[Textures] Textures forever!

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 4 juin 2013 à 00:36, Gordon Lee <gordonleeblueskyforever at gmail.com> a écrit :

> I remark, as Mark Twain once did, "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
> 
> Licensed users of Textures are invited to visit 
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/obvww7r9xrq0l5l/Textures220b19.zip
> 
> where they will find versions of Textures (for Retina and non-Retina machines) that 
> work without seeking an installation key (but first read the instructions enclosed in the zip).
> 
> I will not be available for any further development of Textures and will not respond to any messages.
> 
> I must leave it to users to try to ensure that reports of the death of Textures, too, "are greatly exaggerated."
> 
> Textures forever!


To the list: mixed feelings about the above announcement. Is this really an unlocked version of Textures 2.2.0b19, or a malicious program posing as Textures? Our community is probably very small, so there mustn't be much benefit attacking us, but who knows?

Why I'm asking this:


- The instructions "to get modified Textures to work.txt" say to lock first

	~/Library/Preferences/com.bluesky.Textures.plist

and each of the files inside

	~/Library/Application Support/Textures/

because the program will try to flush their content upon startup. This is odd. I did not lock anything, but copied first

	/Library/Application Support/Textures/
	~/Library/Application Support/Textures/
	~/Library/Preferences/com.bluesky.Textures.plist

to a safe location then launched the new Textures. Nothing bad happened to those files. Maybe that's because my current ~/Library/Preferences/com.bluesky.Textures.plist contains valid activation and installation keys, I don't know. But in any case the whole thing feels suspicious, given in particular the behavior isn't as announced.


- The programs themselves contain odd files "Textures2.2.0b19retina.app/Contents/Mail Attachment" containing the sole line

	--============_-844176279==_6============--

and "Textures220b19noretina.app/Contents/Mail Attachment" containing the sole line

	--============_-844231484==_6============--

That may be the way that the installation key is avoided, but that feels suspicious too.


After launching the new Textures, I inspected the most likely locations like ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ for anything that would indicate the installation of a backdoor and did not find anything, but I'm no expert on these matters.

Maybe, for those who plan to try these unlocked Textures, it would be worth installing Little Snitch beforehand, to see whether any info is sent anywhere when Textures is first launched. I didn't, and regret it now.

Bruno Voisin


Le 4 juin 2013 à 00:36, Gordon Lee <gordonleeblueskyforever at gmail.com> a écrit :

> I remark, as Mark Twain once did, "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
> 
> Licensed users of Textures are invited to visit 
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/obvww7r9xrq0l5l/Textures220b19.zip
> 
> where they will find versions of Textures (for Retina and non-Retina machines) that 
> work without seeking an installation key (but first read the instructions enclosed in the zip).
> 
> I will not be available for any further development of Textures and will not respond to any messages.
> 
> I must leave it to users to try to ensure that reports of the death of Textures, too, "are greatly exaggerated."
> 
> Textures forever!
> 
> 
> Gordon Lee
> _______________________________________________
> Textures mailing list
> Textures at email.esm.psu.edu
> List Page: http://email.esm.psu.edu/mailman/listinfo/textures