dashboardadvisoryd wants to connect to www.apple.com.edgekey.net

Question

Level 1

9 points

dashboardadvisoryd wants to connect to www.apple.com.edgekey.net

Every couple of days or so, Li'l Snitch shows me the message in the title. "Show Details" is, as always, completely useless. The format of the message suggests that it is a system utility looking for updates, but it is not connecting to an Apple.com site but something extra is added on. This is exactly the form that would be used by evildoers to trick me into doing something stupid. But more likely, Apple has done something stupid by simply not using proper names.

1. Is this really harmless?
2. Why isn't it connecting to edgekey.apple.com instead of the stupid and sneaky name www.apple.com.edgekey.net?
3. What am I missing by not allowing this connection?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 7, 2010 12:47 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 7, 2010 8:02 AM in response to cmarkn

Without seeing the actual message no one will be able to answer your questions.

Allan

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Answer 2

Aikem

Level 1

13 points

Jan 7, 2010 5:31 PM in response to Allan Eckert

I get the same annoying message. Since I can't attach a picture I will write it out:

"dashboardadvisoryd" wants to connect to www.apple.com.edgekey.net on TCP prot 80 (http). IP Address 96.16.45.15 Reverse DNS Name a96-16-45.15.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com Established by /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/dashboardadvisoryd Unix PID 61938 User ID 0 root

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Answer 3

Jan 8, 2010 8:08 AM in response to Aikem

I started getting the same alert from Lil Snitch recently. I did some research and found the Akamai provides "load balancing" servers to help avoid Internet bottlenecks. It looks like Apple has moved to using them for the dashboardadvisoryd "phoning home" security system for widgets, instead of having the calls go directly to apple.com.

The White House uses them (see http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/barack-obama-keeps-akamai). So I do not thing this is a malware/spoofing issue.

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Answer 4

Jan 8, 2010 9:01 AM in response to cmarkn

It's just Dashboard phoning home for updates. Lots of companies use Akamai/Edgekey as relays and Apple is one of them.

If you don't use widgets or would prefer to check for them manually, tell Little Snitch to block them permanently; if you want to be advised of available updates, accept the connection.

Many other apps do this too, iWork being one set.

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Answer 5

cmarkn Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 8, 2010 10:02 PM in response to cmarkn

Thank you everyone. I didn't expect such quick responses.

Mr. Eckert, how were you able to attach a picture to your post?

<a href="http://www.cmarkn.com/Home/pictures/woot.gif" alt="!" width="16" height="16"></a>

but this is the result:
!

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Answer 6

Jan 9, 2010 12:06 AM in response to cmarkn

You need to use *img src* instead of *a href*

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Answer 7

cmarkn Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 10, 2010 12:36 AM in response to cmarkn

Thanks, Joseph.

Message was edited by: cmarkn

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Answer 8

lupuss

Level 1

8 points

Feb 23, 2010 6:50 AM in response to cmarkn

I got the same problem, but lil snitch does not allow me to connect to the onternet via DHCP at all without letting ICMP connect to www.apple.com.edgekey.net, although I have my own local addresses for name servers. Does that mean I have to go through particular DNS in order to connect?

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Answer 9

Feb 28, 2010 2:39 PM in response to lupuss

This sounds like a different problem which should have a new thread.

But if you think LS is preventing connections you should have, edit the connections in LS preferences.

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