macOS High Sierra bug allows full admin access without a password

If you’re using Apple’s latest macOS High Sierra, you’ll want to be wary of giving people access to your computer. Initially tweeted by developer Lemi Orhan Ergin, there’s a super-easy exploit that can give anyone gain admin (or root) rights to your Mac. Engadget has confirmed that you can gain root access in the login screen, the System Preferences Users & Groups tab and File Vault with this method. All you need to do is enter “root” into the username field, leave the password blank, and hit Enter a few times. Needless to say, this is some scary stuff.

Root access allows someone to access your machine as a “superuser” with read and write privileges to many ore system files, including those in other macOS accounts. Luckily, the fix is fairly easy. As developer Colourmeamused tweeted, you need to set a root password:

Everyone with a Mac needs to set a root password NOW.
As a user with admin access, type the following command from the Terminal.

sudo passwd -u root

Enter your password then a new password for the root user.
Anyone got a better fix?@SwiftOnSecurity @rotophonic @pwnallthethings

— colourmeamused (@colourmeamused_) November 28, 2017

Engadget has confirmed that this will secure your macOS High Sierra machine, and keep people from gaining root access as above. We’ve reached out to Apple and will update this post when we hear back.

Via: The Register

Source: Lemi Orhan Ergin (Twitter), Colourmeamused (Twitter)

Google finally fixes the burger emoji

After a long wait, Google has finally done the right thing. We’re talking, of course, about fixing its burger emoji illustration so that the cheese is on top of the patty, like it should be. Granted, that may seem like a very small thing to worry about, but people were so salty over the mis-drawing that Google CEO Sundar Pichai promised to “drop everything and address” it this past October 28th. The change comes along with a few other emoji fixes in the Android 8.1 developer preview, which is available now.

In addition to righting the cheese placement-wrong, the new beta also contains updated emojis for “Beer” and “Beers,” filling up the steins so that the frothy head makes much more sense. The “Cheese” emoji gets a more three-dimensional look as well, which should please fans of fromage the world over. As Emojipedia notes, this is of course a beta update, which means that the changes may not be final (though we surely hope the burger stays fixed for all our sakes).

Source: Emojipedia

Google patents a motorized Chromebook hinge that can open itself

If you’ve been struggling to open your own laptop each day, a new patent granted to Google for its Pixel line of notebook computers may be just what you need. Titled “Notebook Computer with Motorized Display Positioning,” the patent shows a motorized hinge that will open the display with some sort of touch on the top of the portable computer. The patent also mentions sensors that can detect users from specific distances as well as detect your face so the display can adjust its angle automatically.

While having your laptop opened for you seems a bit on the lazy side of things, such a feature could help users with limited mobility or motor control use portable computers more successfully. The second feature has some promise, though. As noted in the patent itself, a user-facing camera could detect your chin, which would give the notebook’s motor a cue to shift the display so that your entire face is in the camera view, thus giving you a better view angle. The patent, originally spotted by Patently Mobile, was filed in October of 2013, so whether this will show up on your next Pixelbook is anyone’s guess.

Via: The Verge, Patently Mobile

Source: US Patent Office

Major macOS High Sierra Bug Allows Full Admin Access Without Password – How to Fix

There appears to be a serious bug in macOS High Sierra that enables the root superuser on a Mac with with a blank password and no security check.

The bug, discovered by developer Lemi Ergin, lets anyone log into an admin account using the username “root” with no password. This works when attempting to access an administrator’s account on an unlocked Mac, and it also provides access at the login screen of a locked Mac.

To replicate, follow these steps from any kind of Mac account, admin or guest:

1. Open System Preferences
2. Choose Users & Groups
3. Click the lock to make changes
4. Type “root” in the username field
5. Move the mouse to the Password field and click there, but leave it blank
6. Click unlock, and it should allow you full access to add a new administrator account.

At the login screen, you can also use the root trick to gain access to a Mac after the feature has been enabled in System Preferences. At the login screen, click “Other,” and then enter “root” again with no password.

This allows for admin-level access directly from the locked login screen, with the account able to see everything on the computer.

It appears that this bug is present in the current version of macOS High Sierra, 10.13.1, and the macOS 10.13.2 beta that is in testing at the moment. It’s not clear how such a significant bug got past Apple, but it’s likely this is something that the company will immediately address.

Until the issue is fixed, you can enable a root account with a password to prevent the bug from working. We have a full how to with a complete rundown on the steps available here.

Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
Discuss this article in our forums

Here’s How to Temporarily Fix the macOS High Sierra Bug That Gives Full Admin Access to Your Mac Sans Password

A newly discovered bug in macOS High Sierra enables the root superuser on a Mac with a blank password and no security check, essentially giving anyone full access to your Mac.

Apple is likely already working on a fix, but in the meantime, there’s a temporary workaround — enabling the root user with a password. Here’s how:

Open System Preferences.
Choose Users & Groups.
Click on the lock to make changes.
Enter your administrator name and password.
Click on “Login Options.”
Choose “Join” at the bottom of the window.
Select “Open Directory Utility.”
Click on the lock to make changes and enter your username and password.
At the top of the menu bar, choose “Edit.”
Select “Enable Root User.”

From there, you can enter a password for the root user account, which prevents it from being accessed with a blank password, which is what the current bug allows to happen.

Disabling the root user account again follows the same steps, but at the “Edit” portion of the process, you’ll select “Disable Root User” to remove the option. Until the bug is fixed, though, you’ll want to leave the root user account intact to prevent it from being accessed without a password.

To further protect your Mac, you can also disable guest accounts, though this is not a necessary step with a root password enabled. Guest accounts can be disabled by going to System Preferences > Users & Groups and choosing “Guest User” after entering your admin password. Disable “Allow guests to log in to this computer.”

Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
Discuss this article in our forums

Keecker, the projector-packing robotic butler, is now available for purchase

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, this projector is pretty sweet, but I really wish it had wheels so it could follow me around and play YouTube videos on the empty walls of my apartment”?

Perhaps not, since that’s a fairly ridiculous thing to think to yourself. But somebody else did think that, and he was crazy determined enough to actually follow through on this absurd idea and make it a reality. After teasing the world with an early prototype three years ago, Pierre Labeau’s robotic butler/entertainment system known as Keecker is finally available for purchase.

The device is a bit of an oddity. Aesthetically, it looks like the misshapen egg that would be laid if R2D2 impregnated a brontosaurus, and the functions it performs are pretty much what you’d expect from such an unholy union. In addition to a veritable boatload of sensor tech, Keecker is equipped with a self-adjusting HD projector and a 360-degree sound system under the hood. On top of that, the bot sports over a terabyte of local storage for movies, music, and games, and it can also connect to the internet to play content from websites and streaming services. It also allows for voice commands, and works with Google Home and Alexa.

But it’s more than just an egg-shaped media center. Keecker is also outfitted with a set of wheels, a camera, and special navigation software that allows it to follow you around the house. The idea is that, instead of you getting up and physically moving yourself to wherever your home theater might be, you can use your smartphone to summon Keecker to the spot you happen to be in.

And it gets better — Keecker can also function as an adorable little security system. Its camera, sensors, and network connectivity allow you to tap into the video feed from your smartphone, and drive the little bot around your house from anywhere in the world.

“Keecker simplifies the technology experience by providing a central multimedia hub for entertainment and communication,” explained Pierre Lebeau, CEO and founder of Keecker. “It’s very easy to become consumed by our individual devices, but Keecker is designed to do just the opposite – to bring people together to share a collective, immersive experience.”

Be warned, though — Keecker isn’t exactly an accessible piece of technology in terms of its price, as it starts at $1,790. But hey, the heart wants what the heart wants, and Keecker may just fulfill some techies’ dreams.

Update: Keecker is now available for purchase. 

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‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ is coming to mobile, but there’s a catch

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is among the most popular games of 2017 even though it hasn’t “officially” released, but as of December, the game is only available on PC and Xbox One. That will soon change, however, as Chinese company Tencent will be releasing a mobile version of the game.

The new mobile version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will be a joint production between Tencent and the original game’s development team, and it will, at least initially, only be available in China. The goal is for the mobile experience to be as close to its PC and console counterparts as possible. In the announcement, Tencent said that the game’s shooting controls and “social networking” — likely referring to in-game messaging — would be optimized for mobile devices.

Tencent is no stranger to the mobile gaming space, and it’s possible that the mobile PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds could eventually make its way outside of China. The company’s Honor of Kings, which has a player count of over 200 million people, will be releasing for the Nintendo Switch in other regions as Arena of Battle. Though it would likely be too taxing on the Switch’s hardware to run the full version of Battlegrounds, it’s possible the mobile version could come to the platform. With the Switch still selling like hotcakes, it’s a user base itching to get its hands on another big-name multiplayer title after the success of games like Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has already sold more than 13 million copies in its early access state, and it managed to break a concurrent Steam user record with nearly 3 million people online playing at the same time — that’s more than twice the record set by Dota 2 in 2016, and more than eight times the number of concurrent Grand Theft Auto V players. It has only continued to gain, well, “steam” since then, and with its launch on the Xbox One, sales should be substantially higher. The console version of the game will offer a similar experience to its PC sibling, and Xbox One X players will be able to take advantage of HDR support. The game will launch as part of the Xbox Preview program on December 12.

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Where was I? Timeline puts your Windows desktop right back the way you left it

Windows Timeline is a new feature coming to the Microsoft desktop (at last!) that should make organizing your desktop much easier. It will eventually be paired with the freshly announced Sets, a promising way to group associated items from your history so you can instantly restore any project you’re working on — the windows you were looking at, the apps you had open, the websites you forgot to bookmark, and more.

Both are the culmination of two to three years’ work, and they couldn’t quite make it into the Fall Creators Update. They are logical upgrades, and exciting for Windows enthusiasts; still, Insiders may need to curb their enthusiasm. While the Timeline feature is rolling out to all Insiders in the next Fast Ring build, Sets won’t appear but for a lucky few.

People do a lot of things with their laptops. We think there’s an opportunity to organize it better.

As part of a unique new approach to testing features like Windows Sets, Microsoft will roll Sets out to only a limited subset of Windows Insiders. Insiders are serious fanatics, folks eager for the latest and greatest build regardless of the potential problems and bugs that might crop up from freshly developed, untested developer code. They’re dying for stuff like this. Many will have to wait. There’s a strategy beyond this plan, of course: It lets the company measure who’s happy with the feature, and who’s more productive with it. But it’s guaranteed to frustrate people.

Getting in sync with Timeline

Timeline is a re-think of what a computer is used for. People used to be concerned with “storage” — organizing files into folders, backing them up to specific locations, on specific devices. Today, with computing spanning laptops, tablets, phones, and game consoles, the specific storage location and folder a file sits in is far less relevant. What matters is “when” instead of “where.” As in, “last night when I was working on that new campaign, I had these windows open.”

Windows Timeline lets you move back in time, regardless of which device you’re using, thanks to Cortana on Android and iOS (the virtual assistant already helps tie the platforms together for sharing reminders, and lets you see Android notifications on Windows 10 machines). Basically, people do a lot of things with their laptops. Microsoft think there’s an opportunity to organize it better.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because time-based features have appeared before. Windows lets you restore individual files or your entire OS to an earlier point in time if you accidentally deleted some key stuff, or mucked up your computer. So does MacOS, thanks to features like Time Machine and Continuity. Chrome, and other browsers, can automatically restore your tabs when you open a new window, and various extensions can track sessions between devices.

The interface is minimalist, but logical, and tied into the Task View icon that already sits next to Cortana and the Windows menu icon in your menu bar. Click it today, and you’ll see a zoomed-out view of your workspace, where you can create virtual desktops with different active windows that you can switch between.

Click it with the Timeline feature on and you’ll see a different experience. Multiple desktops still sit at the top, but the right side of the screen has a scroll bar with times and dates. Microsoft’s algorithms will even tease out six “hero” activities it thinks are the most important, based on minutes of use and other factors. These appear with thumbnails, making it easy to remember what you were up to.

Sets isn’t ready, yet sounds fascinating

Timeline looks promising on its own, and is proof that traditional desktop operating systems still have room for growth and innovation. Yet Timeline isn’t the end of Microsoft’s plan. The company’s engineers want to tie its time-based groupings into an interface that makes it easy to return to a project. The company has labeled this function “Sets,” though it’s so early in development that even the name is subject to change.

A Set is a group of related tasks. If you use the Timeline to re-open a Word document, Windows can automatically bring back the six browser windows you had open, the YouTube app and video you had paused in the background (you were being productive, right?), and a set of photos you were browsing.

Typically, Windows will ask if you want to restore them, but machine learning algorithms will be used to detect windows you always have open at once. Once it knows which ones belong together, it won’t even ask. Windows will just give it to you — like magic. If you don’t see what you want, you can search for a clock icon, which will let you restore a set of windows.

If you having a hard time visualizing this, we don’t blame you. Sets are innovative, and there’s little they can be compared to. When you think of it, though, it makes sense. You usually use a PC for a task – it might be as simple as shopping for Christmas gifts, or it might be as complex as coding new software. Either way, these tasks often involve multiple windows, even if they’re all sessions of the same browser. Timeline will already help you track what you did the day before, so why not break down that data into smaller, connected chunks?

We’re excited to see how Sets will turn out, but it’s very much a work in progress. As mentioned, it will only roll out to a small portion of Insiders initially. It also works only with UWP apps — those available from the Windows Store – to start, which limits their use. Microsoft plans to expand Sets to standard Win32 apps in early 2018. Eventually, support will come to Win32 apps with custom title bars. And much of the UI will be developed with the guidance of Windows Insiders.

That’s why some folks won’t get it at all. But hey, if you don’t see it, comfort yourself by knowing it’ll be more polished when you finally give it a try.

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Google’s slimmed-down YouTube Go app is officially out of beta

Google’s latest YouTube app — YouTube Go — is officially out of beta but is only available in select countries. The lightweight app allows users who have little internet bandwidth to watch videos offline while also being able to control their data.

The beta version was originally launched back in September, and Google described it as an app “built from scratch” to bring YouTube to “the next generation of viewers” — folks saddled, in other words, with unstable internet connections. It’s specifically created to work with slow speeds and a small amount of storage.

“We realized that for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer, we had to reimagine the YouTube mobile app from the ground up,” YouTube’s Vice President of Product Management Johanna Wright wrote in a blog post. “[Indian viewers’] experience is not great on slower connections and less powerful mobile phones.”

For those who want to keep track of the data being used, YouTube Go includes data-saving features. You can choose to download or watch videos, as well as preview them before committing to a download. The app also allows you to choose how many megabytes you use on videos.

With YouTube Go, you have the option to download the videos to your phone or SD card and can watch them even if you have slow or even no internet connection. You’re able to choose between basic quality, standard quality, and high quality before pressing play or choosing to download it instead.

Even with limited internet, videos should play without buffering and downloading content will have no extra data cost. If you want to share with friends and family, transferring videos also uses no data.

Not all of YouTube Go’s features are new, per se. In 2014, Google launched YouTube Offline, a setting within the YouTube app that lets users download videos. Smart Offline, which launched earlier this year, automatically schedules downloads on days and times when networks are least congested.

YouTube Go is available for download in the Google Play Store in select countries such as India, Indonesia, Egypt, and a few more. The app also works on Android 4.1, Jelly Bean and up.

Update: YouTube Go is officially out of beta and available in select countries 

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Samsung’s new SeeColor app adjusts hues to assist color-blind viewers

Being color blind doesn’t have to stop you from enjoying the many of the vivid hues in the world — at least, not by way of your Samsung television. This week, Samsung debuted a new app called SeeColors, compatible with all Samsung QLED television sets. The app is meant to help those with Color Vision Deficiency (CVD) not only diagnose their unique color perception challenges, but also adjust display color settings, giving them the opportunity to enjoy a viewing experience in full color.

“Samsung is committed to making people’s everyday lives smarter and more convenient through technology and innovation,” said Hyeongnam Kim, vice president of visual display at Samsung Electronics. “The launch of SeeColors for QLED TV embodies this mission by providing users with a way to address one of the world’s biggest optical challenges through the latest technologies and visual displays.”

While Samsung notes that nearly 300 million folks around the world live with CVD, many are not aware of the condition, and how their perception of color differs from others. But Samsung hopes to bring the world into sharp relief for these folks by way of the new app. SeeColors was developed in partnership with Professor Klara Wenzel of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Wenzel developed a tool known as C-Test, a “digital diagnosis test that uses the concept of color filters and mathematical modeling to diagnose levels of CVD,” as per a Samsung release. By integrating the C-Test in the SeeColors app, Samsung has given folks the ability to see the world (or their TV screens) in sharp color. Using the app, users can identify both the type and level of their CVD, and then recalibrate their TV based on the app’s results.

The SeeColors app is currently available for download (free of charge) from the Smart TV App store, or from the Google Play and the Galaxy App Store for Samsung Galaxy smartphones S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, S7, S7 edge and S8 devices. If you connect your Galaxy smartphone to your QLED TV, the television will instantly adjust color settings based on your smartphone readings.

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