Daring Fireball★ Apple Exclaves and the Secure Design of the MacBook Neo’s On-Screen Camera Indicator
https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/apple_enclaves_neo_camera_indicator
https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/apple_enclaves_neo_camera_indicator
Robert Stein@daringfireball You may recall this incident in the Philadelphia suburbs. Given the expected educational use of these devices it’s good to know the students are protected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District
Frank Malinowski@daringfireball @gruber Is the word "blits" a typo in Guilherme's text message?
John Gruber
dmitriiddmitriid (@[email protected])
A solution in search of a problem that was never there. "Exclaves", "isolated environments", "bliting onto screen". Instead of a light that turns on when camera turns on
Leon Cowle@daringfireball The one concern I'll still have about an onscreen indicator vs an indicator inside a notch or inside a bezel, is that you can manipulate the pixels *around* that area (background or menu bar background). So, sure, you might not be able to (easily) prevent that green indicator from being shown, but presumably cleverly crafted apps (especially ones running in full screen mode) or socially engineered attempts to convince people to install "pretty" looking backgrounds can change the background around that area to make the indicator very hard to *see*?
@leoncowle I propose you try to mock up such a thing, that wouldn't look really weird, ugly, and suspicious.
@gruber I don't disagree, but have you seen the shit people install (visual and otherwise)? "Ugly & suspicious" aren't disqualifiers, sadly!
Anyway, not trying to belabor the point. I commend Apple's implementation of this security feature, absent a purely hardware one.
Magnus Ahltorp
@ahltorp @leoncowle Do you think people wouldn’t notice that?
@gruber @leoncowle I do think most people would not be suspicious, yes.
It is also what I had time to do in a couple of hours. This pattern is secure against them having a quite large black border around the dot, which I got the impression they don’t, so it’s probably unnecessarily conservative.
I don’t have access to the hardware and thus the exact behaviour of the dot, so that limits me somewhat.
mrleblanc101@daringfireball not surprising considering that's how it always worked on iOS. iOS devices never had an hardware indicator light.
Saagar Jha@daringfireball Your presumption is correct. The indicator light is still software and this still means it is susceptible to compromise as all software is, in a way that a hardwired indicator cannot be. Sophisticated exploits achieve privileges beyond the kernel’s all the time.
@daringfireball The solution they picked does make it non-trivial to bypass and it is a good choice if a hardwired indicator is not available. However it is still substantially less secure than having one, and Apple knows it.