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Sandbox App For Mac10/22/2021
The bundle identifier for this application is net.mikey-san.sandbox. The application lies within System Tools, more precisely File Managers. This free program was developed to work on Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later.Traditional process of typesetting TeX/LaTeX documents relies on calling upon tools such as pdflatex or xelatex for compiling.The Apple Sandbox Introduced way back in Mac OS 10.5 as Seatbelt Very naive implementation originally, bypassed and opt-in Revamped in Mac OS 10.7 as The App Sandbox Stronger implementation, introducing containers Opt-in for Apple’s own binaries and apps Mandatory for Mac App Store apps (but not for DMG based)This document describes the process sandboxing mechanism used on Mac OS X. It is not a replacement for other operating system access controls.Typesetting under App Sandboxing. This safety mechanism is intended to limit potential damage in the event that a vulnerability is exploited. The actual developer of this free software for Mac is Michael Watson.The sandbox facility allows applications to voluntarily restrict their access to operating system resources.
This because anti-virus software can generically detect no more than 60% (this number can vary over the years) of the total number of virus and spyware out there, so by using sandboxing in conjunction with a good anti-virus software is a good security practice. I have got an anti-virus/firewall software, do I need sandboxing then?YES if you are running untrusted applications or applications that may be exposed to malicious content (like Internet browsers, image previewers, PDF readers and so on). This because by reducing the access level an application can have over your system you actually help the job of your anti-virus software. So, it’s more of a “try and fail until it works” art and it takes some time to proper master sandboxing.Apple Store downloaded applications are strictly controlled, but this still does NOT make you immune from IPC interception for example, which allow a malicious application to sniff data from vulnerable application (at the bottom of this page you’ll find a real-world example of this). Many applications may crash when too heavily sandboxed or when specific restrictions are put into place. Network activity inbound, outbound (specifically general networking or internet access)Sandboxing applications is not as simple as just running a software program. IPC (InterProcess Communication) via Posix and SysV So, what exactly can I limit an application from accessing when sandboxing it?On Mac OS X you can limit an application from performing the following type of operations: Equivalent for control alt delete on macIn other words they are always between ( ) (parentheses) where the first element after the first “(” identify the subject and the subsequent ones either its parameters or its alterations.You can import another configuration file using the “import” command and specifying where to find the file on your computer (file path and file name). Sandbox configuration file syntaxThe sandbox configuration file is divided into multiple sections (one per resource macro category).The commands/directives syntax is similar to LISP programming language syntax. So you’ll need to be patient and keep modifying your sandbox configuration file until everything will work as you want and as your application needs. How to sandbox an application?To sandbox an existing application all you have to do is create a sandbox configuration file in order to tell to Mac OS X which resources you want the application to be able to access and use.Please note: To find out which resources are necessary for your application to run fine is the “ try and fail” process I mentioned before. Again, Sandboxing is not a solution for all problems and if you want to know more about it have a look at. Sandbox App Manual Commands OnI’m using it to sandbox dev environments, so that all executables are sandboxed by default to only access the local subpath.I’m running into some issues however. Since the application that most like “everyone” (to use your language) may want to sandbox is a web browser the example below is very good:One last and very important comment about posting on FREE and USEFUL information on the internet: I can understand that it may be frustrating for some user (especially beginners) to use such infos/code etc… BUT please try to remember that these info/code are provided for free and for your benefit, so keeping the tone relaxed is an important form of respect for who has been spending time to help others for free.I’ve started playing with the sandbox (sandbox-exec in particular) and it’s a really great tool. For more infoIf my generic sandbox file will be too generic for you and you want more practical examples (already implemented) then run your terminal application and have a look to all the examples already kindly provided by Apple:Q: Where the creation/editing takes place?A: In a text editor (you know the tool used to edit text files on every computer in the world)A: Any text editor (macOS comes with terminal based and GUI based editors, your choice)If you don’t know how to run manual commands on a modern computer, then remember to open your terminal application to do so.If you are not familiar with file editing on a modern computer then please read this other article where there is a practical example (sandboxing Tor Browser) and the file is provided via github.com so no need to edit anything. Sandbox configuration file exampleBelow an example of sandboxing configuration file that you can use as base for your own one (please replace MyApp with the application name you’re trying to sandbox): This is my first sandbox configuration file! Let's allow file read and write in specific locations and not Please note you can add more (regex "^/Users/user_name/xxxxxxxxxxx") lines depending on what your MyApp needs to function properly.(allow file-write* file-read-data file-read-metadata(regex "^/Users/user_name/") You can also add a separate section for reading and writing files outside your If your MyApp requires to access sysctl (in read) If you want to import extra rules from an existing sandbox configuration file: If you want to decide in which filesystem paths If your MyApp wants to run extra processes it's be allowed to run only If your MyApp requires network access you can grant it here:(allow network*) How to use a sandbox configuration fileOnce we have done with our sandbox configuration file for your application, you can simply execute your application in the sandbox by using the following command from the command line: sandbox-exec -f myapp-sandbox-conf /Applications/MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp-binWhere myapp-sandbox-conf is the name of your sandbox configuration file and MyApp is the name of the application your want to run in the sandbox. In some cases the sandbox can simply be disabled for those tools, but that’s not ideal.
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