Bruce Mann

Q: Little Snitch intercepted "Noticeboard wants to connect to swscan.apple.com" Legit?

I have Little Snitch monitor for new connection requests. For the first time, something called "noticeboard" is trying to connect to swscan.apple.com. I assume (hope) this is legit since swscan.apple.com is used for upgrades. But I've never seen it before. I've searched high and low and cannot find what "noticeboard" is.  I assume it's some inner workings of the OS, but would love to know for sure. Thank you.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 14, 2014 6:12 PM

Close

Q: Little Snitch intercepted "Noticeboard wants to connect to swscan.apple.com" Legit?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next
  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 Mar 30, 2014 1:59 PM in response to shape
    Level 5 (4,791 points)
    Mar 30, 2014 1:59 PM in response to shape

    shape wrote:

     

    actually, I've been on Lion for over a year and this app just popped up after the last software update.

    Yes, it's a brand new feature added to the AppStore.

     

    So you did get a popup in Lion? Was it the same "ad" for Mavericks?

  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 Mar 30, 2014 1:57 PM in response to WZZZ
    Level 5 (4,791 points)
    Mar 30, 2014 1:57 PM in response to WZZZ

    WZZZ wrote:

     

    With the Snow user base still hovering around 20%, my guess is they want to move everyone off Snow. Hence the annoying reminders.

    Exactly my thoughts, as well.

    Two ways to look at this, if what I say is true: another Snow security update might still be forthcoming until they get that user base down to what they consider to be an acceptable minimum. Or it means, "you've had your chance."

    I'd be surprised to see another security update, but then I was surprised by the last one. XProtect is still receiving updates when appropriate (there have been a couple that don't run on SL) but they had a chance to update Java SE 6 one more time and did not.

  • by professortiki,

    professortiki professortiki Mar 31, 2014 3:41 AM in response to Bruce Mann
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 3:41 AM in response to Bruce Mann

    BTW: I didn't notice any noticeboards alerts for the last 3 days. It seems to have stopped.

  • by David Cun,

    David Cun David Cun Mar 31, 2014 7:25 AM in response to MadMacs0
    Level 4 (1,430 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 7:25 AM in response to MadMacs0

    Am I wrong in thinking that one only gets the popup if one has Little Snitch?  That, otherwise, "Noticeboard" connects to "swscan.apple.com"  anyway; on its own; in the background?

  • by WZZZ,

    WZZZ WZZZ Mar 31, 2014 7:33 AM in response to David Cun
    Level 6 (13,087 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 31, 2014 7:33 AM in response to David Cun

    Depends what you mean by pop-up. Whether you meant the Little Snitch pop-up asking to deny or allow, or the Noticeboard pop-up.

     

    Yes, that's wrong. What Little Snitch does is prevent the outgoing connection that Noticeboard wants to make to Apple. So, it's just the opposite: if you have LS set to deny that connection, you won't get the pop-up.

     

    http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 Mar 31, 2014 9:57 AM in response to professortiki
    Level 5 (4,791 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 9:57 AM in response to professortiki

    professortiki wrote:

     

    BTW: I didn't notice any noticeboards alerts for the last 3 days. It seems to have stopped.

    You won't necessarily get an alert every time it checks for new ones. Messages may be one-time or there may be an specific interval for repeat messages.

  • by professortiki,

    professortiki professortiki Mar 31, 2014 11:54 AM in response to David Cun
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 11:54 AM in response to David Cun
    Am I wrong in thinking that one only gets the popup if one has Little Snitch?  That, otherwise, "Noticeboard" connects to "swscan.apple.com"  anyway; on its own; in the background?

     

     

     

    You are exactly not wrong!

  • by professortiki,

    professortiki professortiki Mar 31, 2014 11:55 AM in response to MadMacs0
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 11:55 AM in response to MadMacs0

    MadMacs0 wrote:

     

    You won't necessarily get an alert every time it checks for new ones. Messages may be one-time or there may be an specific interval for repeat messages.

    It used to be a six hours interval in the first few weeks. Now this stopped completely.

  • by professortiki,

    professortiki professortiki Mar 31, 2014 11:57 AM in response to Bruce Mann
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 11:57 AM in response to Bruce Mann

    <deleted>

  • by shape,

    shape shape Mar 31, 2014 12:03 PM in response to professortiki
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 31, 2014 12:03 PM in response to professortiki

    but would they gain anything from knowing who runs Little Snitch? It doesn't interfere with their business/products afaik, at least none of the Apple apps i use, and it's legal software.

  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 Mar 31, 2014 12:52 PM in response to professortiki
    Level 5 (4,791 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 12:52 PM in response to professortiki

    professortiki wrote:


    It used to be a six hours interval in the first few weeks. Now this stopped completely.

    I must have missed how long this has been going on for you and if you have done anything overtly to stop them. I know you attempted to throw the Framework overboard which was a mistake and you seem to be familiar with Little Snitch.

     

    I was under the impression that this just started a couple of weeks ago, around 3/13, but now I see there was an earlier update for the App Store that I haven't examined back on 2/19.

     

    Are you using LS to block contacts with swscan.apple.com? If so, you need to be careful with that as it's the same server that provides information on all your OS X Software Updates.

  • by Bruce Mann,Solvedanswer

    Bruce Mann Bruce Mann Mar 31, 2014 1:39 PM in response to Bruce Mann
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 1:39 PM in response to Bruce Mann

    Thank you all for your comments. My original concern was simply whether the communication related to Noticeboard was legitimate (i.e. Apple). Regardless of whether it is a GOOD communication, or something desired or not, I'm now convinced that it is legitimately an Apple thing and not non-Apple malware of some sort. My question was answered and again, thanks to all.

  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 Mar 31, 2014 4:31 PM in response to professortiki
    Level 5 (4,791 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 4:31 PM in response to professortiki

    Just to follow up on the Mac App Store Update provided on 2/19. It did not contain the noticeboard.app and appears to have been for Mountain Lion only. It does, however, contain a unix executable process called maspushagent that could possibly have a similar capability. I see that Mavericks has this same process, but Snow Leopard does not.

  • by romad,

    romad romad Apr 3, 2014 1:08 PM in response to MadMacs0
    Level 3 (626 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 3, 2014 1:08 PM in response to MadMacs0

    I got it also on Lion and, yes, it was for Mavericks.

  • by eric97,

    eric97 eric97 Apr 4, 2014 10:59 AM in response to MadMacs0
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2014 10:59 AM in response to MadMacs0

    MadMacs0 wrote:

     

    I would encourage everybody that thinks helping you to upgrade to Mavericks is the wrong approach to let Apple know directly since they are unlikely to read this. Give them you feedback here.

     

    What category (or categories) would you recommend filing it under?

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next