When setting up a new Mac, there can be a bunch of settings that need to be changed in order to get the system running the way you like it. That usually involves going through tons of System Preferences panes and app settings—but it doesn't have to. If you'd rather get everything set up using just one app and a couple of minutes, then you have to get used to firing up Terminal whenever you.
Sep 24, 2016 Gatekeeper, first introduced in OS X Mountain Lion, is a Mac security feature which prevents the user from launching potentially harmful applications.In macOS Sierra, however, Apple made some important changes to Gatekeeper that seemingly limit the choices of power users. But don’t worry, Gatekeeper can still be disabled in Sierra.
In the Keychain Access app on your Mac, in the Category list, select a category. Double-click a certificate. Click the Trust disclosure triangle to display the trust policies for the certificate. To override the trust policies, choose new trust settings from the pop-up menus.
In our recent post titled macOS 10.13 High Sierra Significantly Improves DisplayLink Performance & Stability we talked about how the latest update to macOS improved behavior when using a DisplayLink product (such as the Plugable UD-ULTCDL docking station). To go with that, we wanted to take a moment to discuss the Gatekeeper security feature introduced back in OS X 10.7 which has gone through some changes in High Sierra that may affect installation of some 3rd party device drivers used in devices from Plugable and other device manufacturers. For Plugable, the issue will only impact our products which don’t have drivers already built-in to macOS, such as our USB Docking Stations, USB Graphics Adapters, and USB Ethernet Adapters. Essentially this issue can affect any extensions not developed by Apple. Thankfully if you encounter this, there’s a simple process to fix. Keep reading for additional information and instructions.
In macOS 10.13 High Sierra, when installing new software and extensions, Gatekeeper now requires users to manually approve any new third-party extension before the computer can load and make use of the extension that was installed. This is important as many devices rely on extensions to function properly, and in some circumstances it can look like the software to power a device was installed but the device still doesn’t work. When this happens, users will see the below message:
If you suspect Gatekeeper is preventing an extension from loading, follow the below steps:
Open System Preferences and navigate to the Security & Privacy section.
In the General tab, look for a message at the bottom of the window stating “System software from developer DEVELOPER NAME was blocked from loading”, like in the screenshot below: For Plugable products, the developer listed in the message should be “DisplayLink Corp” for DisplayLink powered products (such as docking stations that do not use Thunderbolt 3 technology) and “WEI LU SU” for Plugable ethernet adapters that use ASIX chipsets (as of the time of writing this, all Plugable USB network adapters use ASIX chipsets).
Click Allow, and from there macOS should now be able to properly load and use the extensions and software that were installed.
Test things out! In some instances, you may need to restart the computer for the extension to properly load. So if it doesn’t work immediately, reboot the computer and the extension should load correctly.
Once an extension from a developer has been allowed, this makes the developer a ‘trusted’ source. Meaning that future extensions that are installed from the same developer should not be prevented by Gatekeeper from loading and should not need to have these steps repeated. However, software and extensions from other developers will encounter this same issue and you will need to follow these same steps.
For additional information on Gatekeeper and the behavior described in this post, check out the below Apple and DisplayLink support documents!
Feel free to share your experiences with High Sierra in the comments below, and if you’re having issues installing driver extensions for any of your Plugable products, please email [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!
macOS Compatibility
Unfortunately, due to changes in macOS 10.15 Catalina and support for third-party drivers, we are unable to continue support for macOS with our ASIX USB to Ethernet adapters (USB3-E1000, USBC-E1000, USB2-E1000, USB2-E100, USB2-OTGE100). Our USB3-HUB3ME and future USB to Ethernet adapters will use Realtek based chipsets that utilize drivers built into macOS.
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A new security flaw has been found in macOS that could allow malicious apps to bypass Apple’s built-in “Gatekeeper” security feature. Most significantly, this bug affects even most recent 10.14.5 update that was released earlier this month to address the ZombieLoad Intel hardware vulnerability.
Gatekeeper is a security feature that was introduced back in 2012 in OS X Mountain Lion designed to flag apps from untrusted developers, preventing them from running without explicit user permission. Registered and trusted Apple developers are allowed to digitally sign their apps, and Gatekeeper kicks in when the user tries to run an unsigned app that they’ve downloaded from outside of the Mac App Store.
However, it seems that a loophole has been discovered in the Gatekeeper process. Security researcher Filippo Cavallarin discovered the flaw, publicizing it on his blog, as reported by 9to5Mac.
The problem is in the way that Apple has designed the feature, which considers external drives and network shares to be “safe locations” to run unsigned apps from. While the reasons for this decision on Apple’s part are unclear, it’s likely designed to allow users in business and school environments to easily open shared apps without having to jump through extra and possibly confusing, hoops.
Unfortunately, it’s relatively simple for a malicious app to trick a user into mounting a network share drive — even from over the internet — subsequently allowing anything in that folder to be run without consulting the Gatekeeper process.
Cavallarin offers some additional technical details and examples for ways in which this exploit could be taken advantage of by bad actors, highlighting not only the Gatekeeper limitations concerning network shares, but also the default behaviour of macOS to automatically mount network shares via a special path.
As Cavallarin explains, a ZIP archive could contain a special file that links to a network location (known as a “symbolic link” or “symlink”). This special file could be crafted in such a way as to make the user think that they need to click on it for some legitimate reason, which would then take them to a network share that’s completely trusted by Gatekeeper, but controlled by the attacker. Cavallarin even provides specific steps on his blog that can be used to reproduce the exploit with minimal effort.
Both the automatic mounting of network shares and the ability to include “symlinks” in ZIP files are legitimate features of macOS, Cavallarin notes, but because of the way Gatekeeper automatically trusts ANY network share, they open up very real possibilities for malicious software to get installed onto a user’s computer without them realizing it.
Cavallarin also provides a video of the exploit in action, showing how it could even be used to provide an attacker with full remote access to the target computer by tricking the user into clicking on an app that’s disguised as a folder of important PDF documents.
Mac How To Allow Apps From Unidentified Developers
According to Cavallarin’s post, he contacted Apple on February 22 to make them aware of the bug, which Apple said was supposed to be addressed on May 15th — presumably as part of macOS 10.14.5 and the related ZombieLoad security updates for Sierra and High Sierra. However, Cavallarin notes that “Apple started dropping [his] emails” and since he had given Apple a 90-day disclosure deadline, he decided to make the information public after he found that it still hadn’t been addressed in macOS 10.14.5.
Allow Apps From Unidentified Developers Mac Mojave
Until Apple addresses this issue, we’d recommend extreme caution when downloading apps outside of the Mac App Store, especially apps contained in ZIP files and/or those that look like they may require you to click on unusual files, folders, or other links. Cavallarin also suggests disabling the macOS automount feature as a “possible workaround” to increase security, although this requires editing a secure file through the macOS Terminal app, so it’s only recommended for advanced users who understand how to edit files as the root user.
How Do I Allow Apps From Unidentified Developers Mac Mojave
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