MacFixIt

Remove stubborn Spotlight privacy items in OS X

The Spotlight search technology in OS X will index the entire drive for inclusion in search results, but also has options where you can enable or disable specific file types to tailor the search results for your needs. In addition, Apple provides a privacy list where you can add folders or even entire drives to prevent the contents within them from being indexed and included in search results. While adding and removing items from this list is usually relatively painless, there are times when you cannot seem to modify the spotlight settings.

Recently I was contacted by MacFixIt reader Dean more

Mac malware infection rates remaining constant

Following the Flashback malware and the estimates of 600,000 Mac systems being infected, security companies have been steadily tracking the communications done by the malware on infected systems. In recent weeks, the data from these monitoring efforts have suggested that despite early reports of the malware levels sinking rapidly from efforts by Apple, news organizations, and anti-malware companies, the levels of infections appears to be remaining constant.

The spread Flashback malware was facilitated by a neglected security hole in Apple's Java runtime for OS X, and at its peak had infected around one percent of Mac systems. To more

How to manage the FileVault password hole in OS X 10.7.3

A security hole has recently been found in the latest version of OS X 10.7.3, through which a user's password may be written to a log file in plain text if that person is using the older legacy FileVault data encryption technology from past versions of OS X.

While the hole may be a problem for a certain group of people who still use the legacy encryption scheme, there are several things that can be done about it.

The hole happened when an Apple software engineer apparently left a debugging flag enabled in the production release of more

Mac OS X login passwords put at risk

Last update: 1:20 p.m. PT

Users of the Lion version of Mac OS X will probably want to update their log-in passwords.

Security researcher David Emery warns of a new vulnerability involving the FileVault feature in Mac OS X Lion, version 10.7.3, which allows for encryption of certain directories. He writes:

Someone, for some unknown reason, turned on a debug switch (DEBUGLOG) in the current released version of MacOS Lion 10.7.3 that causes the authorizationhost process's HomeDirMounter DIHLFVMount to log in *PLAIN TEXT* in a system wide logfile readible by anyone with root

Cloud-based storage options for Mac OS X

With more and more computing devices becoming mobile or located in different areas besides the desktop, the need for online storage and syncing options to manage files created or edited on these devices is increasingly important. To tackle this need, Apple has explored various approaches to online document management and sharing with its MobileMe and .Mac services, but these options have been phased out in favor of newer and more integrated approaches to online storage and syncing options.

Apple has its online storage offerings that so far have culminated into its iCloud service, but there are others as well, which more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions on how to tackle an IP address conflict error, an issue with Apple's Hardware Test suite not loading, and whether or not Time Machine backups need to be started from scratch when attaching the local Time Machine disk to an Airport Extreme router. We welcome alternative approaches and views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, post them in the comments!

Question: Tackling a duplicate IP address error
MacFixIt reader more

Apple prepares upcoming Java updates for OS X

Apple is preparing updates to its Java 6 runtime for OS X 10.6 and 10.7, which will allow it to better co-exist with future versions of the Java runtime. These updates will soon be available for OS X 10.6 as "Java Update 9" and for OS X 10.7 as "Java Update 2012-004."

The Java SE 6 runtime that Apple provides for OS X 10.6 and 10.7 users will be the last in-house developed version of the Java runtime for OS X. For future versions starting with the upcoming Java 7 runtime, OS X users more

Flash update squashes active exploit

Check the version of Adobe Flash you have installed on your system, and if it's less than version 11.2.202.235, be sure to download the latest update that Adobe has made available today (you can do this using Adobe's Flash version checker). This update addresses a vulnerability in the program that is currently being exploited by malware developers to compromise systems.

Described as an "object confusion vulnerability," Adobe claims that the exploit allows an attacker to crash the Flash application and execute code that could potentially allow the attacker to take control of the system. In more

How to restore a missing Displays brightness control in OS X

Most external monitors have brightness and contrast controls accessible in an onscreen display or as buttons around the side of the monitor, but for many of Apple's displays, the brightness controls are accessed through the OS X Displaya system preferences. If you have one of these displays, then you should see this brightness slider next to the display resolution list.

However, in some instances this option may be missing, leaving people with no way to adjust the display's brightness.

For third-party monitors that have their own brightness controls, OS X will defer to the monitor's settings. However, more

Disk Utility showing less available space than the Finder in OS X

There are several ways to display disk usage in OS X, with some of the more-common options being the Finder's status bar, or to get information on your hard disk in the Finder, or to use Apple's Disk Utility program. However, while these options will display the available disk space on the system, in OS X Lion you might see some differences between the numbers reported in these areas.

For example, on my Mac running OS X Lion there is currently 184.43GB of free space reported as being available on the disk if I get information on more