Snow Inventory Agent for MacOS 6
Here you can find the release notes for Snow Inventory Agent for MacOS 6. You can find the old release notes on the Snow Globe.
Be aware of the following identified vulnerabilities:
- CVE-2023-7169 and CVE-2024-1149, affecting versions prior to 7.0.0. For more information, refer to Inventory Agent Security Update on Snow Globe.
6.12.0 latest
Release date: 2024-01-24
Compatibility
Snow Inventory Agent for macOS 6.12.0 is compatible with the following versions:
| Snow Inventory Server | Extent |
|---|---|
| Version 6 | All supported versions |
| Version 5 | All supported versions (but Cloud Metering data will not be processed) |
Enhancements
Process monitoring
- The xMetering2 process has been improved and now uses less system memory. (04748047)
6.11.4
Release date: 2023-11-22
Compatibility
Snow Inventory Agent for macOS 6.11.4 is compatible with the following versions:
| Snow Inventory Server | Extent |
|---|---|
| Version 6 | All supported versions |
| Version 5 | All supported versions (but Cloud Metering data will not be processed) |
Corrections
-
Excluded file systems are no longer scanned when the parent folder is included (04739213).
-
Include paths now take priority over exclusions. Exclusion rules that match an include path are removed prior to traversal. This is to allow explicitly including folders that are otherwise located on excluded file systems.
-
When file systems are excluded in the agent configuration, these now completely replace the default excluded file systems.
-
The file scanner no longer performs unnecessary traversals when an include path lacks suffixes like “*” or “\”.
-
The Snow Inventory Agent for macOS no longer logs an uninstall extension error when Firefox policies directory doesn't exist (04738267)
-
The Snow Inventory Agent for macOS no longer crashes randomly during upgrades, caused by an Out of Bounds exception.
6.11.3
Release date: 2023-10-11
Compatibility
Snow Inventory Agent for macOS 6.11.3 is compatible with the following versions:
| Snow Inventory Server | Extent |
|---|---|
| Version 6 | All supported versions |
| Version 5 | All supported versions (but Cloud Metering data will not be processed) |
Enhancements
File Scanning
Version recognition for java archives
-
The priority of used fields has been changed to improve the accuracy of version recognition for jar files (04709640).
Corrections
- Daily metered usage will no longer exceed the maximum number of minutes in one day. Metering items are now updated properly when a new day is detected (04702850)
6.11.2
Release date: 2023-05-17
Compatibility
Snow Inventory Agent for macOS 6.11.2 is compatible with the following versions:
| Snow Inventory Server | Extent |
|---|---|
| Version 6 | All supported versions |
| Version 5 | All supported versions (but Cloud Metering data will not be processed) |
Corrections
-
The agent no longer logs uninstall Firefox extension error when Firefox is not installed on the system.(04688484)
-
Manifest files of the Chrome and Edge browser extensions are located in their own subdirectory to comply with vendor standards and produce data as expected when installed (04693687).
6.11.1
Release date: 2023-05-03
Compatibility
Snow Inventory Agent for macOS 6.11.1 is compatible with the following versions:
| Snow Inventory Server | Extent |
|---|---|
| Version 6 | All supported versions |
| Version 5 | All supported versions (but Cloud Metering data will not be processed) |
Corrections
- The Windows, Linux, and macOS agents now consistently extract the same version values from JAR-files; previously the priority differed depending on the platform.
6.11.0
Release date: 2023-04-05
Compatibility
Snow Inventory Agent for macOS 6.11.0 is compatible with the following versions:
| Snow Inventory Server | Extent |
|---|---|
| Version 6 | All supported versions |
| Version 5 | All supported versions (but Cloud Metering data will not be processed) |
Enhancements
File scanning
"Version" field fallback
-
The agent now uses “Implementation-Version” as an added fallback for the “Version” field when reading the version from Manifest.mf in JAR-files. As a result Snow Inventory Oracle Scanners are now identified as .jar files. (04624981, IDEAS-I-1893)
Corrections
- The behaviour of the agent has been changed so that files left behind in the “pending” folder are now deleted when downloading new updates. (04621873)
6.10.1
Release date: 2023-02-22
Compatibility
Snow Inventory Agent for macOS 6.10.1 is compatible with the following versions:
| Snow Inventory Server | Extent |
|---|---|
| Version 6 | All supported versions |
| Version 5 | All supported versions (but Cloud Metering data will not be processed) |
Enhancements
Communication
Agent to server communication
-
When the “send” command is run on the command line and there are no snowpacks available on the device the agent no longer calls home, reducing unnecessary communications with the server.
Corrections
- The agent now uses OpenSSL instead of macOS' native TLS library to allow the use of certificates without importing key files into the key-store. As OpenSSL itself doesn't look in the key-store for certificates, the agent retrieves them and makes them available locally for use by OpenSLL when communicating with TLS endpoints. (04595453)
6.10.0
Release date: 2023-02-01
Enhancements
Communication
Agent to server communication
-
When the “send” command is run on the command line and there are no snowpacks available on the device the agent no longer calls home, reducing unnecessary communications with the server.
Corrections
- The agent now uses OpenSSL instead of macOS' native TLS library to allow the use of certificates without importing key files into the key-store. As OpenSSL itself doesn't look in the key-store for certificates, the agent retrieves them and makes them available locally for use by OpenSLL when communicating with TLS endpoints. (04595453)
6.9.0
Release date: 2022-09-07
Complete release notes is found here
Enhancements
-
Depending on the system hardware specifications, file scanning may now run in a shorter time, thanks to parallel execution.
-
The browser extensions for Microsoft IE11 and Edge legacy are now removed due to being out of support.
-
The installation and uninstallation procedures for the browser extensions have been changed with the following logic, for the system settings saas.chrome.enabled, saas.edge.enabled and saas.firefox.enabled.
Corrections
-
The agent is now able to scan processor information on Apple Silicon (04542519)
-
The agent is now able to scan processor information on Apple Silicon (04542519)
6.8.3
Release date: 2022-05-24
Complete release notes is found here
FIX – When matching certain filenames, the agent scanning process filename comparison is no longer case-sensitive.
FIX – Java Archives (.jar files) without a name in their META-INF/MANIFEST.MF are once again included in the scan result. (04560088)
FIX – Exclusion paths now allow the use of the exp: prefix to do full-path matching instead of by directory/file part. (04561284)
6.8.2
Release date: 2021-09-27
Complete release notes is found here
Enhancements
-
The agent reports the resulting status of scanning the computer for swidtag files, together with the resulting content; this will enable future releases of Snow Inventory Server and Snow License Manager to better handle recognition of added, removed, or changed software.
Corrections
-
The agent does not report the IP address in the scan results manifest when the configuration file’s “privacy.hide_ip” setting has the value “false”.
-
The agent collects information on the Java runtime environment installation from its manifest instead of the executable output (04512839).
-
To avoid duplication of users when the agent reports on application usage, the username format always begins with the domain or computer name. Note: Existing users are not removed from the database and must be managed in Snow License Manager (04504074).
-
The agent is now able to communicate with its configured endpoints using HTTPS (04520258).
6.8.0
Release date: 2021-09-15
New
- Support for Apple M1 chip. To facilitate having a complete visibility over the user computing estate, Snow Inventory Agent for macOS now natively supports both Apple M1 chips and Intel chips. All of the Agent’s binary files are built as universal binary files, so the support for the Apple Silicon architecture is immediately available.
6.7.3
Release date: 2021-04-07
Complete release notes is found here
Corrections
-
The agent can now capture cloud application usage data from Safari on the most recent versions of macOS; this requires to also deploy an update to the Cloud Application Metering extension for Safari, available in the kb article with the same title (04471253).
-
The logic used to determine an application usage time has been improved to account for adjustments of the computer time (04464357).
-
The agent correctly includes the logs in the .snowpack scan-result file (04467427).
-
The logs related to installing or removing the Cloud Application Metering extension for Firefox are now reported at the verbose level (04467673).
-
The system setting “saas.safari.enabled“ in the configuration file is deprecated.
6.7.1
Release date: 2020-12-09
Complete release notes is found here
Corrections
-
Inventory Agent reports the correct user who had accessed a cloud application on updated macOS installations, version 10.15.6 and later (04452083).
-
Inventory Agent can make the browser run the cloudmeteringhost process on updated versions of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
-
Inventory Agent can make the browser run the cloudmeteringhost process when the browser extension is deployed using third-party tools. This is applicable for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.
-
Inventory Agent implements an alternative way of deploying the browser extension for Mozilla Firefox to account for changes in macOS Big Sur (version 11).
6.7.0
Release date: 2020-11-11
Complete release notes is found here
New
- Cloud Application Metering for Mozilla Firefox
6.6.0
Release date: 2020-09-30
Complete release notes is found here
New
-
Cloud Application Metering for Chromium-based Microsoft Edge
-
Cloud Application Metering for Safari
Enhancements
- Encryption of Cloud Application metering data
6.5.2
Release date: 2020-06-17
Complete release notes is found here
Corrections
- The Snow Inventory Agent for macOS can now correctly install the cloud metering extension for Google Chrome (PRB0043129).
6.5.1
Release date: 2020-04-22
Complete release notes is found here
Corrections
- The Snow Inventory Agent for macOS can now report non-universal binary files, allowing recognition of some applications (PRB0043150).
6.4.1
Release date: 2020-02-07
Complete release notes is found here
Corrections
- Support has been implemented for the installation package’s notarization when using the latest version of Apple notarization service.
6.4.0
Release date: 2019-11-27
Complete release notes is found here
New
-
Support for macOS 10.15 (Catalina) – Notarization (a security measure) of the inventory agent and installation packages has been implemented in order to meet the security requirements that Apple are enforcing in macOS Catalina.
Corrections
- Cloud metering data is now stored with the correct domain name information. Previously, domain data stored in the wrong format would cause the cloud metering data to not show up at all in Snow License Manager. (PRB0042809).
6.3.0
Release date: 2019-09-25
Complete release notes is found here
New
-
It is now possible to configure the Agent to never retrieve updates from its configured endpoint(s).
Corrections
-
The agent now reports the client’s system enclosure type correctly on non-portable macOS systems (PRB0042505).
-
The agent now removes empty snowpack files to prevent issues with some external proxy configuration (PRB0042532)
6.2.0
Release date: 2019-06-26
Complete release notes is found here
New
-
Browser extension for Safari: Cloud-application metering for Safari is now supported. When cloud-application metering is enabled in Snow Inventory Admin Console, the MacOS agent monitors SaaS applications accessed through Safari via a browser extension installed on the target machine. The agent gathers metering data for SaaS applications running in Safari, as well as the name of the browser. This data is packaged together with the normal inventory scan of the target machine and sent to Snow Inventory Server for storage and processing.
Corrections
-
The agent will no longer report a new login event for a user when xMetering is enabled and a new process is executed within the user context (PRB0041592).
-
The agent will no longer generate a file with extension .met_invalid when processing invalid metering data. (PRB0042371).
-
Significantly reduced the memory used by the xMetering process when recording a large amount of information in the log files (PRB0042292).
6.1.0
Release date: 2019-05-16
New
-
NEW- Public key pinning
Enhancements
-
Operating-system name in the manifest
Corrections
-
When the agent tries to retrieve information about AFPS volumes on machines running macOS Sierra (10.2) or earlier, it hangs indefinitely as the disk utility is only supported on higher versions of the operating system. The agent now runs AFPS-related commands on machines running macOS High Sierra 10.3 or later.
-
The Snow macOS Agent can once again be configured using a relative path for the custom encryption key.
-
In some cases, it is not possible for the agent to extract the install date for an application from the local machine. Previously, the agent entered the scan date into this field. It now leaves the install date field empty so that incorrect data is not presented to the user in Snow License Manager (PRB0041783).
6.0.1
Release date: 2018-10-15
Enhancements
-
A new agent configuration setting has been added, http.timeout. This setting defines the timeout value, in seconds, for requests to the server endpoint. The default value is 15 seconds.
Corrections
- Corrected a bug that caused the agent to not be able to create inventory files, if the script-output folder is missing.
6.0.0
Release date: 2018-09-27
Enhancements
-
Official support for macOS Mojave
-
To align with Apple’s announcement that support for applications built on 32-bit architecture will cease, the macOS agent are now built with a 64-bit architecture.
-
Scanning of environment variables can now be enabled/disabled, using the system setting software.scan.environmentvariables in agent configuration. This parameter is enabled by default.
-
Functionality to detect and gather information about NVMe-disks on newer MacBooks has been added to the agent. Full utilization of this functionality is dependent on an upcoming release of Inventory Server.
-
The agent can now gather detailed information from the APFS file system introduced in macOS High Sierra.
-
The curl library has been updated to maintain compatibility and ensure that the latest vulnerability patches included in these libraries are applied, such as the most recent release of the communication protocol TLS 1.2.
-
The request header sent to the server now includes site name. In the future, this data will enable the Inventory Server to block unwanted agents more efficiently.
-
The capability to gather information from local disks has been upgraded to support new Apple file systems and hardware. Full utilization of this functionality is dependent on an upcoming release of Inventory Server (PRB0041131).
Corrections
-
The agent now reports the correct number of physical cores when Hyper-Threading is enabled on the machine being scanned. (PRB0040911).
-
If BIOS date is unavailable, this field will remain empty – overriding the previous solution, which assigned it with the scan date (PRB0041129).
-
The agent no longer causes a segmentation error when the running update-package command is run from the command line (PRB0041672).
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LIMITATION- This version is compatible with Inventory Server 6.0.0 and later.
-
LIMITATION- Version 10.7 and earlier versions of OSX are not supported.
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