PGP incompatible with OSX 10.6

[Dan O'Donnell]

Richard Forno is a well known information security operative and
researcher. His recent experience with a Snow Leopard installation
attempt on his PGP-enabled laptop should probably be a warning for
anybody who has installed PGP. He gave me permission to forward this
account to the community. It is also archived at his mailing list
archive here:
<http://www.mail-archive.com/infowarrior%40attrition.org/msg04917.html>.


> Snow Leopard comes out for OSX users today. OSX 10.6.  Hurray!
>
> While watching the Redskins-Patriots on the big screen, I go about
> trying to upgrade my test laptop only to discover the Apple DVD is not
> recognizing the hard drive as something that can support OSX.  WTFO?
> Resourceful as ever, I begin to Google for answers.
>
> As I Google, an email[1] arrives from PGP.COM saying that their
> current product is incompatible with 10.6 and if users want to use PGP
> they should not upgrade but that if we "intend to upgrade to Snow
> Leopard, you must decrypt all PGP encrypted drives and uninstall PGP
> Desktop before upgrading the system to Mac OS X 10.6."   They go on to
> say that 10.6 support is forthcoming in their next major release but
> offer no details on when it will be, except to say they're accepting
> beta applications now.
>
> *blink*
>
> Taking beta applications now? There are freeware and shareware
> developers whose products are fully compatible with 10.6 and PGP only
> now is soliciting beta testers?  Did the company just realize that OSX
> 10.6 was coming out today?  Didn't they get the memo?  Are there no
> OSX users at PGP Headquarters?
>
> So back to my stalled Snow Leopard upgrade on my laptop:  Thanks to
> Google's timely archiving of the Apple support boards[2]  I found out
> that not only did I have to uninstall PGP, repair disk permissions,
> and reboot (which still didn't fix the problem), but since PGP
> apparently does something to the OSX partition table, I had to enter
> Disk Utility and dynamically resize my laptop's hard drive a few
> megabytes in size just so a new partition table could be written ---
> at which point I was able to install OSX 10.6 just fine. (Note that I
> had installed, but did not use, PGP on this computer, and certainly
> did not use their Whole Disk Encryption.)  What kind of stuff did PGP
> have to write to my partition table to make it unreadable by Apple's
> own installation disk?
>
> Unfortunately, after many years of dealing with their quirky product
> registration system and hiccups with routine OS upgrades, tonight's
> news has forced to say that PGP has lost me as a customer --- their
> annoying corporate quirks aside, I cannot trust any security product
> that tweaks (nay, borks) my system in such a troublesome manner and
> certainly one that seems to treat Mac users as third-class citizens.
> [3]  I'm not the only one who feels this way, either -- indeed they
> are correct in titling their concerns the Audacity of Hopelessness.
> [4]   Accordingly, I will follow the lead of my coworkers and other
> securitygeek friends and embrace GPG for my encryption needs.
>
> Alas, PGP, I bid thee a sad adieu.
>
> -rick
>
> [1]
> <http://blog.pgp.com/index.php/2009/08/sneak-peek-pgp-whole-disk-encryption-for-snow-leopard/ 
> >
>
> [2] <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10063151>
>
> [3] How about their officially-unsupported but unofficially-supported
> Mail.App plug-in?  After nearly a decade of OSX in the marketplace
> they still don't officially support Apple's Mail program?
>
> [4] <http://pgpsucks.wordpress.com/>.


--
If you want to unsubscribe or change your address, use this link:
http://emperor.tidbits.com/webx?unsub@@.3c3f6899!u=30544749