[geeks] Apple applications phoning home

[Mark]

On 19 Oct 2007, at 14:27, John Francini wrote:

> I think the question is not "is it malicious", but "why?" Step back  
> and think about this - he can't change preferences in his local  
> address book without internet access. That is a problem, IMHO.

 From the evidence present it isn't stupid enough to fail when you  
have *no* network connection, because Mac OS X keeps track of network  
status very well and informs apps seamlessly when no network is  
available - properly written OS X apps check for connectivity before  
they make a request and if it comes back as NULL they quietly get on  
with stuff or return a 'can't connect' error, depending on context.  
So it only tries to connect *IF* you have an network link. It should  
maybe also check the port is clear but Apple probably assume people  
want to access port 80 and won't block it, as the internet is pretty  
useless without it :P

> I can understand if there is a .mac sync client that *wants* to  
> access apple.com sites in it's normal operation, but it should  
> handle the lack of internet connectivity better (i.e. cache changes  
> until connectivity is restored)...

FWIW I can confirm it IS a dotmac related query. It is looking online  
for my .Mac settings from my .Mac account online (if you don't have  
one configured in System Preferences and it's still looking then I'll  
concede that, yes, that's a bug). I did a 'Deny once' block using  
Little Snitch 3 times (presumably retries) and on blocking the third  
a sheet dropped down saying:

Could not retrieve .Mac configuration

Please verify your .Mac settings in the .Mac Preference Pane.

So the panel will open eventually if all 3 retries fail *in my case*.

The reason it connects to .Mac is because there is a checkbox on the  
initial pane of the Preferences that is labeled 'Synchronize my  
contacts with other computers using .Mac'. This is the facility that  
loads the addresses to your online address book and allows you to  
cross-load them o other machines you log into .Mac with. In order to  
update the configuration held locally, and then also on the web, it  
has to access configuration.apple.com in order to perform the  
required updates, when you check the box.

Also FWIW Address Book is OS X's frontend for any LDAP, Exchange or  
Apple Open Directory (also uses LDAPv3 IIRC) address books you have  
on your LAN/WAN so it is not *just* a local address book, it is very  
much a network address book utility as well. If you used WireShark or  
Ethereal (if they exist for OS X - or an equivalent) you'd probably  
find the Address Book app also calls out to find directory servers on  
your LAN at some stages too.

-- 
Mark Benson

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