VirtualScanner.App [simpledoc.pdf]

It is called an "Easter Egg". Developers sometimes get bored, or just want to "stick it to the man" so they sneak a little something in. In the good old days.....most likely a decade or two before PixelHoundsSF's birth, you could find all sorts of goodies in all kinds of places.

This little pdf is only going to upset the ADD or ADHD obsessed person that 1) must know everything there is on their computer, and 2) will only tolerate an item's existence if they understand and agree with it. The rest of us will shrug and go to more important things, after we've determined it is no threat.

Happy Easter.

barkingsands wrote:

Yes, there probably is more useless crap hidden in all sorts of files. But there's no valid reason why users should not be permitted to remove such idiocy from their systems.

Yes, there is. It's located in an area that Apple has locked so well meaning users and malware can't do any harm. Report it to Feedback - macOS - Apple and hopefully Apple will remove it at the next system update.

The only moral of this story is to ignore any “buzz” from the internet.

Lots of software developers have passed through Apple over the years. Many of them think they are clever and funny. Just ignore it.

"I'd ask the powers that be to please remove if not needed. And double check that similar hidden assets are not allowed into future updates"

I would ask the powers that be to not let this person near an apple product ever again. Thank you.

You posted in the Ventura community which is the right place, but only the macOS Product team can remove that simpledoc.pdf file. That is why I stated that it eliminates anyone posting here because we don't have the access privileges, or access to the Ventura source code. Apple's product teams do not participate in these user-supported public communities either.

But there's no logical reason why a PDF resource resource contained within the virtualscanner.app file cannot be deleted by end users. Removing a supposedly benign file should not have anything to do with a system security breach or malware point of access. We don't need cutesy developers adding useless content or resource files to the OS.

[Edited by Moderator]

I've just discovered that the breach is even worse than is being reported in the media.

The United States government has been compromised!

The same document can be found here: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/training/annual-national-training-seminar/2018/Emerging_Tech_Bitcoin_Crypto.pdf

Maybe Apple added the document and can't remove it due to orders from the CryptoPresident?

The 'simpledoc.pdf' is a legit engineering style white paper describing how Bitcoin works written by the original author. This file and the other PDF's and image files in the Resources location are likely related to some test mechanism to ensure things are working as expected. A developer decided to grab this open unlicensed paper to use in testing the functionality of the scanner code. The 'numbers.pdf' is just each page with a large sequential number for each page.

The files are harmless and certainly not a malevolent manifesto. Bitcoin was the first digital currency, there are many nowadays. The concepts around the blockchain have far more uses than just digital currency. But currently the 'killer-feature' is in being a distributed immutable digital ledger. Whatever your personal thoughts are about Bitcoin, this is a legit historical engineering paper explaining the concepts around Bitcoin as explained by the original developer. When you have thousands of developers across hundreds of teams this kind of thing can happen and I am sure there are even more interesting things. Such as Dogcow and other easter-eggs. But I wouldn't read much into this. Some developer likely had a keen interest in the technology behind Bitcoin and they tossed this document in for testing a multiple page PDF with a lot of text, images, TeX based mathematical formulas, etc. It provides a rather sophisticated scanner test.

Anything in /System is immutable and only changeable by Apple themselves.

If this troubles you, please don't read the Linux kernel source code.

Even chip designers plant easter-eggs. If memory serves, some VAX CPU designers put a message into the silicon readable by a microscope saying something like "Copy This Comrade" in Russian. Since they knew the Russians were working very hard to reverse engineer silicon valley microchips.

James Brickley wrote:

The 'simpledoc.pdf' is a legit engineering style white paper describing how Bitcoin works written by the original author. This file and the other PDF's and image files in the Resources location are likely related to some test mechanism to ensure things are working as expected. A developer decided to grab this open unlicensed paper to use in testing the functionality of the scanner code. The 'numbers.pdf' is just each page with a large sequential number for each page.

That’s a plausible explanation. Maybe a little too plausible. Don’t you find it odd that all these fanboys seem to come up with the exact same “wave of the hand”, “nothing to see here” explanation?

Even chip designers plant easter-eggs. If memory serves, some VAX CPU designers put a message into the silicon readable by a microscope saying something like "Copy This Comrade" in Russian. Since they knew the Russians were working very hard to reverse engineer silicon valley microchips.

That sounds like something the Russians would do. But why would VAX designers encourage the Russians to steal their designs? Were they double-agents or something? Where are all those VAXes now?

Are you going to claim there is some hidden “Easter egg” message in the Apple codes telling people not to steal Apple’s designs?

First of all, I am a fan of @Etresoft.

Still not so sure what's so offensive about a white paper that is simply explaining how Bitcoin works and was written 15 years ago. Posted in Oct of 2008 to a cryptography mailing list. It's not a manifesto, it's an engineering white paper. Reading it contains nothing that would raise a red-flag anymore than a paper on some other protocol or API.

This conversation scope has jumped the shark...

The obsessive conspiracy crowd will always play their harp. Some people insist that everything must be within their full understanding and acceptable to them or it must have an ulterior motive and is therefore suspect.

To them, even the old-ball weed, different from the others, growing in the ditch along the side of the road was put there for some unknown reason and by a nefarious power.

James Brickley wrote:

Still not so sure what's so offensive about a white paper that is simply explaining how Bitcoin works and was written 15 years ago.

It's got nothing to do with bitcoin at all. It is a combination of the "click value" of any story about Apple and the unquestioning credulity of people on the internet today.

Only Apple can remove that PDF from the VirtualScanner location on the read-only protected System volume for Catalina and later. That eliminates anyone posting here.

Why does a 154 kb benign PDF file represent such an affront to you? It probably isn't the only detritus to be found buried in the system.