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How to avoid the new 'Help' URL handler vulnerability
Authored by: cabbagewater on May 19, '04 11:50:26AM
If you don't use the Help Viewer and want a quick fix, type the following in the terminal, and press 'Return':

sudo chmod 000 /System/Library/CoreServices/Help\ Viewer.app

You'll have to enter your password.
To reverse this, type the following in the terminal:

sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Help\ Viewer.app

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How to avoid the new 'Help' URL handler vulnerability
Authored by: mastige on May 19, '04 12:33:27PM

The correct command is

sudo chmod 000 /System/Library/CoreServices/'Help Viewer.app'

to reverse

sudo chmod 000 /System/Library/CoreServices/'Help Viewer.app'



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How to avoid the new 'Help' URL handler vulnerability
Authored by: nyarrow on May 19, '04 12:33:53PM

Note that if you use one of the various utilities or OS X install disks to "repair permissions", this fix will be reversed...



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How to avoid the new 'Help' URL handler vulnerability
Authored by: cabbagewater on May 19, '04 09:32:41PM
Yes, the code as seen doesn't work--I forgot to use the code tags to protect the backslashes in front of the space for the help viewer.app. Note that the above reverse command needs chmod 755, not chmod 000 to actually reverse anything.

 sudo chmod 000 /System/Library/CoreServices/Help\ Viewer.app 

Also, repairing disk permissions will reverse this fix, although it doesn't make much more work for me--I already have a list of custom permissions for various security/personal reasons/preferences.

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