If you have Java on your Mac you need to make sure you have updated to the latest Java update from Apple to patch this issue. The easiest way is to just run Software Update on your Mac and get the latest updates from Apple. You can download them manually as well from Apple:

• Java for OS X Lion 2012-001
• Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7

If you are concerned that you might already be infected F-Secure has some excellent instructions on how to find out here. The Applescript below will run the commands referenced in the F-Secure article to do a quick and dirty check. If everything comes back clean it will tell you. If it comes back as possibly infected it will direct you (or your user) to the website for more detailed information.

I’m posting it as a script file for download here:
Flashback Checker Script

Or you can copy the code from here and paste it into AppleScript Editor to run:

Code block

--see if this entry exists.  If not an error will occur and be trapped
try
	do shell script "defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info  LSEnvironment"
	--set this variable if this entry exists
	set LSE to "true"
on error errmsg
	--set this variable if the error contains the message "does not exist"
	if errmsg contains "does not exist" then
		set LSE to "false"
	end if
end try
--search Firefox for infections
try
	do shell script "defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info  LSEnvironment"
	--set this variable if this entry exists
	set FLSE to "true"
on error errmsg
	--set this variable if the error contains the message "does not exist"
	if errmsg contains "does not exist" then
		set FLSE to "false"
	end if
end try
--see if this entry exists.  If not an error will occur and be trapped
try
	do shell script "defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES"
	set DLib to "true"
on error errmsg
	--set this variable if the error contains the message "does not exist"
	if errmsg contains "does not exist" then
		set DLib to "false"
	end if
end try
--if all variables are false then the machine isn't infected
if LSE is "false" and DLib is "false" and FLSE is "false" then
	display dialog "You are not infected with Flashback"
	--if any variable is true the machine may be infected and needs closer inspection
else if LSE is "true" or DLib is "true" or FLSE is "true" then
	display dialog "You may have the Flashback infection" & return & "Go to following URL for more information:" & return & return & "http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashback_i.shtml"
end if

This is a great service for laptop users. Now you can have those hourly snapshots created no matter where you are. So, if you make some changes to a document while you’re away those changes will still be added to your Time Machine backup.

To enable these local snapshots you have use the new command-line tool for Time Machine named tmutil.

To enable local snapshots:

sudo tmutil enablelocal

To disable them AND clear all the local snapshots:

sudo tmutil disablelocal

You can confirm that you’ve enabled local snapshots by opening System Preferences > Time Machine and looking for the line circled in the image.

The tmutil utility has a bunch of other useful commands that allow you to enable or disable backups, start and stop backups, choose a new disk, etc. Type man tmutil to see the whole list. I can see this tool being used by lots of system administrators in scripts.

Apple also has a nice KB article explaining this feature here

The technique is basically the same in iTunes as well as on your device:

1. Click on the iTunes Store
2. Click the Purchased link on the far right
3. Pick your content (Music, Books, Apps, etc.)
4. Hover over the item you want to hide until you see the “X”
5. Click the “X” to hide that purchase

Here are the links to the Apple KB articles on both the iTunes and Mac App stores and how to hide the unwanted apps.

iTunes Store: Hiding and unhiding purchases

Mac App Store: Hiding and unhiding purchases

This script lets you toggle the view on and off. So, you can turn it on, do what you need and then turn it off.

Code block

try
	set toggleView to (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles")
on error
	set toggleView to "NO"
end try
if toggleView is "NO" or toggleView is "0" then
	set br to display dialog "Showing hidden files is disabled." & return & "Would you like to enable it?" buttons {"Yes", "No"} default button {"No"}
	set theAnswer to the button returned of br
	if theAnswer is "Yes" then
		do shell script "defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES"
		do shell script "killall Finder"
		display dialog "Showing hidden files has been enabled" buttons {"Ok"} giving up after 5
	end if
else
	if toggleView is "YES" or toggleView is "1" then
		set br to display dialog "Showing hidden files is enabled." & return & "Would you like to disable it?" buttons {"Yes", "No"} default button {"Yes"}
		set theAnswer to the button returned of br
		if theAnswer is "Yes" then
			do shell script "defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO"
			do shell script "killall Finder"
			display dialog "Showing hidden files has been disabled" buttons {"Ok"} giving up after 5
		end if
	end if
end if

Copy the code into AppleScript Editor and then save it out as an application. Double clicking on it will bring up a dialog box telling you the current state of viewing hidden files and gives you the option of switching it. Since you have to restart the Finder after you make this change you’ll see the Finder quit and restart.

One of the very cool things about it is that you can use a URL to initiate a FaceTime call. As described in this Mac OS X Hints article just use the following syntax:

• facetime://appleid
• facetime://email@address
• facetime://phone# as a URL in Safari’s address bar.

Since you can use a URL that means you can use AppleScript to connect to a session or Automator to even schedule and initiate a call using iCal Alarms.

The only line you need is this:

Code block

open location "facetime://joe@emailaddress.com"

Obviously you can use any of the URL syntaxes listed above in place of the email address. Save it as a script/application/workflow and you’re ready to chat!

The big issue with backing up this way, as with any backup, is getting people to do it and do it regularly. To backup your Address Book all you need to do it copy the /Users/”user name”/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder in each users home directory. Simple, direct and easy. But you may have noticed that when you do a manual backup via the Address Book application you get a file with the “.abbu” extension. That’s just the AddressBook folder renamed and getting that extension. The beauty of having this file is when you want to restore your Address Book via the menu you can just point to this file. Otherwise you have to drag the backed up folder to the original spot. Again, not hard to do but some users have problems doing things that go outside of clicking on a menu item.

So, to back up your Address Book and put it in nice “.abbu” file for easy restores just do this:

Code block

filedate=`/bin/date "+%m-%d-%y"`
cp -R "/Users/username/Library/Application Support/AddressBook" "/Users/username/Documents/Address Book Backups/Address Book Backup $filedate.abbu"

Obviously you change the “username” section to the name of the home directory. Also, you can change the backup folder to what ever you want. This script just appends the current date to the backup so you can keep multiple backups if needed.

To run this you have a bunch of options:

1. You can run it via cron or launchd. Just put the two lines together and seperated by a “;”.
   You can create the launchd item here – http://plist.spotmac.de/
2. You can run it as an Automator iCal plug-in. Just drag over the “Run Shell Script” action and paste in the script. Then schedule it via iCal.
3. You can save it as a script and run it from what ever automation application you prefer.

osascript /Users/Shared/disk_check.scpt

Code block

set mysubject to "Disk Usage Report"
set myrecipient to "sysadmin@example.com"
--get the amount of free space
set dSize to (do shell script "df -h / | grep %") as text
--pull out the percent used from the result
set theTotal to word 6 in dSize as number
--if the total used space is 95% or more put up a warning. Comment out if running the email section
if theTotal is greater than or equal to 95 then
	display dialog "Your disk is " & theTotal & "% full"
end if
--comment out this section if no email is desired.
set mybody to ("Free Space: " & theTotal & "%")
do shell script ("echo \"" & mybody & "\" | mail -s \"" & mysubject & "\" " & myrecipient)

Click here to download a copy: Disk Check script

Open Terminal and type cd /private/etc/apache2/users. Inside the “users” folder will be conf files for each of the users with accounts on the machine. So, if we have a user with the short name of “joe” on the machine there will be a file in there named “joe.conf”.

To edit this file you need to have root permissions. So open it using sudo. I prefer using pico as my editor but use whichever works for you. The command below assumes you are already in the “users” folder.

sudo pico joe.conf

You’ll see something like this:

Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all



Navigate down to the line Options Indexes MultiViews. Carefully delete the Indexes part of the line and save the file. Now restart Apache, either by going to System Preferences and turning off and then back on Web Sharing, or at the command line by typing sudo apachectl restart.

Now navigate to a directory in your “Sites” folder that doesn’t have an index file. You should get a “403 No permissions” error unless you specify a file. Much more secure. Note that you’ll need to do this individually for each account on the machine.

I’ve tested this with Snow Leopard and I’m betting it will work with Leopard. I’m not sure if versions of the OS below 10.5 support this feature.

The script backups up the databases to the local drive but can also email the backups to you. I wanted them emailed so I could archive them and have them backed up there as well. That way I don’t have to come up with any other scripts to move the backups some where else.

The AutoMySQLBackup script requires that you have Mutt installed if you want to have it email anything. Mutt is an command line email program that does not come pre-installed on OS X. Here are the steps I went through to get everything up and running.

Step 1 – Install Mutt

There are instructions on the Mutt website for installing the program but I wanted something I could easily update without a lot of hassle. I decided to install using MacPorts.

Download and install the latest version of MacPorts. There is excellent documentation on the web page. You’ll need the Apple Developer’s Tools installed before installing MacPorts. If you don’t already have them you can install them from your OS X install disc or download them from the Apple Developer Connection site.

Once MacPorts is installed an running you’re ready to install Mutt. At the time of this writing the default version of Mutt in the MacPorts repository is 1.4.2. I wanted the 1.5.x version as I had read that it was much easier to configure. Check the MacPorts list of available ports before you install. To get the 1.5.x version I had to install the development version.

In Terminal type the following:

sudo port install mutt-devel +smtp +ssl +imap +pop

If you want the standard install of mutt enter this:

sudo port install mutt +smtp +ssl +imap +pop

Then go do something else for a while as it downloads and compiles everything. After a bit you’ll have an install of mutt.

Step 2 – Configure Mutt

With the 1.5.x version of Mutt I only had to make one configuration file. In the home directory root of the account you are running the script from make a “.muttrc” file.

touch .muttrc

Now, use your favorite editor (I prefer pico) and add the address of the SMTP server you plan to use:

set smtp_url="smtp://my.smtp.server.com"

Now try sending an email from Mutt in Terminal and make sure everything is working correctly.

Step 3 – Configuring AutoMySQLBackup

Download AutoMySQLBackup and put it where ever you put your scripts. I changed the permission so that only the account I was running it from had any access.

chmod 700 automysqlbackup.sh

Open the script in your editor of choice. Don’t use Word or other such editors as they will mess up your line returns. Use a command-line editor or a GUI editor like SubEthaEdit that understands UNIX line returns.

The script author has great instructions right in the script so I won’t cover those here. I did, however, have to make two changes to the script to get things to work.

First, I had to add in the path to the MacPorts installation in the path variable for the script. That was on line 338.

The original reads:

PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/mysql/bin

Edit it to look like this:

PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/mysql/bin

Remember, all the MacPorts installations live in /opt/local. Now the script can find Mutt.

The second change I had to make was to the order of items that the script was sending to Mutt. It just didn’t work in 1.5.x as written. This is on line 644 of the script.

The original reads:

mutt -s "$ERRORNOTE MySQL Backup Log and SQL Files for $HOST - $DATE" $BACKUPFILES $MAILADDR < $LOGFILE

I had to switch the order of $BACKUPFILES and $MAILADDR to get it send the file to me. So my edited version looks like this:

mutt -s "$ERRORNOTE MySQL Backup Log and SQL Files for $HOST - $DATE" $MAILADDR $BACKUPFILES < $LOGFILE

After making that switch and running the script it backed up my databases and emailed me the backup files as well. Fantastic!

Schedule your script to run on a nightly basis so you get regular backups of everything. You can either do that via cron or via a launchd item. If you want to use cron and don’t want to do it at the command line I recommend Cronnix. For launchd I recommend Lingon

One last note. When I was trying to troubleshoot why the attachments weren’t being send I couldn’t find the log files that said what was happening. That’s because the automysqlbackup script puts them in the script and then deletes them along with everything else after it mails them. To disable that function I had to comment out these two lines at the very end of the script:

eval rm -f "$LOGFILE"
eval rm -f "$LOGERR"


Once I had things working I uncommented them so things would continue to be cleaned up.

When you run the script it asks you which month you want the data for in a list. Select the month and it will generate a file on the desktop with that months data. You can save it out as an application, run it from Script Editor or run it as a launchd/cron job. You can customize the output by changing the line that begins with “write”. For example, replace the “,” with tab and create a tab-delimited file instead.

If you run this script logged in as a regular user you will only get the login information for that user. If you run it as an administrator you’ll get the login information for every account on the machine.

Click here to download the script file:
Monthly Login accounting

Code block

set the_months to {}
set the_total to 0
set the_time to ""
set the_computer to (computer name of (system info))
--get the raw login log information
set the_login to (do shell script "last") as text
set the_count to the count of paragraphs of the_login
--get the list of all the months login data is available for
repeat with x from 1 to the_count
	if paragraph x of the_login contains "console" then
		set month_check to (word 4 of paragraph x of the_login) as text
		if the_months does not contain month_check then
			set end of the_months to month_check
		end if
	end if
end repeat
set selected_month to choose from list the_months with prompt "Select the month:"
--create the file to write data to
if selected_month is not false then
	tell application "Finder"
		set file_name to (the_computer & "-" & selected_month & "-" & (year of (current date)) & " login stats.txt")
		if not (exists file (((path to desktop from user domain as text) & file_name))) then
			set login_file to make file with properties {name:file_name, file type:"TEXT"} at (path to desktop from user domain)
		else
			display dialog "This stats file already exists.  Do you want to overwrite it?" buttons {"Yes", "No"} default button 2
			set the_answer to the button returned of the result
			if the_answer is "Yes" then
				delete file ((path to desktop from user domain as text) & file_name)
				set login_file to make file with properties {name:file_name, file type:"TEXT"} at (path to desktop from user domain)
			end if
		end if
	end tell
	set login_file to ((path to desktop from user domain) & file_name) as text
end if
--loop through the data and pull out the logins for the selected month
repeat with x from 1 to the_count
	if paragraph x of the_login contains selected_month then
		if paragraph x of the_login contains "console" then
			set the_user to (word 1 of paragraph x of the_login)
			set the_month to (word 4 of paragraph x of the_login) as text
			set the_logmonth to MonthNumber(the_month)
			set the_day to (word 5 of paragraph x of the_login) as text
			if (the (count of characters of the_day) is less than 2) then
				set the_day to ("0" & the_day)
			end if
			set the_year to yearCheck(selected_month, the_months)
			set log_date to (the_logmonth & "/" & the_day & "/" & the_year)
			set login_time to (word 6 of paragraph x of the_login & ":" & word 7 of paragraph x of the_login)
			set logout_time to (word 8 of paragraph x of the_login & ":" & word 9 of paragraph x of the_login)
			set old_delims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
			set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "("
			try
				set the_time1 to text item 2 of paragraph x of the_login
				set AppleScript's text item delimiters to old_delims
				set the_time to (characters 1 through 5 of the_time1) as text
			on error
				set AppleScript's text item delimiters to old_delims
			end try
			--write all the date to the file
			write (the_user & "," & the_computer & "," & log_date & "," & login_time & "," & log_date & "," & logout_time & "," & the_time & return) to file login_file starting at eof
		end if
	end if
end repeat
--if the list contains January see if the selected month comes before or after January.  Adjust the year accordingly.
on yearCheck(selected_month, the_months)
	if the_months contains "Jan" then
		repeat with x from 1 to count of the_months
			if item x of the_list contains selected_month then
				set the_num to x
			else
				if item x of the_list contains "Jan" then
					set jan_num to x
				end if
			end if
		end repeat
		set year_check to (the_num - jan_num)
		if year_check is greater than 0 then
			set the_year to ((year of (current date)) - 1)
		else
			set the_year to (year of (current date))
		end if
	else
		set the_year to (year of (current date))
	end if
	return the_year
end yearCheck
on MonthNumber(the_month)
	if the_month = "Jan" then
		set the_month to "01"
	else
		if the_month = "Feb" then
			set the_month to "02"
		else
			if the_month = "Mar" then
				set the_month to "03"
			else
				if the_month = "Apr" then
					set the_month to "04"
				else
					if the_month = "May" then
						set the_month to "05"
					else
						if the_month = "Jun" then
							set the_month to "06"
						else
							if the_month = "Jul" then
								set the_month to "07"
							else
								if the_month = "Aug" then
									set the_month to "08"
								else
									if the_month = "Sep" then
										set the_month to "09"
									else
										if the_month = "Oct" then
											set the_month to "10"
										else
											if the_month = "Nov" then
												set the_month to "11"
											else
												if the_month = "Dec" then
													set the_month to "12"
												end if
											end if
										end if
									end if
								end if
							end if
						end if
					end if
				end if
			end if
		end if
	end if
	return the_month as string
end MonthNumber