This makes it far tougher for malware, which not only has to get past SIP but to mount the System volume as writable before it can tamper with system files.Īlthough Big Sur uses the same protected System volume and APFS Volume Group as Catalina, it changes the way that volume is protected to make it an even greater challenge for those developing malicious software: welcome to the Signed System Volume (SSV).Įvery file on Big Sur’s System volume now has a SHA-256 cryptographic hash which is stored in the file system metadata.
Immutable system files now reside on the System volume, which not only has complete protection by SIP, but is normally mounted read-only. In Mojave, all malware has to do is exploit a vulnerability in SIP, gain elevated privileges, and it can do pretty well what it likes with system files.Ĭatalina 10.15 changes that by splitting the boot volume into two: the System and Data volumes, making up an APFS Volume Group.
#Patched sur filevault software#
The main protections provided to the system come from classical Unix permissions with the addition of System Integrity Protection (SIP), software within macOS. In macOS Mojave 10.14, macOS boots from a single APFS volume, in which sensitive system folders and files are mixed with those which users can write to. Before explaining what is happening in macOS 11 Big Sur, I’ll recap what has happened so far. The last two major releases of macOS have brought rapid evolution in the protection of their system files.
0 kommentar(er)
