Comment by yaseeng
8 hours ago
For context: I submitted this to Apple in September 2025 and waited 6 months before publishing. Apple closed both reports citing FileVault as a mitigation, which is technically accurate but FileVault is opt-in and many people disable it during setup without understanding what it does (myself included when I got my MacBook in 2020). My personal view is that the behavior significantly reduces the effort required to persist data on an unencrypted system compared to for example side-loading Linux. Regardless, Tahoe 26.3 (It might have been patched before, I didn't check) appears to have silently patched both issues.
> which is technically accurate but FileVault is opt-in
It's been on by default since around circa 2013.
Also, Filevault is on top of the encryption provided by secure enclave
> many people disable it during setup without understanding what it does
Citation required. Most people don't disable things on their computer when they "don't understand what it does."
> myself included when I got my MacBook in 2020
That's an anecdote, not evidence of a trend in a population.
> Tahoe 26.3 (It might have been patched before, I didn't check) appears to have silently patched both issues.
Gotta love a clickbait title designed to make people panic....about a minor fixed two months ago
> It's been on by default since around circa 2013
Wrong. It's not on by default.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/324805/do-apple-la...