You can easily disable password hints in macOS by opening the System Preferences, clicking on the “Users & Groups” System Preference pane and then clicking on Login Options. From there, uncheck the box for “Show password hints” You can also disable this feature using the com.apple.loginwindow defaults domain. Send the following through a script to do so: defaults write com.apple.loginwindow RetriesUntilHint -int 0
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SIP-Protected Apps In macOS
The following is a list of application bundles that come pre-installed with macOS that are protected by SIP: /Applications/App Store.app /Applications/Automator.app /Applications/Calculator.app /Applications/Calendar.app /Applications/Chess.app /Applications/Contacts.app /Applications/DVD Player.app /Applications/Dashboard.app /Applications/Dictionary.app /Applications/FaceTime.app /Applications/Font Book.app /Applications/Game Center.app /Applications/Image Capture.app /Applications/Launchpad.app /Applications/Mail.app /Applications/Maps.app /Applications/Messages.app /Applications/Mission Control.app /Applications/Notes.app /Applications/Photo Booth.app /Applications/Photos.app /Applications/Preview.app /Applications/QuickTime Player.app /Applications/Reminders.app /Applications/Safari.app /Applications/Siri.app /Applications/Stickies.app /Applications/System Preferences.app /Applications/TextEdit.app /Applications/Time Machine.app /Applications/Utilities /Applications/iBooks.app /Applications/iTunes.app /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app /Applications/Utilities/AirPort Utility.app /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup.app /Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth File Exchange.app /Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app /Applications/Utilities/ColorSync Utility.app /Applications/Utilities/Console.app /Applications/Utilities/Digital Color Meter.app /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app /Applications/Utilities/Grab.app /Applications/Utilities/Grapher.app /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access.app /Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app /Applications/Utilities/Script Editor.app /Applications/Utilities/System Information.app /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app /Applications/Utilities/VoiceOver Utility.app /Applications/Utilities/X11.app Note: Files located in /System, /usr, /bin, and /sbin are recursively protected as well.
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Setup The Caching Service On macOS High Sierra
High Sierra sees the Caching service moved out of macOS Server and into the client macOS. This means administrators no longer need to run the Server app on caching servers. Given the fact that the Caching service only stores volatile data easily recreated by caching updates again, there’s no need to back the service up, and it doesn’t interact with users or groups, so it’s easily divested from the rest of the Server services. And the setup of the Caching service has never been easier. To do so, first open System Preferences and click on the Sharing System Preferences pane. From here, click on the checkbox for Content Caching to…
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Create Bootable Installation Media For High Sierra Installations
A bootable installer is one of the fastest ways to install a Mac. Rather than copy the installer to a local drive you can run it right off a USB disk (or Thunderbolt if you dare). Such a little USB drive would be similar to the sticks that came with the older MacBook Air, when we were all still sitting around wondering how you would ever install the OS on a computer with no optical media or Ethernet otherwise. Luckily, Apple loves us. To make a bootable USB/flash drive of High Sierra like the one that used to come with the MacBook Air, first name the USB drive. I’ll use hsinstall…
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Install macOS Server 5.4 On A Mac Running macOS 10.13 (High Sierra)
The first thing you’ll want to do on any server is setup the networking for the computer. To do this, open the System Preferences and click on Network. You usually want to use a wired Ethernet connection on a server, but in this case we’ll be using Wi-Fi. Here, click on the Wi-Fi interface and then click on the Advanced… button. At the setup screen for the interface, provide a good static IP address. Your network administrator can provide this fairly easily. Here, make sure you have an IP address and a subnet mask. Since we need to install the Server app from the Mac App Store, and that’s on the Internet,…
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Manage Groups In macOS Server 5.4 Running On High Sierra
There are a couple of ways to create groups in macOS Server 5.4, running on High Sierra. The first is using the Server app, the second is using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the third is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating groups in the directory service with the Server app. Once a server has been an Open Directory Master all user and group accounts created will be in the Local Network Group when created in Server app. Before that, all user and group objects are stored locally when created in Server app. Once promoted to an Open Directory server, groups are created in the…
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Delete User Configurable nvram In High Sierra (10.13)
A nifty little feature of nvram is the ability to delete all of the firmware variables you’ve created. This can get helpful if you’ve got a bunch of things that you’ve done to a system and want to remove them all. If you run nvkram followed by a -p option you’ll see all of the configured firmware variables: nvram -p If you run it with a -d you’ll delete the given variables that you define (e.g. boot-args): nvram -d boot-args But, if you run the -c you’ll wipe them all: nvram -c
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Use The Profiles Command In High Sierra
You might be happy to note that other than the ability to interpret new payloads, the profiles command mostly stays the same in High Sierra. You can still export profiles from Apple Configurator or Profile Manager (or some of the 3rd party MDM tools). You can then install profiles by just opening them and installing. Once profiles are installed on a Mac, mdmclient, a binary located in /usr/libexec will process changes such as wiping a system that has been FileVaulted (note you need to FileVault if you want to wipe an OS X Lion client computer). /System/Library/LaunchDaemons and /System/Library/LaunchAgents has a mdmclient daemon and agent respectively that start it up…
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Clear nvram in macOS High Sierra
Note: before you do anything with clearing nvram, keep in mind that doing so clears any kext whitelisting you may have done previously! macOS has the ability to delete all of the firmware variables you’ve created. This can get helpful if you’ve got a bunch of things that you’ve done to a system and want to remove them all. If you run nvram followed by a -p option you’ll see all of the configured firmware variables: nvram -p The output would be as follows: efi-boot-device-data %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03%0a%00%00%00%00%01%01%06%00%05%1c%01%01%06%00%00%00%03%12%0a%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%04%01*%00%02%00%00%00(@%06%00%00%00%00%00X%a8#:%00%00%00%00%eee6%da%00%0b%09G%82%c9%bd4wpQ%82%02%02%04%03$%00%f7%fct%be|%0b%f3I%91G%01%f4%04.hBw;%1a$%82%a3>D%92#%80%e9o%a9!%de%04%04%9a%00\%00A%003%000%006%00A%004%00F%00D%00-%00F%00F%00B%005%00-%003%00F%00A%002%00-%008%00D%00C%004%00-%00B%00F%007%003%00E%007%00F%003%008%00C%007%00E%00\%00S%00y%00s%00t%00e%00m%00\%00L%00i%00b%00r%00a%00r%00y%00\%00C%00o%00r%00e%00S%00e%00r%00v%00i%00c%00e%00s%00\%00b%00o%00o%00t%00.%00e%00f%00i%00%00%00%7f%ff%04%00 efi-boot-device <array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>241A3B77-A382-443E-9223-80E96FA921DE</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk1s2</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFilePath</string><key>Path</key><string>\A306A4FD-FFB5-3FA2-8DC4-BF73E7F38C7E\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi</string></dict></array>%00BootCampProcessorPstates %0c%00 bluetoothInternalControllerInfo %90%82%ac%05%00%000%14%f4\%89%adF%f prev-lang:kbd en:0 SystemAudioVolumeDB %e4efi-apple-recovery <array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>3D351489-745F-4434-89E0-DC914B49969F</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk0s1</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFilePath</string><key>Path</key><string>\EFI\APPLE\FIRMWARE\MBP121_0171_B00.fd</string></dict></array>%00previous-system-uuid A306A4FD-FFB5-3FA2-8DC4-BF73E7F38C7EbluetoothActiveControllerInfo %90%82%ac%05%00%00%00%000%14%f4\%89%adF%faALS_Data ^%0d%8a%8a%00%00%00%00backlight-level %10%02SystemAudioVolume GLocationServicesEnabled %01 If you run it with a -d you’ll delete the given…
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Use serverinfo in macOS Server 5.4 for High Sierra
macOS Server 5.4 (for High Sierra) comes with the /usr/sbin/serverinfo command (which was originally introduced in Mountain Lion Server). The serverinfo command is useful when programmatically obtaining information about the very basic state of an Apple Server. The first option indicates whether the Server app has been downloaded from the app store, which is the –software option: serverinfo --software When used, this option reports the following if the Server.app can be found: This system has server software installed. Or if the software cannot be found, the following is indicated: This system does NOT have server software installed. The –productname option determines the name of the software app: serverinfo --productname If you…