Stop and start Symantec Endpoint Protection on OS X

README.md

This script enables you stop and start Symantec Endpoint Protection on OS X

Installation

sudo curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/steve-jansen/61a189b6ab961a517f68/raw/sep -o /usr/local/bin/sep
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/sep
sudo chown root:staff /usr/local/bin/sep

/etc/sudoers

If your user account is not a member of the admin group (i.e., not an OS X Administrator), you need to add the following line to /etc/sudoers using sudo visudo tool:

myusername ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/sep

Example

me:~$ sep stop
/usr/local/bin/sep: relaunching as sudo /usr/local/bin/sep
/usr/local/bin/sep: unloading Symantec Endpoint Protection daemon
/usr/local/bin/sep: unloading Symantec Endpoint Protection shared settings daemon
/usr/local/bin/sep: closing Symantec Endpoint Protection UI widget

me:~$ sudo /usr/local/bin/sep start
/usr/local/bin/sep: relaunching as sudo /usr/local/bin/sep
/usr/local/bin/sep: loading Symantec Endpoint Protection daemon
/usr/local/bin/sep: unloading Symantec Endpoint Protection shared settings daemon
/usr/local/bin/sep: launching Symantec Endpoint Protection UI widget

sep

#!/bin/bash

# relaunch with sudo if we aren't root
if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then
   echo "$0: relaunching as sudo $0 $1 $USER"
   sudo "$0" $1 $USER
   exit $?
fi

real_user=$USER
if [ -n "$2" ]; then
  real_user=$2
fi

stop() {
  echo $0: unloading Symantec Endpoint Protection daemon
  launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symantec.symdaemon.*plist

  echo $0: unloading Symantec Endpoint Protection shared settings daemon
  launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symantec.sharedsettings.*plist

  echo $0: closing Symantec Endpoint Protection UI widget as $real_user
  sudo -u $real_user launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/com.symantec.uiagent.application.*plist
}

start() {
  echo $0: loading Symantec Endpoint Protection daemon
  launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symantec.symdaemon.*plist

  echo $0: loading Symantec Endpoint Protection shared settings daemon
  launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symantec.sharedsettings.*plist

  echo $0: launching Symantec Endpoint Protection UI widget as $real_user
  sudo -u $real_user launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/com.symantec.uiagent.application.*plist
}

case "$1" in
  start)
    start
    ;;
  stop)
    stop
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 [start|stop]"
    ;;
esac

Stopping SEP on OS 10.15 (Catalina)

OS 10.15 has started using systemextensionsctl to manage extensions, and Symantec is one of the first companies to use this.

Steps:

1. Install the sep tool as described above under Installation.
2. To use systemextensionsctl on OS 10.15, you need to disable System Integrity Protection. This requirement may be removed in future OS X releases, and it only needs to be done once.
   1. First, boot into recovery mode by restarting your Mac and hold Command+R as it boots.
   2. Launch terminal from the Utilities menu.
   3. Type csrutil disable.
   4. Reboot.
3. To kill all Symantec processes:
   1. Run sep stop as an admin user.
   2. Run systemextensionsctl list:

   enabled	active	teamID	bundleID (version)	name	[state]
   	9PTGMPNXZ2	com.symantec.mes.systemextension (10.0.0/10.0.0)	Symantec System Extension	[terminated waiting to uninstall on reboot]
   

   1. Run systemextensionsctl uninstall 9PTGMPNXZ2 com.symantec.mes.systemextension. (The team ID may be different for you. Please send feedback whether or not your installation of SEP has the same teamID.) Note that this command must be run by an admin user while logged into the OS X GUI. This is necessary because the systemextensionsctl command requests a password via dialog box.

After that the issue of network functionality still hasn't been resolved.

Thanks, it works!

Thank you very much! Very helpful

@crkrenn, I can confirm that I can see the same team ID '9PTGMPNXZ2' for 'com.symantec.mes.systemextension' but I also see another service with following ID:

enabled	active	teamID	bundleID (version)	name	[state]
*	*	Y2CCP3S9W7	com.broadcom.mes.systemextension (9.0.4/9.0.4)	Symantec System Extension	[activated enabled]

I uninstalled both.

UPDATED:

Like previous commenters have noted, once I run sep stop then the machine cannot not access internet at all. (Even with com.broadcom.mes.systemextension already deactivated and uninstalled.

Thanks, Very helpful 👍

Thank you so much !

It did not kill com.broadcom.mes.systemextension? How to include some process to kill mentioned process?