Apple wants to make it difficult or impossible in macOS 11 Big Sur that installed programs can control or block the Internet connections of the manufacturer’s services. For this purpose, Apple has integrated an exclusion list of over 50 of its own apps and processes into the operating system: This includes services such as FaceTime, software updates, the App Store and Apple’s push service as developers warn. These processes can thus bypass network filters at program level and also VPN apps.

Kernel extensions have had their day Apple’s exclusion list “ContentFilterExclusionList” already exists in macOS 10. 15 Catalina, but in this version of the operating system network filters such as the firewall tool Little Snitch are still able to work as kernel extensions (Network Kernel Extensions) and thus also keep Apple’s connections on the list See and block services at system level – despite the exclusion list.

With macOS 11 Big Sur this is prevented: Apple has classified the kernel extensions as obsolete since 2019. They are being replaced by various “system extensions” that no longer run in the kernel space but in the user space and can therefore no longer intervene so deeply in the operating system. The manufacturer’s services on the exclusion list thus remain invisible to installed apps, as security researcher Patrick Wardle confirmed.

Apple data traffic can no longer be blocked In macOS 11 users are no longer able to see a list of all network connections directly on their Mac and certain Apple -Block apps or services, as Trip-Mode developer David Dudok de Wit explains. As a result, the data-saving tool Trip Mode will no longer be able to block Apple services in order to save data while on the move, if the Mac establishes its Internet connection while on the move, for example via tethering over the cellular network.

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