OS X :: Snow Leopard Firewall In Stealth Mode But Responding To Ping Requests?
Apr 19, 2010
I've just tried running the security test on the Shields Up! site, and I note that even though my firewall is in stealth mode (and Shields Up! reported that all the ports it probed were stealthed), it failed the test because it replied to an ICMP ping request - and yet the Snow Leopard firewall specifically states that when it's in stealth mode, it won't respond to such requests.
I have the software firewall on and in stealth mode; the online modem Firewall Setting must be at "Minimum Security (Low)" because if I use "Medium" or "High" my e-mail message center in Safari Version 5.1.5 (6534.55.3) times out. I ran GRC's Shields Up and my computer failed the "Ping reply" test. Here's the result:
Ping Reply: RECEIVED (FAILED) — Your system REPLIED to our Ping (ICMP Echo) requests, making it visible on the Internet. Most personal firewalls can be configured to block, drop, and ignore such ping requests in order to better hide systems from hackers. This is highly recommended since "Ping" is among the oldest and most common methods used to locate systems prior to further exploitation.
I have been having somewhat sketchy network problems since upgrading to Snow Leopard the biggest one is that large updates to Time Machine fail with a network error. So I have been doing some digging and I noticed on my stats at OpenDNS that since installing Snow Leopard the requests to time.apple.com have gone from 175/day (already more than necessary) to 1745/day. Also the requests made by OpenDNS updater to myip.dnsomatic.com have gone from 36/day to 1462/day.
So just out of curiosity I was messing around in system profiler tonight and happened on the firewall tab. Never really took a look to see what it said until tonight. I have stealth mode enabled, and have ever since I installed SL but the profiler seems to think otherwise?
We keep getting requests to upgrade our Trusteer Rapport program. It says this protects against phishing attacks and provides credit card theft protection.
After upgrading to Snow Leopard (SR MBP), I've experienced unusually high and unpredictable latency from the airport connection. The Ethernet connection works fine (consistent and short ping times to the wireless router), but the airport connection's ping times vary wildly. A different MBP (unibody) on Leopard does not have this problem with the same router (so it seems unlikely that the router is at fault), and I did not have this problem before my upgrading. Programs such as Skype that require a steady stream of information are now unusable. Does Archive and Install work for downgrades?
I have an issue with my Windows 7 Client's they can connect my VPN SLS 10.6.8 but I tried to ping the server IP and get no answer.
Replay from x.x.x.x: Destination host unreachable. I did all registry changes for W7 Ultimate 64bits but no chance. All my Mac's work fine with all server services.
Info: Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), MAC and Windows 7 clients
I got into single user mode to use Applejack, which was recommended for repairing disk permissions to clean up my hard drive. The 'exit' command didn't work, so I tried 'logout' - and now it's frozen. how I can get things working again?
I got an iPod Touch today and I'm while I was testing out some apps I noticed that I cannot connect to my MacBook Pro.
If I try to ping it I get no response. Going to the Mac's address in a browser (web sharing is on) I don't get any response either. I cannot connect to for file sharing either. I have turned off the firewall in OS X and rebooted the computer with no change. All sharing options are enabled. If I run "sudo ipfw list" I get this: "65535 allow ip from any to any".
It appears however that Snow Leopard allows connection from outside the local network, as Internet, BitTorrent, Mail etc. works as usual.
I've tried turning the firewall off in the router but connections are still blocked.
I want to stream music and photos from my Macpro running 10.6.8 to my AppleTV, however, it seemed like the only way I could get it to work was to turn off my Firewall. Is there a way to give my AppleTV access to my Mac without having to turn off the Firewall?
I did a bit of reading on the internet, and it looks like most computers will not boot into 32-bit mode by default with 10.6. It appears that if while booting the user holds the 6 and 4 keys, the computer will boot into 64-bit mode.
Does anyone know anything about this? Will the computer always boot into 64-bit mode if this is done once? Will it even make a difference? Will the average user want to do this?
Every time I want to shut down My mac Book Pro, I can not because CoreMIDI not responding, unless I force to quit coremidi. I am not shure, if I have to install coremidi again,or do something else. My problem is that I'm not even shure if CoreMIDI is part of the Apple software.
I have spaces assigned to my mouse buttons and one day it stopped working. I assumed my mouse button went bad until I tried another mouse. The button is assigned correctly spaces just doesn't respond to it...sometimes. Sometimes it works find. Has anyone else had this? I'm trying to narrow down if its my system or not.
Apple Software Update produces following error when checking for new software: software update server (172.22.4.3) is not responding! Is there a way to select a different server?
I was going to delete something in trash and suddenly finder stopped responding. I don't want to break it. I've thought I should restart the computer or somehow fix it in disk utility... but I don't remember how...
I can still open the other programs just you know, the whole finder not responding..
I have Mac Intel Base running OS 10.6.8. Finder seems to be corrupt. I have checked the system and it seems to be working properly. However, my Mouse and keyboard stop responding when I relaunch finder, and I have a very slow start up time (10 to 15 minutes till the mouse and keyboard respond). I ran Disk Warrior and got a lot of permission and file errors. Disk Warrior says they are fixed, but every time I run Disk Warrior or Disk Utility the same errors keep showing up. Trying to go to safe mode to check to see if extensions are an issue doesn't work because mouse and keyboard do not respond so I can't log in.
I am having trouble starting my 21" iMac running Snow Leopard after I had shared the HD with my MB-Pro. I had removed the "everyone - Read Only" rights on the HD (on the iMac) and opened sharing so my MB could attach to it. Grey Apple Logo and progress circle upon startup now.Can changing these rights cause the system to not boot? I can go into single user mode but I am not sure what to do then.
Just partitioned 150gb for bootcamp on my 1TB HDD. I installed XP Media Center OEM without a problem at all. I then put the snow leopard disk in and it autoexec'd and then looked like it was installing stuff. Then it went to screensaver and would not respond to keyboard or mouse input.
Internet working OK. Software Update produces the regular display with a dropdown panel containing "The Software Update Server (su.ccukdev.net) is not responding." and two choices "Network Diagnostics" and "Quit". The Network checks out OK.
I'm having some problems with Snow Leopard, in 64 bit mode. Is there a way to turn it to 32 bit ? I'm using a Mac mini 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo with 4 GB (the max it will ever have), so I don't think it needs 64 bit.
Is there any advantage/disadvantage to run in 32 bit, if you just have 4 GB of ram ?