Yeah, that's not even a valid excuse! Once a user manually selects a file, the macOS sandbox also gives an app access to any "associated" files like subtitles, automatically:
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Se...
(search for "subtitle" on that page)
Let me try to explain better: There was a thread here in HN about a Google Cloud outage and someone posted a link to a Zoom conference. I noticed that their app was still installed after clicking the given link. This happened to other people too:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20077805
I wonder if it's a coincidence!
...but you can still delete whatever you want out of System32 (though it may grow back), and you can add your own things, and dll hijacking is an issue etc. Just when it comes to kernel code are the protections better.
I might be remembering it wrong, but I thought it was definitely a good thing and definitely a step forward.
I wish that would happen more often. With so many things moving to the web there's not that many excuses left to sacrifice security and stability for backwards compatibility.
But my point is that Zoom shouldn't even have been able to install that server on my system in the first place. It's my computer, so I should have been asked before. Same for Google Keystone Updater.
I might be saying that to the wrong audience, but I think Apple is being overly cautious not to bother developers and power users at the expense of security on the desktop. Not as if other OSs are better – just this week my flash drive came back with a Windows virus after I sent it to a print shop –, but still.
In this specific case it shouldn't be possible to run without SIP outside of safe mode IMO, but it's still possible because some people need to run unsigned kexts and other hacks.
It's the same thing with the sandbox. I've seen a lot of developers making excuses not to publish on the App Store because they need things like unlimited access to home directory for whatever reason and the sandbox restricts them. Last excuse I saw was "we need to scan for subtitles". Yeah, right.