Source
We’ve received some information regarding Apple's newest portable, the MacBook Pro, and with it a hidden message for would-be hackers. We were made privy to a text dump from the System Profiler of one of the new MacBooks and, naturally, couldn’t wait to sort through its contents. What we didn’t expect to see was a warning from Apple to those that would hack OS X, presumably to those wanting it to run on beige-box PCs:
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<key>_name</key>
<string>Dont Steal Mac OS X</string>
[...]
<string>Copyright (c) 2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
<string>The purpose of this Apple software is to protect Apple copyrightedmaterials from unauthorized copying and use. You may not copy, modify,reverse engineer, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense,transfer or redistribute this file, in whole or in part. If you haveobtained a copy of this Apple software and do not have a valid licensefrom Apple Computer to use it, please immediately destroy or delete itfrom your computer.</string>
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The most interesting part of this message? It’s placement, found in /System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext Despite being a lighthearted jab at hackers, it seems that Apple is taking the pirating of the new OSx86 seriously, since the same kext is not found in the PPC version of 10.4.4. Is this simply a hidden message for the interested parties, or is it a new tounge-in-cheek implementation of OS X’s TPM security? Details are sketchy at this point… watch this space for more news as we get it.
We’ve received some information regarding Apple's newest portable, the MacBook Pro, and with it a hidden message for would-be hackers. We were made privy to a text dump from the System Profiler of one of the new MacBooks and, naturally, couldn’t wait to sort through its contents. What we didn’t expect to see was a warning from Apple to those that would hack OS X, presumably to those wanting it to run on beige-box PCs:
--------------------------------------------------
<key>_name</key>
<string>Dont Steal Mac OS X</string>
[...]
<string>Copyright (c) 2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
<string>The purpose of this Apple software is to protect Apple copyrightedmaterials from unauthorized copying and use. You may not copy, modify,reverse engineer, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense,transfer or redistribute this file, in whole or in part. If you haveobtained a copy of this Apple software and do not have a valid licensefrom Apple Computer to use it, please immediately destroy or delete itfrom your computer.</string>
--------------------------------------------------
The most interesting part of this message? It’s placement, found in /System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext Despite being a lighthearted jab at hackers, it seems that Apple is taking the pirating of the new OSx86 seriously, since the same kext is not found in the PPC version of 10.4.4. Is this simply a hidden message for the interested parties, or is it a new tounge-in-cheek implementation of OS X’s TPM security? Details are sketchy at this point… watch this space for more news as we get it.