Comment by davidcollantes
5 hours ago
Indeed!
On Mac, some command-line tools included with macOS or the Xcode Command Line Tools (including curl, git, python3, ruby, perl, and openssl) check certificates against /etc/ssl/cert.pem. For certificates that chain to a root CA certificate in this file, these tools don't check Apple's block or whether the certificate has been revoked. This file will be updated in a future macOS update. If you use these tools and don't want to wait for the update, you can remove root CA certificates from the file.
Why are they not just pushing out the update asap? Unless they're relying on the compromised certs, then it feels it should be incredibly trivial to push
Because to Apple once you open a terminal you leave the supported world behind. This is a standard thing for them. Apple is not really a UNIX vendor and certainly not a Linux vendor: they sell macOS which is primarily a consumer OS and has its own APIs for everything.
Tools common on Linux like curl and git come with the OS basically for developer convenience. Apple doesn't write those programs, they don't use Apple's APIs or platform features, and thus in some sense you aren't really meant to use them in Apple's eyes. Ports of UNIX CLI tools exist in a kind of semi-supported netherworld on macOS. They run but they aren't fully integrated or supported parts of the OS.
This case not withstanding, Apple regularly includes patches to the built in CLI tools in security updates, so it's a little disingenuous to suggest those tools are not really supported.
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The issue might be Root CA vs intermediates. The root CA that eMudhra rolls upto may be used for other intermediates which were not compromised or revoked. Removing the root CA will mean that these valid certificates no longer work.
This is technically a problem in the CLI - it needs to support revocations properly, not rely on root CA verification only. I’m not sure though whether there’s a standardised mechanism (that Apple supports) for CLIs.
> These steps affect every tool that uses /etc/ssl/cert.pem. Afterward, tools that use only this file might not be able to verify some websites whose certificates chain to these root CA certificates through intermediate CAs that weren't affected.
In pracitce, those root CAs have already been removed in major browsers. If your server uses them, you would likely have needed to migrate to another root already.
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PKI works on trust. When a CA does things that violate that trust, their root gets removed. That's how it's supposed to work.
Apple’s own security framework is supported by curl with OpenSSL or GnuTLS (build with ./configure --with-apple-sectrust). That blocks the intermediate certificates via the same mechanism Safari uses for example.
Not sure why macOS doesn’t ship such a build of curl.
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> Removing the root CA will mean that these valid certificates no longer work.
Great, that’s fine. They can reissue.
I'm no expert in the matter, but weren't only the intermediate CAs compromised, not the root?
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I think since 10.15 the built-in command line tools in MacOS are there mostly for backwards compatibility. This was clearly communicated about scripting languages, but there was a feeling back then that this was about the whole lot (all cli tools).
Git comes with Xcode, it doesn't come with macOS by default.
Theory: Apple are moving away from user-controllable development tools, towards an AI-hosted application development framework which removes the divide between user and developer, and thus the need for specialized developer tools.
The writing is on the wall for the command line tools.
(We can already see this tooling devaluation happening all over the place. Apple have their variant of this response to the AI tooling-paradigm tsunami…)
Apple seems like an odd company to lump into this group. Any evidence for this? I removed the cert using a CLI command on my Mac.
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Command line tools seem to mesh well with AI. Why would they move away?
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The command line tooling lets you/AI manage a lot of your app store interactions though. It's much easier to use that way then trying to deal with the Steamworks UI and doing things manually.
That would be a killer move!
Interestingly on a much older OS (Yosemite) cURL, etc. links to Security.framework which uses the system's trust store instead a separate .pem file in /etc/ssl (I can't find any .pem inside /etc/ssl)
I wonder why they stopped doing that and now just seem to do "standard" builds and end up with this (at least) 2 separate trust store situation.
Some depending on the executable, sometimes it goes through /etc/ssl/cert.pem and sometimes through the Apple framework. This OS is a mess.