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

Question

Level 1

47 points

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

Reply

Answer 1

Rocco A

Level 1

4 points

Mar 14, 2014 9:41 PM in response to Bruce Mann

Same Problem - same story. I'm guessing it's just recently secretly installed (pushed) by Apple. I'm betting on the latest Itunes update - could be wrong.

Blocked it "until quit" with LS. Haven't seen enough about this yet to block it permanently or allow..

Found this so far in console logs.

3/14/14 Fri, Mar 14, 2014 2:30:25 AM	sudo[9833]	root : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.CSweoD/Scripts/com.apple.pkg.update.snowleopa rd.appstore.182-4.y5LHwk ; USER=Rocco A ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl load -S Aqua /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.noticeboard.plist
3/14/14 Fri, Mar 14, 2014 8:30:26 AM	Noticeboard[10861]	Noticeboard: Launched, starting NoticeboardUpdateOperation
3/14/14 Fri, Mar 14, 2014 9:37:30 AM	Noticeboard[10861]	Noticeboard: NoticeboardUpdateOperation failed. Terminating.
3/14/14 Fri, Mar 14, 2014 2:30:27 PM	Noticeboard[11423]	Noticeboard: Launched, starting NoticeboardUpdateOperation
3/14/14 Fri, Mar 14, 2014 3:27:54 PM	Noticeboard[11423]	Noticeboard: NoticeboardUpdateOperation failed. Terminating.

LS connection box

17.146.232.12

Established by	/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Not iceboard.app/Contents/MacOS/Noticeboard
User	Rocco A

No further information yet. Choices if concerned: remove the files above -- make backups first. Block it permanetly with LS.

Reply

Answer 2

Rocco A

Level 1

4 points

Mar 14, 2014 10:19 PM in response to Bruce Mann

Sorry for the triple post -- blaming the site interface and my system😉 Rocco A

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 15, 2014 5:31 PM in response to Bruce Mann

Looks like it came with the recent Mac App Store Update v1.0.

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 20, 2014 9:14 AM in response to Bruce Mann

I kicked it out of the Library. Let's see what happens!

Reply

Answer 5

Mar 20, 2014 3:01 PM in response to Leon Klingele

That's what I see as well.

My system.log mentions /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.noticeboard.plist among the notes from the installation of Mac App Store Update v1.0.

No previous mention of "noticeboard" in system.log.

Since then, every 24(+/-3) hours I have:

Noticeboard[7064]: Noticeboard: Launched, starting NoticeboardUpdateOperation

It has connected on TCP port 443 (https) to

swscan.apple.com

swscan.apple.com.akadns.net

Reply

Answer 6

Mar 20, 2014 3:42 PM in response to professortiki

I removed the entire PrivateFrameworks folder in the system library, and it was desaster. Don't do it. It seems to contain basic Unix elements.

So still no explanations for these pop-ups.

Reply

Answer 7

David Cun

Level 4

1,427 points

Mar 21, 2014 8:09 AM in response to Bruce Mann

I'm getting the same popup...

"Noticeboard"

wants to connect to swscan.apple.com on TCP port 443 (https)

I found this at download.cnet.com …

"….Noticeboard is an enhanced Digital Signage software that supports multiple display in various combination of touch screens and normal LCD screens. Besides the normal support for video, graphic, images and text, it also comes with built-in animation and supports scheduling of third parties software like power-point, acrobat reader, YouTube videos…"

I had no idea I had such a thing in my system. I've been denying it; afraid to allow it. Any ideas on whether allowing it is OK?

Reply

Answer 8

Bruce Mann Author

Level 1

47 points

Mar 21, 2014 8:39 AM in response to David Cun

I've been allowing it, but I have no idea what it is doing. My original concern was that it was a legitimate piece of Apple-installed software. From the comments in this thread, it does appear to at least be legitimate and not some type of malware. Whether it is spying on me for Apple, or sending my information to the NSA - that I can't say.😉 But I've been allowing it and I have not run into any system glitches so far.

Reply

Answer 9

Mar 21, 2014 10:02 AM in response to David Cun

David Cun wrote:

I found this at download.cnet.com …

"….Noticeboard is an enhanced Digital Signage software that supports multiple display in various combination of touch screens and normal LCD screens. Besides the normal support for video, graphic, images and text, it also comes with built-in animation and supports scheduling of third parties software like power-point, acrobat reader, YouTube videos…"

I had no idea I had such a thing in my system. I've been denying it; afraid to allow it. Any ideas on whether allowing it is OK?

No, that's a completely different piece of software (for Windows, not the Mac OS) that just happens to have the same name.

Reply

Answer 10

Mar 21, 2014 1:47 PM in response to Bruce Mann

Some in another forum suggest it came as a recent update either with a system upgrade or a Mac App Store upgrade. The latter could be in my case. I still wonder what it does really. It seems to try to connect every 6 hours. When my computer trys to connect to the internet, i want to know.

Reply

Answer 11

seventy one

Level 7

27,442 points

Mar 21, 2014 1:59 PM in response to Bruce Mann

If you downloaded Little Snitch from the Softonic site you are asking for trouble. Check back. If that was your source, delete it, pronto. Softonic means trouble.

Reply

Answer 12

David Cun

Level 4

1,427 points

Mar 22, 2014 7:26 AM in response to seventy one

I got Little Snitch from Macupdate; one of those bundle things. At any rate, it's doing its job, reporting that"Noticeboard" is trying to connect; whatever "Noticeboard" is.

Reply

Answer 13

WZZZ

Level 6

13,232 points

Mar 22, 2014 8:43 AM in response to David Cun

If you are only running the demo, get rid of it and get it directly from the developer http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

If you purchased it and have a license key for it, uninstall it and then reinstall it from obdev, using the license key.

Almost none of these download/update sites can be trusted not to bundle in adware now. Softonic--not where you got it, but just as a FYI--is one of the worst.

I also wouldn't trust any of the other items you got not to contain adware.

But uninstalling these won't remove any adware, if you got any.

http://www.thesafemac.com/arg/

Reply

Answer 14

shape

Level 1

19 points

Mar 22, 2014 3:01 PM in response to Bruce Mann

well, the Noticeboard.app is definitely from Apple. the file in the get info window or QuickView (pressing spacebar on selected file) says: Copyright © 2014 Apple Inc. All rights reserved | Version 1.0.

I just did an Apple software update before rebooting and then got this notice for the first time as well after reboot. it has nothing to do with Little Snitch (or Adware) as i haven't updated that in months.

Reply

Answer 15

Mar 22, 2014 3:29 PM in response to shape

Same here. But even if it is from Apple, I like to know what it does. I mean, it does it every 6 hours. I mean, my computer sends informations to swscan.apple.com every 6 hrs. I don't find anything in the internet about it. Apple itself does not seem to make a big fuzz about it.

Reply