Archive for April, 2012

Apple has posted the Apple FIPS Cryptographic Module v1.1 and has an associated "How to set up and maintain a FIPS-enabled OS X Lion system" kbase.  FIPS validation is a certification program by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) to verify cryptographic modules.  It appears from here that the CDSA module is 140-2 level 1 certified. For those not versed in the dark details of FIPS certification, Wikipedia defines 140-2 Level 1 as "all components must be "production-grade" and various egregious kinds of insecurity must be absent".

 The interesting piece to all this is in the "additional information" section of the "How to set up and maintain a FIPS-enabled OS X Lion system" kbase:

"OS X Lion security services are now built on a newer "Next Generation Cryptography" platform and have transitioned from the CDSA/CSP module previously validated on Mac OS X v10.6. However, Apple has re-validated the same CDSA/CSP module under OS X Lion to provide continued validation solely for third-party applications."

 So Lion is not FIPS validated, but the CDSA on Lion is, but only 3rd party apps use it.  Clear?

Well, that was fast.  WWDC 2012 tickets sold out in record time!  Hopefully you got yours, but if not, there is always the videos.  Now we just need to wait to hear the screams from the folks on the West Coast and as they wake up and realize what happened.  Not to mention our friends in Australia and Asia!

WWDC 2012 has been announced for June 11-15, and tickets are now available!.  Run, don't walk, to https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/ and grab yours now.  Every year it sells out faster, and this year should be no exception.  AFP548.com is in the planning stages for some cool stuff around WWDC, so stay tuned.  Now head over to https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/ and get your ticket already!