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Comment by williamsmj | Hacker News Reader

Congratulations on your "common sense", but several highly publicized and actively exploited recent exploits against iOS required no user interaction:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/iphone-zero-click-wi...

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/12/zero-...

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/clickless-exploits-f...

etc., etc.

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There isn't any commercial or open-source mobile without security flaws. Given the importance of iOS it's no wonder it's under scrutiny by attackers, just like Windows was (is) while Apple was memeing a virus free Mac OS. That wasn't the case, it's just MacOS was a mostly irrelevant target.

I'm not so sure it's accurate to describe macOS as being an irrelevant target. MacBooks in particular have had a not-insignificant market share among many valuable targets for hackers (software developers, the affluent etc) for at least ten if not fifteen years now.

Also, it I think meming is a bit of a stretch. Of all the desktop operating systems (macOS, Linux, Windows), macOS has had the strongest security push. E.g. integration of the secure enclave throughout the system for protecting secrets, read-only system volume, mandatory sandboxing for App Store apps, and requiring applications to request use of screen capture/camera/mic/address book, etc.

Sure, holes are found. Strong security is a long process of adding more and more boundaries (while giving the ecosystem some time to adapt to those boundaries) and fixing more and more logic/memory errors.

Regardless, macOS is probably the most secure desktop operating system out-of-the-box.

>Also, it I think meming is a bit of a stretch.

It kinda was, imo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF7habaTvAY

Are there none for Android?

Exploits for Android do not negate exploits for iOS

That's whataboutism. Unless there are many more exploits for Android, more than the increase in marketshare warrants, there is no reason to think a closed ecosystem is more secure than an open one.

It is hard to speak about the exploits we don’t know about, but for the ones we do: There are vastly more exploits on Android, evidenced by for no other reason than because handset manufacturers refuse to upgrade.

Asking questions about the only competitor is valid

If thats a whataboutism then whataboutisms were always valid and accurate forms of introspection

> tere is no reason to think a closed ecosystem is more secure than an open one

Fragmentation of Android is a thing.

It is a thing, yes, but it is avoidable nowadays. If it weren't already a thing Google could force Project Treble onto everyone and strong-arm the carriers from the beginning and it would not be an issue.

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