Intel-based Macs: "Don't Steal Mac OS" .kext file present on shipping machines

Several readers have noticed the presence of an interesting .kext file located in the /System/Library/Extensions folder on currently shipping Intel-based Macs.

The file is named "Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext," and generates the following information in its "Get Info" window:

"The purpose of this Apple software is to protect Apple copyrighted materials from unauthorized copying and use. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, transfer or redistribute this file, in whole or in part. If you have obtained a copy of this Apple software and do not have a valid license from Apple Computer to use it, please immediately destroy or delete it from your computer."

This 48 KB file is not found on the PowerPC version of Mac OS X 10.4.4.

Inside the package, there is a 28 KB file named "Don't Steal Mac OS X" that is apparently the active component of the kernel extension.

Apparently this file is part of Apple's mechanism for barring Mac OS X for Intel from being installed on generic Intel hardware.

According to a post at win2osx, the file includes six functions and several external calls and makes calls to EFI (the Open Firmware/BIOS replacement in Intel Macs)

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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