Lock Down Your Mac With Security Mode

You may recognize Adam Albrec as the author of PPC Media Center, a suite of Applescripts that serves as a GUI wrapper for youtube-dl, and as a past guest poster here. Well, he's back, this time with another package of Applescripts called Security Mode (download at bottom of post). If you've ever wondered what it would take to completely lock down your PowerPC laptop in the modern jungle out there, this is what you've been waiting for.

Along with the Applescripts comes a very extensive Read Me file that has a lot of general tips as well as how to use/edit the scripts. In all honesty, I'd never heard of the Firewire vulnerability before perusing the Read Me, and I'm supposed to be on top of this stuff.

So what do the scripts do? As Adam writes:

The primary app is a simple toggle that will change your laptop to a 'Secure Mode' which implements the following security features:

- A password is now required to unlock the screen on waking the system from sleep (like after having the lid closed), or once the screensaver has become active.

- The unit will have the screensaver activate after 10 minutes.

- The display will sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity.

- The system will sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity.

- Firewire will be disabled - thus illuminating the threat of a DMA (Direct Memory Access) attack.

...

When toggled again, all the security features listed above go back to normal 'Home Mode':

- No password is required to wake the system or deactivate the screensaver.

- Both display and system sleep are set to 'Never'.

- Firewire will work normally.

As a convenient means of identifying the system's current security status, the Dock position will change in 'Secure Mode' to the left of the screen, and back to the bottom in 'Home Mode'.

The secondary helper app SM Fw-Disabler, when set as a login item, will make sure that whatever mode the system is in when it is shut down, will continue when restarted until the user chooses to change it.

Both scripts store your user name and password in plain text, so you need to keep the scripts on an encrypted volume. FileVault instructions are included in the Read Me for this purpose. Also...

As stated in the script comments, all the settings in the script including the sleep/screensaver times and Dock position changes can be set if the above are not to the user's liking. Those who are great at Applescript will have no trouble at this, but for those who might like some tips, just leave a comment here on the blog and I'll reply ASAP.

Finally, the Read Me concludes with some not-commonly-known tips on PCMCIA expansion bays, Open Firmware passwords, and TrueCrypt. All in all, this is great stuff, so download the scripts and the Read Me at the following Mediafire link:

(updated to version 2.0, addressing Finder-lockup problems in the previous release)
PowerPC Security v2.0.zip

(ADDED: This can also be useful for Snow Leopard. It'll take some tinkering with the Applescript, but leave a comment and Adam will be glad to help.)

New GUI App for Youtube-dl

(UPDATE: Newer versions of PPC Media Center look somewhat different than the screenshot below and have additional features. The download link at the bottom has been updated to the latest version.)

I ought to complain more often. Just a few weeks ago I wrote a post about Vevo branded videos on Youtube breaking third party downloaders. Youtube-dl was the only one that worked, and it being command line, was slightly inconvenient. Well, lo and behold, good fortune knocked on my door (sent me email) and Adam A. left me a cool new Applescript app called PPC Media Center (download link at bottom). It's a simple and elegant GUI frontend for youtube-dl, and I can report on good authority that it's awesome.



Basically it works by copying a video link to the clipboard, launching the app, and pasting the URL in the text field. You can also assign a hotkey (with a tool like Spark) and use it to launch PPCMC QuickLaunch.app which makes the URL pasting automatic. More on that in the documentation. Either way, you'll see three buttons, all of which are fairly descriptive. From my testing on Youtube, the download and streaming buttons will give you choices of quality and then you're on your way. Streaming opens in Quicktime (Perian plug-in recommended), and the download button opens a Terminal window to show your progress. The "Check for Updates" button did just that and asked my administrative password to update youtube-dl in my /usr/local/bin.

All that and a cool icon.

Another cool thing, this being Applescript, is you can edit the script inside the app package with Script Editor.app. There's a little about adding site quality profiles in the documentation, and I wonder if it's super complicated to change the player from Quicktime to VLC or Mplayer. As the documentation notes, if you do make changes use the "Save" and not "Save As" command to avoid damaging the app bundle, and keep a backup copy of the original.

Download PPC Media Center here:

(1/20/2020: Final update - universal binary. Consult the Read Me for all the updated features.)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1ukk0tw6sj129m0/PPCMediaCenter.zip/file

One more note, you may notice on the right I've added a new link to my blogroll. It's Mac OS 9 Lives, and it has a special focus on audio workstations and music producing which was always a strength of the classic Mac OS and still is. They also have an active forum section, so go check them out!