Comment by elmo2you
4 years ago
A local database with a hash of every possible non-official Apple app in it? Sounds like something maybe only storage manufacturers will like.
The thing is, this is not a new security problem/challenge. It essentially can not be properly solved if you don't have a tightly controlled environment. If it's a general purpose environment, where you can't fully control what ends up running on it, this particular approach to "security" is pretty much doomed, no matter how you address it.
No, a database with the hash of every program you ever started on that computer. The Apple server should be contacted when a program is installed/run for the first time. And of course, the system software should handle network problems more gracefully. If everything "works" when offline, network problems should quicker lead to the offline behavior. There should be one daemon process which handles the signature checking which changes its behavior once requests to the server are not answered.
Pretty sure you just described how it already works. IIUC it only checks new hashes.
There are solutions for this like bloom filters etc. Google Safe Browsing system tackles a somewhat similar problem.