:

This is not just fake ransomware, a lot of sketchy URL redirects use this same technique. The trick to breaking the JavaScript/popup loop is to put the iPhone/iPad in airplane mode, at that point you can kill the session and/or kill Safari via the task manager. 

There is no "Task Manager" in iOS. Also for the separate macOS, the same applies. What is "Task Manager" anyway? I've been using iOS since version 4 and Mac Classic since System Software version 6.0 and Mac OS X since 10.0 and I never saw "Task Manager."

People that come from Windows may apply their own terminology. On Linux/UNIX/macOS/iOS, they are "processes" instead of "tasks", but at the end of the day, he's referring to the same thing — the fast-app switcher that lets you quit running apps.

Now, as for AppleInsider calling this a "bug", it was not. It was simply an exploit of the design of the application-modal alerts. Apple changed the design to avoid such exploits from hijacking the entire app.

 The iPhone maker subsequently patched the flaw by making JavaScript pop-ups a per-tab event, rather than app-wide.

The alerts functioned as they were designed, so there was no "bug" or "code flaw". But a "design flaw" in the larger scheme of things is not wrong, though. Apple changed the design to mitigate the behaviour.

Let's not spread FUD by over-generalizing terms, eh?

I thank Soverain Software for reminding us that the world lives in a balance. For there to be light, there needs to be dark. For there to be logical minds, there needs to be illogical minds.

The biggest difference between Apple's AirPort routers and all the rest is how administration is done. AirPort Utility runs on Macs and iOS devices to manage the routers, not on the routers themselves. All the rest have some type of server running that opens all kinds of opportunities for hacking and exploitation.

I've observed this same attitude from Apple ignoring user needs and feedback. Back when the Pages app moved to version 5.0, and they dropped linked-text boxes, I very politely submitted numerous messages through their Feedback forms, and even went so far as to email Tim directly when our situation became critical. I don't agree with bothering a very busy CEO, but I was getting nothing from our feedback messages over many months. Essentially, we relied on this one feature for publishing a weekly newsletter (the business' only product), and could not purchase any new Macs because they came with the newer iWork suite. It really put us into a bind over a long period of time. Still not resolved after two years.

They dropped this feature because they wanted synergy with the iCloud version of Pages, which does not support this feature, so they dropped it from the desktop version. Sounds very similar to this PDFKit situation where synergy across two platforms is put ahead of user needs.