Security issues on macOS Cataline for command line users

catalina.md

NOTE: The latest version is at https://docwhat.org/upgrading-to-catalina

For those upgrading to macOS Catalina!

To allow running programs, go to the “Security & Privacy” system preference, click on the “Privacy” tab, scroll down to “Developer Tools” and add (and check) all the terminal programs you use.

Example(s):

• Terminal.app (comes with macOS).
• iTerm.app
• kitty.app

The “Developer Tools” access permission allows the terminals to ignore the quarantine and “SecAssessment” rejections.

The quarantine flag

This is probably the biggest cause of issues. Removing it will fix most things.

To see the quarantine flag:

0082;5db07289;Safari;```

To remove the quarantine flag:

```console
$ xattr -d com.apple.quarantine <name-of-executable>
# OR for .app bundles
$ xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine <name-of-app>.app

Security Assessment

This can cause problems but is probably not the real issue.

To see the assessment:

$ spctl --assess <name-of-executable-or-app>
<name-of-executable-or-app>: rejected

To approve the executable

$ spctl --add --label 'Approved' <name-of-executable-or-.app>

X-Code

If the App Store said something about failing to update X-Code then you have to delete X-Code and then re-install it.

Once deleted, the App Store will take about 30 seconds to remove it from the Updates page.

When X-Code disappears, you can re-install it and all should be well again.

If X-Code doesn’t disappear from the Updates page then you may have to use something like AppCleaner to remove the bits left over.