Bug in macOS Ventura prevents security programs from working

MacOS Ventura contains a bug that prevents security programs from accessing the storage space to perform scans. Developers of these programs received complaints from users because of this. Apple has promised a fix that will arrive via an update.

Security researcher Csaba Fitzl discovered a vulnerability in Apple’s measures in macOS to ensure that programs couldn’t just access the entire contents of the hard drive and background processes. Apple released a fix for that, but the researcher couldn’t according to Wired bypass. The American company then released another fix, but again Fitzl worked around it. After Fitzl found a third workaround, Apple reportedly decided to redesign its entire system of security checks.

A bug in that new system now means that security programs no longer have access to the entire contents of a hard disk, nor to the necessary background processes for monitoring, for example. This jeopardizes their functioning. In some cases, access is given to accessibility features that programs don’t need access to to function properly.

“It was Apple’s right decision to redesign the concept of security checks,” Fitzl told Wired. “But it’s a bit of a shame that the changes happened in the beta of macOS Ventura released two weeks before the public release of the operating system, so there was not enough time to detect the problem.”

Users who have moved to macOS Ventura would be unaware of these issues with their security software, even if they do exist. There is a workaround for the bug. Users of macOS Ventura should reset security checks through System Preferences. This can be done by clicking the Security and privacy submenu and indicating which apps and services have access to the entire drive via the Privacy tab. With this option, the security programs with which problems have arisen must be deactivated and then enabled again. Apple has confirmed to Wired that it is working on a fix for the issue. That should come via a next software update.

Apple released macOS Ventura in late October. The biggest change to the operating system is the so-called Stage Manager, where recent apps remain as a dock on the left of the screen. Spotlight also gets more search functions.

macOS Ventura