macOS

Hi!

I recently updated from macOS Monterey to macOS Sonoma, and I'm experiencing a bug that's driving me crazy.

I like to browse in Private Browsing so I don't have to deal with browser history, but I also like to manage my tabs manually, so I have "Safari opens with:" set to "All windows from last session".

My problem is that Safari opens my old tabs and a new empty one (didn't happen in Monterey), which I have to close manually. It's getting annoying. Does anyone know if there's a fix for it, or do I have to live with it?

Thanks in advance.

Video on what happens

I recently got a MacBook Air M2 that i generally use with bluetooth connected keyboard (keychron k9p) and mouse (Mx master). However, if I connect a Bluetooth headset (tried both AirPods and one from Jabra) the sound is cutting in and out. If I disconnect mouse or keyboard all is fine. Is this a known limitation of the MacBook?

I find it kinda strange that they remove ports left and right and then do not make sure to enable alternative means of connecting peripherals. Are there other workarounds than getting a docking station or hub?

Apple's Macs are less targeted by malware than Windows PCs, but that doesn't mean they are immune. Increasingly, insidious types of Mac malware are being developed that have researchers concerned enough to issue public warnings, and that's the case again today.

As reported by Hacker News, Cado Security has identified a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) targeting macOS users named "Cthulhu Stealer." First spotted in late 2023, the malicious software is designed to steal sensitive information from infected Macs, such as saved passwords from iCloud Keychain, information from web browsers, and even details from Telegram accounts. 

What's particularly concerning is that it's being sold as a service on the dark web for $500 per month, potentially allowing multiple bad actors to use it against unsuspecting Mac owners.

Cato Security researcher Tara Gould reportsthat Cthulhu Stealer disguises itself as popular software to trick users into installing it. It might appear as CleanMyMac, Grand Theft Auto IV, or even Adobe GenP (a tool some users employ to bypass Adobe's subscription model). The malware comes packaged as a disk image (DMG) file.

If a user tries to open the fake app, macOS's built-in security feature, Gatekeeper, warns that the software is unsigned. But if a user chooses to bypass this warning, the malware immediately asks for the user's system password, mimicking a legitimate system prompt. This technique isn't new – other Mac malware like Atomic Stealer and MacStealer use similar tricks.

Once it has the necessary permissions, Cthulhu Stealer can access and steal a wide range of sensitive data. For crypto users, it specifically targets MetaMask digital wallet information. All of this stolen data is then sent to the attackers' servers.

Notably, reports suggest that whoever designed Cthulu Stealer is no longer active, apparently following disputes over payments and accusations of scamming their own customers, i.e. other cybercriminals who were using the malware.

While Cthulhu Stealer isn't the most sophisticated malware out there, it's still a significant threat to Mac users who might be tricked into installing it. General security pointers include only downloading software from trusted sources like the App Store or official developer websites, being wary of any app asking for your system password during installation, and keeping your Mac updated with the latest security patches from Apple.

In macOS Sequoia, expected to be released in mid-September, Apple plans to remove the ability to easily override Gatekeeper warnings by Control-clicking. Instead, users will need to go through System Settings to allow unsigned software to run, adding an extra step that might make users think twice before running potentially dangerous apps.

My father is 75 and not very capable on a computer. He's got an old MacBook Air at home behind a typical ISP router for which he has no access controls (so no port forwarding).

My immediate need is actually not his machine at all, but the Raspberry Pi I installed at his house before I left the country and forgot to enable cron on so it's not doing what I need yet. However, it would be really nice if I could also do one of the following as well:

• VNC (or something) into his computer whenever something "isn't working" rather than doing the talk-him-through-it dance over Skype.
• Install a new OS (the Mac is no longer supported by MacOS). I don't know how plausible this is though.

My current plan is to email him a shell script that should create a reverse SSH tunnel to a server in Montréal or something and then I can shell into his Mac through there. It's not ideal though since we're still talking shell scripts and he's easily frustrated.

I know that in Windows land there are all sorts of tools scammers use to take over a machine remotely. Does Mac allow for the same thing? Note that I only have Linux machines available to me on this side of the Atlantic.

I'm curious how many packages are there available for macOS compared to linux distributions.

I am trying to create a focus so that I can play Spotify, or similar with no notification sounds of any kind. I tried Do Not Disturb but Discord still pings. I created this focus, first with "allow some apps" and only allowing Spotify (but it does not appear in the list of available apps), so instead I switched to "Silence Some Apps" and added Discord, Messages, and Telegram. All of the apps still send notification sounds.

I had previously made a Focus that had Allow Some Apps, but no apps were added, this Focus still allowed notification sounds. I have tried sleep focus.

I followed the steps on the support page with no luck. How do I silence notifications on my Mac?

ETA: I even went into Notifications in the settings menu and turned off sounds for the apps I am trying to silence and am still getting sounds.

I have a MacBook Pro M2 (Touchbar) and since I have it, on every MacOS version, I couldn’t share my LAN connection over WiFi. I use a Thunderbolt 3 Dock but also tried a direct USB-C to LAN adapter.

When I enable Internet sharing and configure it with PSK wpa2/3 and a SSID, it opens a Hotspot with default values and without PSK. Also you can’t connect to it. Does anyone have the same problem?

Hi,

I'm trying to uninstall iterm2. I installed it via the installer from their webpage and tried to uninstall it by putting the application in the bin as usual. But it keeps reappearing. I also tried removing remaining files: "~/Library/Application Support/iTerm", "~/Library/Application Support/iTerm2", "~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ApplicationRecentDocuments/com.googlecode.iterm2.sfl*", "~/Library/Caches/com.googlecode.iterm2", "~/Library/Cookies/com.googlecode.iterm2.binarycookies", "~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist", "~/Library/Saved Application State/com.googlecode.iterm2.savedState",

Still, iterm will pop up as soon as I start my mac. What is this shit? How can I get rid of it?

Answer: "This shit" is my stupid brain. I forgot I reinstalled iterm after my employer introduced a managed software center. It was the only app I installed via msc myself and thus did not think of it at first.

I personally am a fan I find it to be like spaces except I can see them which makes switching between tasks smoother.

Helix is a new batteries included Modal editor inspired by Vim & written in Rust

Also see here for a video of the screenshot and a video of my configuration reload script.

I have 3 TVs connected to a 4x4 Matrix, when I use my Mac they are out of sync. It seems fine when using my Apple TV, or my Windows/Linux dual boot laptop. The issue does seem to be tied to the length of the HDMI cables. TV1 is connected to a 6' cable, TV2 is connected to a 15' cable, and TV3 a 30' cable. I am using the HDMI out on my MacBook Pro (2023 M2). Any ideas for a solution short of changing all of the cables to 30'?

I am trying to shell out of VBA in excel and I keep getting permissions issues. So far I have tried:

Full Disk Access

Accessibility

Developer Rights

chmod

Quarantine

Shell function

AppleScriptTask function (with full disks access and Accessiblity, and Developer Rights)

All of the pieces work independently. I can call it from the command line and as an apple script from osascript

The MOST frustrating thing its that once I got the permissions correct on Apple Script, then the excel AppleScriptTask function stopped working. The command that used to work now throws an Error 13 Type Mismatch. I have double checked, triple checked and had Chat GPT write the code. There is not type mismatch - and it worked fine before I fixed the permissions on Apple Script.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

This is killing me.

We have a snippet of code on a web page. Users copy the code to a text editor, make a small change, then copy the modified version and paste it into a terminal window.

And it fails to run.

I've confirmed this happens with both Textedit and Notes, and also that copying from the web page and pasting directly into a terminal works fine (although without the necessary code changes).

It's something in the text editor copy; and there's no way to either "copy as plaintext" or "paste without formatting" into a terminal.

Does anyone know how I can work around this?

EDIT Apparently some (but not all) spaces (octal 040) are being converted to octal "302 240". I can't figure out how to stop it!

The infotainment system in my truck uses metadata tags to organize all of the music. I’ve the past few years I have thought I was doing something wrong with the new music I was adding, but apparently the Music app’s edits of the data were not “sticking “.

I found a large number of music I had added but was not available to play in the Unknown folder.

Are there any free, or cheap Mac apps for editing the data?

macOS is recognizing it, but no image on display. I tried safe mode but with no luck. With my MacBook. My USB c to HDMI converter works with all my other monitors. I want to use it as an Audio monitoring "device" with the minimeters app for my MacBook Pro m1 for music production purposes. I tested it on my win pc. It just works with my Linux laptop and Windows 11 pc with no problems. Any help would help, thanks!

After a year or so of using the free version of Alfred, I finally decided to make myself a Christmas gift and get the power pack. Any recommendations from the folks here using Alfred about essential workflows and favorite themes? I did a quick search on Alfred gallery and Packal, but it also seems that many workflows exist only on GitHub somewhere. Also, it is not even possible to filter workflows and themes by popularity or date. Any tips welcome!

Hello all,

I've recently gotten a MacBook pro at work. In the past I've mainly used Linux, so the switch isn't super drastic. I'm mainly getting used to the shortcuts. My work mainly involves DevOps related work.

Things I've installed so far ( besides standard things like an IDE ):

• neovim
• brew
• rectangle
• jq / uw
• docker desktop
• iterm2

I have some coworkers excited about Alfred, which I have installed, but haven't really used yet. Looks like an enhanced spotlight?

Any apps/tools you can recommend which makes your life easier on Macs? Hidden productivity gems?

Keep getting this pop up asking me to allow it to manage my PC. IDK what it is or how to get rid of it. Happens every time I restart.

Any help is appreciated.

A few weeks ago i removed the recent downloads icon from my dock on accident (blue folder with an arrow and when you click it, it opens a list of your most recent, and when you start a download in safari it shows the file drop down to the folder).

This folder is not the same as downloads, nor the same as recents. I checked the trash, and the folder is not there. For the time being i have added downloads to my dock, but that just shows everything in my downloads. (Also since the folder has been gone when i download something safari shows the file go to the downloads icon on safari instead of down to the dock)

My recent experience is no -- the first backup went just fine, but all subsequent attempts to add to it have failed, giving various errors in the logs, including mounting problems, timeout during the initial write test, bad database, etc. I did rename the drive between backups, maybe that was bad? The log shows Time Machine using the new name and finding the drive just fine.

Googling this I see that people have these same problems with external hard drives, though, so I'm wondering if anyone has been successful using a thumb drive and if there's any trick to it.

I have a 2015 iMac 21.5" that has slowly ground down to crawl. I had this great idea of installing macos on an external SSD (Kingston 2TB) and run it from there instead but no matter what I try I can't get it to work.

At first I downloaded the installer for Monterey but the HDD isn't great and it kept crashing and restarting partway through.

Then I tried installing to the SSD from Recovery (internet recovery wouldn't get past wifi choice so had to use non-internet) but even though the installation went ok it continued to boot from the HDD and in Startup Disk the SSD wouldn't show at all.

Then I made a USB boot stick and did the same steps above with the same result.

The SSD has GUID map and I tried both Mac OS and APFS formatted.

Does anyone have an idea what might be going wrong? Thanks in advance!