Top all-time · #7630
mac4n6.com
Personal blog · mac4n6.com/blogsecuritysystems
mac4n6.com is a personal blog at mac4n6.com about security and systems. Since 2018, 10 different Hacker News readers have linked it 11 times, most often “Logs in High Sierra Show Plaintext Password for APFS Encrypted External Volumes”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-03-18, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters cite this digital forensics blog's posts on Apple devices, including on-device iPhone data collection, APFS encryption passwords, and iOS location data. The comments cite the posts as sources and do not judge them.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Mac OS X and iOS forensic research, blog, and resources
Most-linked posts?
- Logs in High Sierra Show Plaintext Password for APFS Encrypted External Volumes3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-03-23
- APFS encrypted plaintext password found in another log file2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-03-31
What Hacker News says?
Sounds like the same kind of thing that happened with APFS encryption passwords recently, too. https://www.mac4n6.com/blog/2018/3/30/omg-seriously-apfs-enc...
Comment linking /blog/2018/3/30/omg-seriously-apfs-encrypted-plaintext-password-found-in-another-more-persistent-macos-log-file
on “Twitter urges users to change passwords after computer 'glitch'”Submitted Logs in High Sierra Show Plaintext Password for APFS Encrypted External Volumes as a story · 461 points
HN discussionThere is a open source digital forensics project called APOLLO ( https://github.com/mac4n6/APOLLO ) -- that could be used for personal use to get location information off your phone. Here's a blog post by the author, with a little bit of explanation: https://www.mac4n6.com/blog/2019/8/21/i-know-where-you-were-...
Comment linking /blog/2019/8/21/i-know-where-you-were-today-yesterday-last-month-and-many-years-ago
on “Show HN: Interface for all digital aspects of my life”Submitted APFS encrypted plaintext password found in another log file as a story · 171 points
HN discussionHere's a recent blog post that describes some of the massive amounts of data that iPhones collect: https://www.mac4n6.com/blog/2018/9/12/knowledge-is-power-ii-... Granted, this data is on-device, and we don't know how much (if any) leaves the device, but if Apple really had privacy as their top priority, they wouldn't collect that data in the first place. Privacy is surely important for Apple, but it's not the absol…
Comment linking /blog/2018/9/12/knowledge-is-power-ii-a-day-in-the-life-of-my-iphone-using-knowledgecdb
on “Leaving Apple and Google: more devices now supported”Submitted Unified Logs in High Sierra Show Password for APFS Encrypted External Volumes as a story · 4 points
HN discussionUnfortunately not, although it appears to be possible on jailbroken devices. https://www.mac4n6.com/blog/2018/8/5/knowledge-is-power-usin... (found via this gist: https://gist.github.com/0xdevalias/38cfc92278f85ae89a46f0c15... )
Comment linking /blog/2018/8/5/knowledge-is-power-using-the-knowledgecdb-database-on-macos-and-ios-to-determine-precise-user-and-application-usage
on “Blog posts, sorted by sleep”Submitted Logs in High Sierra Show Plaintext Password for APFS Encrypted External Volumes as a story · 4 points
HN discussionYou have not linked to a support page, you have linked to a PDF titled 'Legal Process Guidelines'. (That is definitely NOT a privacy policy.) https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 would probably be the right support page, however, Apple mentions what is done – and not what is NOT done, in particular end-to-end-encryption of iCloud backups. I still agree that Apple plays in a different league than Facebook with re…
Comment linking /blog/2018/3/30/omg-seriously-apfs-encrypted-plaintext-password-found-in-another-more-persistent-macos-log-file
on “Why Apple and Microsoft Are Healthier Than Facebook”Submitted Using the macOS/iOS Knowledgec.db to Determine Precise User and App Usage as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Facial Recognition in Apple Photos (2020) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
