iCloud Keychain security flaw in older macs

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iCloud Keychain security flaw in older macs

Hi there!

iCloud Keychain has a HUGE security breach in older macs and Apple doesn't seem to care. At any new devices with biometrics, when you autofill a form, it'll ask for your biometric authentication or your password. At older models, before macs with touch id, it just fills it, it doesn't ask you for any user's password. If you try to check all of your passwords in safari preferences, it'll ask for your user's password.

How could it be possible that it wouldn't happen when we autofill a form? Is it just a way to force us to buy the newer models when the older one is perfectly fine? C'mon, Apple! Fix this! It's SO simple and you already ask for the user's password when we try to check our saved ones!

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 2, 2020 4:30 PM

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Answer 1

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Lawrence Finch

Level 10

203,508 points

Jan 2, 2020 5:29 PM in response to fpaganelli

fpaganelli wrote:

Hi there!

iCloud Keychain has a HUGE security breach in older macs and Apple doesn't seem to care. At any new devices with biometrics, when you autofill a form, it'll ask for your biometric authentication or your password. At older models, before macs with touch id, it just fills it, it doesn't ask you for any user's password. If you try to check all of your passwords in safari preferences, it'll ask for your user's password.

Actually, that’s not correct. I have a fairly recent Mac, and it autofills passwords and other fields on web pages without requiring authentication. The authentication is the fact that I am logged in to the Mac as a user. If the Mac sleeps it asks for authentication when I unlock it.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,111 points

Jan 2, 2020 5:22 PM in response to fpaganelli

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.

If you want to, you can send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.

Click here to send Feedback

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Answer 3

fpaganelli Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 2, 2020 5:26 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks, Eric! I already did that and also talked to them directly on the phone, with the specialized support. They agree, it’s a HUGE security gap that makes no sense. I’ll do it again at the feedback, but you’re right, we need many more people complaining about it.

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Answer 4

fpaganelli Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 2, 2020 5:33 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hey, Lawrence!

But if your Mac has Touch ID you can set it to ask for your Touch ID (or user’s password) before filling any forms. The problem with the ones before that is that we don’t have that option. It should be up to the user to choose it, just like on iPhones, etc.

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iCloud Keychain security flaw in older macs

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