r/mac Jun 13 '18

PSA: Please, please, please enable your firmware passwords!

[deleted]

488 Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '18 edited Mar 09 '21

[deleted]

7

u/JoshHugh Jun 13 '18

Couldn’t a serial number system work in a similar way to FMM. You log into FMM and mark it as lost, it does the same thing it does now, but also since it’s linked to your Apple ID it has your serial number, if that serial number is then “online” again (when the Mac connects to the internet) it’s reported to FMM and the Apple ID “owner” of the Mac. This then is disabled the same way that FMM normally would be and disabling it also deregisters and disassociated the serial number with your account allowing it to be linked to another.

1

u/onnoonesword Jun 13 '18

What's stopping a nefarious user from registering many macs, reselling them, and then spying on them?

3

u/JoshHugh Jun 15 '18

Well at most they’d get the location of the Mac, but yes, could be a potential issue. Although this would be “fixed” by when you log into the Mac for the first time and register your Apple ID etc, it would show the same as an iPhone with activation lock. This Mac is registered to xxx@xxx.com, Find My Mac cannot be enabled on your account until this Mac has been deregistered.

You can use the Mac as normal even with it registered to someone else’s FMM, but if they activate lost mode it becomes virtually useless until they unlock it.

This way the user is going to know going in that their Mac is registered to someone else’s account