Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
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@LoneLocust i feel like Apple should be FORCED to unlock this when a user deletes a device from their appleID devices list.
@codemonkeymike but if Apple can remove the lock then surely it’s equally possible that someone else could too which would sort of defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?
Certainly, I would agree that if a person goes through the steps to wipe the machine to give it away or sell then that process should absolutely remove all of the security locks from the machine.
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@codemonkeymike @ottaross But I *love* that thieves are disincentivized, just like with iPhones.
If I understand, you need the original user to remove the lock before donating, but they don’t know? I wonder if Apple could build in a feature like “contact this locked machine’s registered account holder and ask if they’re really done with it”. Then I could approve if I really donated/sold it, or click “absolutely not, brick it forever w/o my password” if I didn’t. (Hmm, how could that be abused?)
@sidb Sadly Apple doesn't show interest in helping unlock.
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@sidb Sadly Apple doesn't show interest in helping unlock.
@ottaross Yeah, they fall down on a lot of things lately
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@ottaross Yeah, they fall down on a lot of things lately
@sidb Sadly so.
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@sidb Sadly Apple doesn't show interest in helping unlock.
@ottaross Still, I don’t think the lock feature itself is villainous. Would be nice if they could do something for locked donations though, at least if the owner it’s locked to can be contacted.
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@cygnathreadbare thing is.. the t2 disables ANY boot from USB.. so you need to set the boot security to none.. but you can only do that from inside the recovery center.. which.. you guessed it.. you need to authenticate to even use.
@codemonkeymike uggh that's awful, I expected you to just be unable to log in on a new mac os installation but at least be able to use something else there
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@paulywill they can.. of course. But you need to unlock the bootloader to do that.. and you can't do that while its locked
That's the entire issue..
@codemonkeymike @paulywill What exactly keeps the bootloader locked ?
If its a password or a config, or anything that is runtime change-able, it is then kept alive by the onboard battery.
So cutting off ALL available power should hard reset the thing.The only way around this is if Apple hard coded the lock/password/whatever on a silicon level.
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@coldclimate it really hurts every one of my brain cells. How could they not have thought about this?
@codemonkeymike @coldclimate Well. The use case they were trying to solve for was someone steals your laptop and tries to access it without your permission.
Hard part is getting owners to unlock it before donating/selling to someone else.
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Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
Without donor contact, these machines are useless.
I've upcycled ~1,000 older Macs, but T2 era machines will end that. It's controlling, creates e-waste, and will only get worse. #righttorepair matters — Apple couldn't care less.
@codemonkeymike counterpoint is that it's preventing theft so...
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
Without donor contact, these machines are useless.
I've upcycled ~1,000 older Macs, but T2 era machines will end that. It's controlling, creates e-waste, and will only get worse. #righttorepair matters — Apple couldn't care less.
@codemonkeymike @xeno oh dear, that's quite the fancy stack of paperweights
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Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
Without donor contact, these machines are useless.
I've upcycled ~1,000 older Macs, but T2 era machines will end that. It's controlling, creates e-waste, and will only get worse. #righttorepair matters — Apple couldn't care less.
@codemonkeymike what the fuck
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Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
Without donor contact, these machines are useless.
I've upcycled ~1,000 older Macs, but T2 era machines will end that. It's controlling, creates e-waste, and will only get worse. #righttorepair matters — Apple couldn't care less.
@codemonkeymike The sad part of this too is most #Apple Macs post T2 might not be suitable collectors items because of this. I own a lot vintage era #PowerBook G4's and G3's and there were times where I might want to reinstall OS X. Doing that is next to impossible on devices like this. Not to mention, even pre-T2 machines, if you don't use them for a while they lock you out requiring resetting the password through recovery.
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Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
Without donor contact, these machines are useless.
I've upcycled ~1,000 older Macs, but T2 era machines will end that. It's controlling, creates e-waste, and will only get worse. #righttorepair matters — Apple couldn't care less.
@codemonkeymike Android tablets are exactly the same, by the way.
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Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
Without donor contact, these machines are useless.
I've upcycled ~1,000 older Macs, but T2 era machines will end that. It's controlling, creates e-waste, and will only get worse. #righttorepair matters — Apple couldn't care less.
@codemonkeymike @bigzaphod Doesn’t Apple have a program that will remove activation lock if you can prove provenance of the device?
TBH it’s also poor educating of the donors on Apple’s part that this step must be done prior to donating.
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@Victorsigmoid have you seen the video of that? I just watched it and holy shit its intense haha.
I mean I AM considering it.. but what a nightmare.. its' super time consuming.. and you still need another up to date mac to hook it up to in DFW mode..
So even after ALL that.. you still end up needing a current Mac.. god i hate them
@codemonkeymike Yes it looked like something to undertake if and only if the plan is to learn it as a skill then use it for a while. If I had a few months' worth of laptops to liberate, though, it would be a fun challenge. Plus the desoldering and resoldering is a skill applicable to other repair and analysis. I think Matt Brown's hardware pen testing videos have gotten to me!
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@codemonkeymike
I'll be curious to see that, do you have a link to it?
@Victorsigmoid -
@codemonkeymike @paulywill What exactly keeps the bootloader locked ?
If its a password or a config, or anything that is runtime change-able, it is then kept alive by the onboard battery.
So cutting off ALL available power should hard reset the thing.The only way around this is if Apple hard coded the lock/password/whatever on a silicon level.
@yama @codemonkeymike @paulywill
It's in non-volatile memory (EEPROM) embedded in the chipset. It won't forget for 100 years. -
Another reason to hate #Apple We're seeing more 2018+ MacBook Pro/Air donations — but Apple's T2 chip means even after iCloud sign-out and reset, the firmware stays locked to the original account.
Without donor contact, these machines are useless.
I've upcycled ~1,000 older Macs, but T2 era machines will end that. It's controlling, creates e-waste, and will only get worse. #righttorepair matters — Apple couldn't care less.
@codemonkeymike I've had go stop taking most idevices because even after resetting them they end up being locked to a schools activation server which makes them unusable
So they all end up going to recycle -
@codemonkeymike @paulywill What exactly keeps the bootloader locked ?
If its a password or a config, or anything that is runtime change-able, it is then kept alive by the onboard battery.
So cutting off ALL available power should hard reset the thing.The only way around this is if Apple hard coded the lock/password/whatever on a silicon level.
@yama @codemonkeymike @paulywill Why would they put it in volatile storage kept alive with a battery, if they have flash memory?
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L limebar@mastodon.social shared this topic
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@codemonkeymike but if Apple can remove the lock then surely it’s equally possible that someone else could too which would sort of defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?
Certainly, I would agree that if a person goes through the steps to wipe the machine to give it away or sell then that process should absolutely remove all of the security locks from the machine.
@LoneLocust @codemonkeymike no, only Apple can clear it from their server database.
