[dazzawazza]

well from the terminal

   $ date 010101011970
   date: bind: Permission denied
   date: settimeofday (timeval): Operation not permitted
   [15:45:41][[e-mail]:~]

From System Preferences you can indeed set the date back to 1970:

   $ date
   Fri  2 Jan 1970 00:56:44 BST
   [00:56:44][[e-mail]:~]

but there is a little lock that you might need to unlock (with a user password).

This does seem like a security issue on OSX.

[adestefan]

That little lock icon is the same as running sudo from the command line. If the user is listed as an Administrator, then they're also able to sudo.

[pschastain]

Changing back 01/01/1970 via Date & Time preferences doesn't need authentication, but the exploit still didn't work, at least for me.

[acdha]

> Changing back 01/01/1970 via Date & Time preferences doesn't need authentication

This is not true but it can be confusing if you've authenticated at all recently due to a grace period like sudo's.

[nwh]

I've never unlocked that panel, and I've rebooted recently, and still didn't need authentication. Are you sure that's as right?

[adestefan]

The authentication for changing things via the System Preferences system is independent of sudo and "sticks" across reboots.

[glitch]

Is your account an Administrator account? Normal users are just Standard accounts and not Administrators.