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"Automatic updates" are a HUGE hole in your computer's security


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2020 Dec 3, 9:36pm   480 views  5 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

Any software that can update itself over the internet can install and run any software on your computer, as you.

This is absolutely identical to handing over your computer to that software vender and saying "Do anything you want to me, spy on all my content, record my keystrokes and get into my bank account, yes, literally anything you want."

Not a good idea. No software should ever be allowed to update at will, but instead only when you want it to and can keep an eye on what's going on.

I don't even want software "checking for updates" because that is traffic that I did not initiate nor that I can look at.

Firefox and Thunderbird, however, have denied you the power to refuse checking for or installing new updates.



There does seem to be an obscure way to disable that, which I'm going to try.

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1   Patrick   2020 Dec 3, 10:21pm  

Got it to stop trying to update by creating this on my mac laptop:

mkdir /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/Resources/distribution
cd /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/Resources/distribution
cat > policies.json
{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}

And then restart.
2   richwicks   2020 Dec 4, 5:04am  

Patrick says
Got it to stop trying to update by creating this on my mac laptop:

mkdir /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/Resources/distribution
cd /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/Resources/distribution
cat > policies.json
{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}

And then restart.


Here, try installing this:

https://kubuntu.org/

That will pretty much fix all your problems :)
3   Patrick   2020 Dec 4, 8:41am  

Yes, I should finally switch back to LInux, but Firefox and Thunderbird would still need that patch to prevent their trying to call home with info about me all the time.

I wonder if kubuntu runs on an old MacBook Air.
4   richwicks   2020 Dec 4, 3:09pm  

Install on a virtual machine first. I have to look into how to block OUTGOING ports at some point.
5   HeadSet   2020 Dec 4, 3:51pm  

"Automatic updates" are a HUGE hole in your computer's security

I wonder what kind of "automatic updates" the Dominion voting machines used......

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