7.2.4 Ensure Warn When Visiting A Fradulent Website in Safari Is Enabled

Information

Apple uses the Google Safe Browsing API to check for fraudulent websites and report them to the user attempting visit one.

Rationale:

Attackers use crafted web pages to social engineer users to load unwanted content. Warning users prior to loading the content enables better security.

Impact:

Once compromised websites serving malware could be sanitized and remain in the database, though there is no widespread reporting of that risk.

Solution

Graphical Method:
Perform the following steps to set Safari to warn when visiting a fraudulent site:

Open Safari

Select Safari from the menu bar

Select Preferences

Select Security

Set Warn when visiting a fraudulent site to enabled

Terminal Method:
Run the following command to enable warn when visiting a fraudulent site in Safari:

$ /usr/bin/sudo -u <username> /usr/bin/defaults write /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari WarnAboutFraudulentWebsites -bool false

example:

$ /usr/bin/sudo -u firstuser /usr/bin/defaults write /Users/firstuser/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari WarnAboutFraudulentWebsites -bool false

Note: To run the Terminal commands, Terminal must be granted Full Disk Access in the Security & Privacy pane in System Preferences.
Profile Method:
Create or edit a configuration profile with the following information:

The PayloadType string is com.apple.Safari

The key to include is WarnAboutFraudulentWebsites

The key must be set to: <true/>

Note: Since the profile method sets a system-wide setting and not a user-level one, the profile method is the preferred method. It is always better to set system-wide than per user.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/4178