alt Hacker NewsSecurity through obscurity is not a great idea. This is what Apple's current approach is. For instance if your iPhone is infected with malware, there is no anti-virus software that can find it, because Apple doesn't let software to have such deep access that is needed for scanning.
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That is a perverse use of "security through obscurity".
It's not security by obscurity. It's security by minimizing the attack service by being extremely picky about what you sign. When it is paramount that the code you sign is correct you can't go signing a ton of different projects from people who may not even care about security as much as you do.
>For instance if your iPhone is infected with malware
Then restarting it will remove it. So far Apple has had a perfect record with this unlike Android.
> Apple doesn't let software to have such deep access that is needed for scanning
Normalizing "security" software running in the background to "scan" things has proven a social and technical disaster. Users think it's normal to have such activity (and receive random "virus alerts"), leading to over two decades of social engineering scams, fraud, and malware-delivery. On top of that, "security" software has a habit of creating its own security holes and problems. Look at game anti-cheats (one was just on the front page the other day), the CrowdStrike incident, etc.
OS vendors should simply deliver a secure OS. That isn't easy, but it's still easier and more reliable than shipping third-party "security" software after the fact.