SUSPICIOUS SIERRA CONNECTIONS

This is a tiny investigation of suspisious Mac OS Sierra connections reported by Little Snitch (commonly abbreviated as LS in current context), each section consists of quotes from the discussions in corresponding links. My own comments are marked with italic.

This document covers only recent network activity, for the detailed Mac OS security guide refer https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide

This gist with shell script for just disabling everything is related, though I'd recommend to be very careful with it: https://gist.github.com/pwnsdx/d87b034c4c0210b988040ad2f85a68d3

Few things to know:

To get the list of agents you can run: ls /System/Library/LaunchAgents/

Utility to operate them is called launchctl. To get info about certain service: launchctl list com.apple.whatever

Latest Mac OS versions include the System Integrity Protection (SIP) feature, that is controlled by csrutil util.

By default it restricts unloading system agents, so most launchctl unload commands in old (pre-Maverics) privacy guides will just fail with the following error: Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged

Stopping certain deamon in current session is not restricted though:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.whatever

You can disable SIP on your own risk, details here: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Security/Conceptual/System_Integrity_Protection_Guide/ConfiguringSystemIntegrityProtection/ConfiguringSystemIntegrityProtection.html

akd/gsa

akd is part of the AuthKit (authentication/authorisation) framework. Also used in the process of authenticating of iCloud and other accounts using Apple ID.

It is used to authenticate the App Store. App Store login fails if you block it.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/240108/what-is-the-akd-process-and-do-i-need-to-allow-it-to-connect-to-the-internet/247110

Looks like it's the one you'll really need to keep in order to get updates automatically.

apsd

That is the daemon which arbitrates push notifications and other cloud services.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/2uris4/disable_apsd_to_speed_up_your_mac/

Note: aspd rule is protected by Little Snitch (they consider it important enough for correct system functionality).

captiveagent

A captive portal is a network that forces an HTTP client to see a special web page (usually for authentication purposes) before using the Internet normally. A captive portal turns a Web browser into an authentication device. These are commonly used on wifi networks where authentication to the private network is done via a login browser page, rather than via the use of a WEP or WPA2 key, for example in some coffee shops and airports.

On Apple devices, if a captive portal is identified, a special application in /System/Library/CoreServices called Captive Network Assistant.app is opened. This is a very limited browser, separate to Safari, with no address bar or navigation buttons.

https://grpugh.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/an-undocumented-change-to-captive-network-assistant-settings-in-os-x-10-10-yosemite/

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/45418/how-to-automatically-login-to-captive-portals-on-os-x

Pretty nice example of how things are messed up nowadays. I disabled it on a wi-fi connected computer and it seemes to be fine, but looks that's the thing to be accurate with, since wrong settings may cause problems with connecting to your own wi-fi networks.

ckkeyrolld

Looks like for now nobody is sure what it is:

ckkeyrolld is the system daemon that rolls and verifies encryption metadata.

No clue about what these metadata really are and why they need to be shared with Apple.

ckkeyrolld.plist is related to iCloud encryption I believe.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/7au0tv/what_is_ckkeyrolld/

https://twitter.com/icleus/status/943087366436282370

Soundes like a creepy crap to be disabled. At least if you are not using iCloud (I do not).

com.apple.Safari.SafeBrowsing.Service

This database, provided by Google, is used by mobile Safari to check for known malicious web sites.

Google is constantly updating this database, so your iDevice refreshes on every sync.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/101556/what-is-safari-safe-browsing-data-and-why-does-it-need-to-copy-every-time-i-sync

Suspicious is that OSX sometimes calls the service while Safari is off. But overall this is a useful one.

gamed

Obviously this framework is something to do with Apple's Game Centre, which I've only previously come across on iOS. What is it now doing on OSX, given that there seems to be no GUI 'front-end' for it? And how the **** do I disable it?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23567732

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/223331/how-to-disable-game-center-process-gamed-on-os-x-10-11-el-capitan

Definitely to be blocked or turned off.

possible way to disable:

In system settings, you have the panel with the notification center. I removed the game center from there. Hope it helps!

geod.xpc

It looks like this service is entirely related to Location Services. Blocking it with Little Snitch (as I have done) and/or disabling it with the launchctl command, will render Location Services inoperable. About the only down side I see to that (for my own usage scenario) is loss of the Find My Mac functionality. Otherwise, I've got no particular reason for apps and system services to be utilising my location. People who travel (across timezones) may find that automatic updating of their timezone and clock will fail.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7353115

Locationd is a daemon that provides location services for OS X's "Core Location". This uses skyhook technology to figure out your mac's location (using WiFi). It's the same system used by the iPod Touch, and is also used by the iPhone (The iPhone also uses cell tower triangulation and GPS).

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2141988

Even if you were to process all the geo location aspects on developer.apple.com - it's widely used - far greater than just the Core Location API - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation.

• Weather
• Calendar
• Address Book
• Maps
• Siri
• iCloud (finding the best data center to route uploads)
• Store (which geographic region should your content be)
• Time Zone and Night Shift
• Safari location

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/201839/services-using-com-apple-geod

possible way to disable:

Location Services can be turned off in System Settings (and is actually recommended for the desktops, since you'll hardly ever need them). In my case that didn's stop geod.xpc activity though.

helpd

helpd is the daemon that's running on your mac that gives you access to the help files when you open a program.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3930621

I turn this thing off since it tries to reach remote servers when I do not ask for any kind of help.

imagent

imagent is part of Apple's Messages app (formerly iChat). (LS info)

IMAgent is a process that listens for FaceTime invitations. It will be active even if FaceTime isn't running. You don't have to block it, but if you don't use FaceTime you can open the application, open preferences, and turn off FaceTime. That should quit the IMAgent process.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/86814/firewall-settings-with-imagent

imagent memory leak in Mountain Lion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4209012?tstart=0

Tries to reach init-p01md.apple.com with no reason, when iChat/FaceTime/etc are off.

ksfetch

Not an Apple service, but you'll probably encounter it. Useful one. Frequency of update checks is adjustable, see the link below.

The ksfetch process on OS X is part of Google Chrome's update mechanism. The ks prefix is an abbreviation of Keystone. The process appears to be responsible for fetching updates to Google's products.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/207998/what-is-ksfetch-process-on-mac

mappushd

Location Services allows applications and websites to gather and use information based on the current location of your computer.

Your approximate location is determined using information from local Wi-Fi networks, and is collected by Location Services in a manner that doesn’t personally identify you.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204690

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT207092

The part of Location services. Related to weather, timezones and so on. Can be disabled on desktops. The only real use of them is Find My Mac functionality on macbooks.

nbagent

Noticeboard agent is a macOS system process. As part of Apple’s software update mechanism it is connecting to Apple’s servers. (LS version)

nbagent is used for website notifications that show up in notification center

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6445084

Still not sure what it is. What is noticeboard? Why does it need a special agent to connect apple servers? Just disabled it.

parsecd

parsecd itself is an unknown network service (possibly related to security) which is run every 10 minutes approximately.

https://eclecticlight.co/2017/05/31/an-incomplete-list-of-sierras-dispatched-services/

Is this the service that sends all of my pasteboard content to Apple?

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/54870l/what_is_comappleparsecd/

parsecd is a macOS system process that is used for suggestions in Spotlight, Messages, Lookup and Safari (Little Snitch info)

But what the heck does parsecd actually do?

It is location-based suggestions for Siri

I now see a Siri entry that’s checked but greyed out. I suspected that was because she was disabled so I reenabled her. But her location service is still checked and grayed out - no way to disable it!

Guess I’ll just have to block connections with LS to silence the cunning little witch.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/266989/what-is-parsecd

touristd

It can display different Apple tours depending on OS and device. You can try to run /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Tourist.framework/Versions/A/Resources/touristd --help to get some hint.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/294291/what-is-touristd

Details:

https://carlashley.com/2016/10/19/com-apple-touristd/