This week’s XProtect update is important in extending its ability to check scripts now popular in malware. These are run when macOS is preparing to run a script.
AppleScript
Apple’s developer websites refer to macOS Tahoe as 16.0. Does that mean it’s not really 26 at all? How to check the version number so you get the answer you want.
Includes HyperTalk, UserTalk, AppleScript, Prograph, shell scripts, Automator, Swift Playgrounds and Shortcuts, from 1987 to the present.
Although viruses native to the Mac arrived slightly later, by the end of the 1990s there were at least 35. Here’s a brief look at the tools available then.
HyperTalk, AppleScript, Prograph, Automator, Swift Playgrounds and Shortcuts – all wonderful tools in their day, but none has brought coding to the crowd.
Where would you set the default call handler for macOS? And where in System Settings do you set the default web browser?
If you want to write to the macOS log from a script, you used to be able to use logger. Although it still works, here’s a more flexible alternative.
Some system-wide settings are hidden away in the preferences of bundled apps. Here’s a list of where to look for those and others which aren’t easy to find.
Shortcuts in Monterey works in different ways to ensure that it can’t be used as a malware platform. This introduction shows how this works transparently.
October 1993: AppleScript for the Mac.
April 2005: Automator for the Mac.
September 2018: Shortcuts for iOS.
October 2021: Shortcuts for macOS.
The Eclectic Light Company 