New subject: Configuration Profiles vs Plist file diddling

1 Jun 2013

      (I cross-posted the message below to the OVAL developer list, but had to 
trim it to under 40k and re-post for this list)

It sounds like, since the profile information is not resident on disk in 
the form of a plist, XML or text file, there's a need for a new test in 
the OVAL Mac schema -- a i.e., a profile_test, which would extract the 
profile as described below.  Such a test could be designed like the 
upcoming plist511_test, to use XPATH to query the profile.

If so, I would strongly urge interested parties to bring such a 
recommendation to the attention of the OVAL board, so that it will be 
possible to create useful SCAP content by the time OVAL 5.11 is 
finalized.  Otherwise, an even longer wait will be ahead of us all.

Regards,
--David Solin
...
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [SCAP-On-Apple-Dev] Configuration Profiles vs Plist file 
diddling
Date: 	Fri, 31 May 2013 18:24:27 -0400
From: 	Josh Wisenbaker <dubs@apple.com>
To: 	Haynes, Dan <dhaynes@mitre.org>
CC: 	scap-on-apple-dev@lists.macosforge.org 
<scap-on-apple-dev@lists.macosforge.org>, OVAL <oval@mitre.org>
I think that there needs to be a bit of a mental reset as to how to 
validate settings on the Mac as checking on-disk files doesn't 
actually verify much and it really hasn't for some time now. For 
example let's take a look at the loginwindow settings. The current 
tests would look at a file to see if the settings are there.
On my test Mac I have the test profile that I made installed. Because 
I'm doing things with policy, it doesn't exist in the plists or domains.
server:~ localadmin$ defaults -currentHost read com.apple.loginwindow
{
    TALAppsToRelaunchAtLogin = (
                {
            BackgroundState = 2;
            BundleID = "com.apple.terminal";
            Hide = 0;
            Path = "/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app";
        },
                {
            BackgroundState = 2;
            BundleID = "com.apple.finder";
            Hide = 0;
            Path = "/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app";
        }
    );
}
Lets try another!
server:~ localadmin$ defaults read 
 /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
{
    OptimizerLastRunForBuild = 25364928;
    OptimizerLastRunForSystem = 168297216;
    lastUser = loggedIn;
    lastUserName = localadmin;
}
Hmm. Not there either. Maybe just the basic domain?
server:~ localadmin$ defaults read com.apple.loginwindow
{
    TALLogoutReason = Restart;
}
No. Not there either! Well crap. Logging out though shows me that the 
settings are applied!
I can't really check the mobileconfig files either since they get 
turned into a binary blob upon installation 
in /var/db/ConfigurationProfiles/Store
So what can I do?
Well the first thing is that we can ask if there are profiles installed!
server:~ localadmin$ profiles -H
profiles are installed on this system
Sweet! But now what?
Now we actually have several options, the easiest is to grab the 
profile data right from the profiles command as XML. You can also get 
this from system_profiler, and if you are using directory services 
based policy you can get it from dscl or mcxquerey as well.
server:~ localadmin$ sudo profiles -Pv -o Output.xml
profiles: verbose mode ON
profiles: outputPath = Output.xml
There are 1 configuration profiles installed
pass
server:~ localadmin$ less Output.xml
SNIP…
<dict>
      <key>PayloadContent</key>
      <dict>
<key>loginWindowIdleTime</key>
              <integer>900</integer>
<key>loginWindowModulePath</key>
              <string>/System/Library/Screen Savers/Flurry.saver</string>
      </dict>
      <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
      <string>Login Window:  Screen Saver Preferences</string>
      <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.mdm.server.example.private.a55249a0-ab8d-0130-272f-001c42d3e5bf.alacarte.loginwindow.6e51c520-ab8e-0130-2731-001c42d3e5bf.screensaver</string>
      <key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.apple.screensaver</string>
      <key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>42a5182d-2af5-dfa8-16b8-d3a3a88c37fb</string>
      <key>PayloadVersion</key>
      <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
…SNIP
As we can see, the only way to tell if this policy has been applied 
with a modern method like a configuration profile is to check using 
tools that are configuration profile aware.
For settings that use profiles this makes everything much simpler. You 
can simply ask for the output of the profiles command and then parse 
it with XPath or what not. You get all the settings in one place and 
you don't need to run around tracking down config files.
Thanks,
Josh
-- 
Josh Wisenbaker
Consulting Engineer - Apple U.S. Commercial and Governmental Sales
dubs@apple.com <mailto:dubs@apple.com>
-- 

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Re: [SCAP-On-Apple-Dev] Configuration Profiles vs Plist file diddling

David Solin

Haynes, Dan

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