February 2025 – MacAdmins Meeting

February 2025 – MacAdmins Meeting

February 19th, 2025 – University of Utah, MacAdmins Meeting


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The University of Utah, MacAdmins Meeting is held monthly virtually on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 11 AM Mountain Time. Presentations cover Apple technology and integration in a heterogeneous university enterprise environment. This month’s meeting will be held on Wed, February 19th, 2025 at 11 AM MT and we will provide live broadcasts and archives that will be made available 2-3 days after the meeting.

Management Through Automation – Oscar Reyes & Andrew Barnett, Texas A&M


This presentation will be about two new workflows we have been working on. One of them updates a deployment based on Microsoft Entra user group membership. The other one takes care of automatically fixing enrollment accounts/LAPS accounts across our fleet. A deployment based on user group membership on Entra relies on the Jamf Pro and Microsoft Graph APIs to make necessary updates on the Jamf Server. This deployment is also a user-based deployment which is a first for us.

ReEnroll is designed to automate the re-enrollment process of devices into Jamf Pro. It is particularly useful in situations where the Jamf-managed local administrator password is not correct, and it needs to be updated in Jamf Pro, or when other re-enrollment scenarios arise, such as updating device inventory or reassigning devices to different sites.  



About Oscar Reyes

I graduated from Texas A&M University with a computer engineering degree back in 2018. I have around 8 years of IT experience and am currently a Systems Administrator II for Texas A&M. I like finding ways to automate repetitive tasks by finding scalable and efficient solutions to free up time for myself, my team, and my customers.

About Andrew Barnett

I have over 14 years of experience in the IT field, working across both Mac and Windows environments. For the past five years, my focus has been on Apple endpoint management using Jamf, where I specialize in designing and implementing solutions that streamline workflows and enhance the end-user experience. I’m passionate about exploring innovative projects that challenge me to learn new skills while pushing the boundaries of efficiency and usability

  • Video – To view the archived presentation video, click here.
  • Slides – To view the archived presentation slides, click here.

Electron Security: Making your Mac (and PC) a worse place? – Mykola Grymalyuk , RIPEDA Consulting


Many Mac power users complain of Electron’s size and performance issues for a glorified Chrome window but does keeping Electron applications on your Mac make it insecure? We’ll look at how some Electron configurations in widely used applications can make it easier for attackers to stay hidden and abuse both your trust and the OS’.

Then we’ll explore RIPEDA’s open-source tool, Lectricus, on how we use it to help discover potential security vulnerabilities in Electron applications on macOS, Windows, and even Linux.

Finally, we’ll discuss how Apple’s Endpoint Security Framework can be used to catch and stop these attacks.


About Mykola Grymalyuk

Mykola Grymalyuk is the Lead Security and Software Engineer at RIPEDA Consulting, with a focus on offensive application security research in Mac Admin environments. He additionally leads the open-source project, OpenCore Legacy Patcher, working to get long neglected Macs running the latest releases of macOS for a few more years of life.

  • Video – To view the archived presentation video, click here.
  • Slides – To view the archived presentation slides, click here.

What’s New with DFU Blaster (Pro) & MDS – Timothy Perfitt, Twocanoes Software


Join us as we explore the latest updates in DFU Blaster, DFU Blaster Pro, and Mac Deploy Stick (MDS). We’ll begin by highlighting DFU Blaster (Free)—the perfect tool for putting Apple Silicon Macs into DFU mode quickly and efficiently. Next, we’ll showcase the enhanced capabilities of DFU Blaster Pro, including multi-Mac restoration, Acroname Hub integration, automatic DFU mode, and serial number capture with QR codes for streamlined deployments.

We’ll also cover updates to MDS, Twocanoes’ popular macOS deployment tool, focusing on its expanded automation features for deploying macOS, apps, and configurations without requiring complex infrastructure.

Whether managing a few Macs or deploying hundreds, discover how these tools can make your workflows faster, easier, and more reliable. Get ready for a deep dive into features designed for MacAdmins handling Apple Silicon devices at scale!

About Timothy Perfitt

Timothy Perfitt is the Founder and President of Twocanoes Software located in Naperville, IL. Tim started Twocanoes Software after a decade of working at Apple, Inc., in engineering. He is the creator of Winclone, Boot Runner, MDS, Smart Card Utility, and many more successful products focused on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. His most recent open-source project, XCreds, provides a powerful and secure way to authenticate to cloud providers from the Mac. Tim is focused on macOS and iOS authentication, including certificate-based authentication, smart cards, remote access, and code signing. Tim has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University and a Masters Degree from California State University. Tim enjoys renovating his grandfather’s Model A and going to the dog park with his two labs.

  • Video – To view the archived presentation video, click here.
  • Slides – To view the archived presentation slides, click here.



Open Discussion


Questions, comments, problems, and fixes.

Directions


This meeting will not be held in person but virtually via Zoom video communications architecture.

With Zoom we will implement the following security best practices:
 
  • Require a Password to Join This meeting will require a password to join the meeting. Information will be emailed via a campus internal list, but if you are external and want to attend the meeting, please use the Contact Us form to receive details. Else, the archive of the meeting will be available 2-3 days after the live meeting.

  • Waiting Room When joining the meeting you will be placed in the Waiting Room by default and the hosts will give you access to the live meeting.

  • Miscellaneous We will also implement other settings and safeguards to secure the meeting.

Archived Presentation(s)


  • Archives of the presentations will be available on this web page.
2 Comments
  • M Widget
    Posted at 09:00h, 19 February Reply

    I’d like to join the MacAdmins webinar today, Feb 19th. Thanks.

    • Richard Glaser
      Posted at 07:56h, 20 February Reply

      Hi:

      Sorry, just saw this comment, sent email to you previously with details.

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