Now Apple users are frantically going through work arounds to fix the problem which involves connecting to your network via Wi-Fi and running a software update command in the Terminal.

Apple had this super, cool game-changing, innovation to update its System Integrity Protection. This is an El Capitan feature that is supposed to protects some system folders and keeps unsigned or incorrectly signed kernel extensions from loading.

However for some reason the update decided that the kernel extension used to enable the Ethernet port on Macs was blacklisted. It is fair enough, the Internet is a dangerous place for Apple fanboys and full of lots of temptations that their mothers would not approve. It is probably better if their expensive Macs shut down.

Apparently Apple has released a fix but of course you will not have an Ethernet connection to download it. This blacklist isn't updated through the Mac App Store like purchased apps or OS X itself. Apple uses a silent auto-update mechanism that executes in the background even if you haven't enabled normal automatic updates.

Why Apple blacklisted its own Ethernet kernel extension is anyone's guess; one theory suggests that the update may have been intended to go live after the release of OS X 10.11.4, which could include a newer patched kernel extensions. Another theory is that the outfit has been putting out progressively less functional software over recent years and does not really give a monkeys because people are buying their products anyway. Of course the latter is impossible, Apple loves its users.