“Apple has included a new security feature in OS X ‘El Capitan’ to aid in maintaining system security,” Jesus Vigo writes for TechRepublic. “Dubbed System Integrity Protection (SIP), this technology minimizes the possibility of malware or known vulnerabilities from compromising a system due to unrestricted root access.”
“The concept is sometimes referred to as “rootless” by preventing changes, even though the user who is logged in may have root privileges on the device,” Vigo writes. “This mitigates security threats, for example, by preventing the installation of malware to a protected directory or denying unauthorized user access to modify a system file.”
“Why would you ever want to disable this? Well, it doesn’t affect the majority of OS X users — including power users — but the technology may disallow the installation of a particular update or software application that has been flagged as a false positive,” Vigo writes. “It is in these specific, yet rare instances that SIP could be disabled temporarily to allow for the process to proceed.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Almost nobody will need this, so leave SIP alone unless you understand exactly why you want to temporarily disable it.
don’t do it
Don’t ever do this. Seriously, turns out Jesus doesn’t know.
It’s kind of scary that the protection can be disabled from the Recovery disk. If I recall, no passwords are needed for that, unless FileVault is enabled? That just gives me more weight to using FileVault on all systems.
Well if someone has physical access to your Mac you have much bigger problems than disabled SIP to worry about…
Furthermore its important to have a way to disable SIP if necessary and to my knowledge placing it in Recovery mode is much safer than if SIP could be disabled while booted into OS X.
….and on another note, heres how to disable the airbags on your vehicle during your next family trip to the beach.
Thank you–heading to the beach today and am confident I won’t wreck.
My laptop bag sets off that stupid alarm in my car… I can temp disable it in my truck, but not the car. Have to connect the seat belt behind the bag.
While disabling stuff like this is NOT for everyone, there are valid reasons for *some*
But odds are 99% will not need to, ever.
No one should disable this. If you have software that won’t work, tell the developer to get off their ass and update. They obviously don’t want you as a customer if they refuse to do so. FYI to everyone who decides to disable SIP, resetting the NVRAM will turn SIP back on. The setting is stored in NVRAM. To keep people from disabling it, you can use a firmware password.
Snow leopard.
Same song, 2nd verse.
Like I said earlier, most won’t need to do this but some will.
…BOOT CHAMP
The excellent little bit of software called Boot Champ that enables your Mac OSX to boot straight into Windows Boot Camp does not work, and will never work with SIP, no matter how much they want it to work an everyone to be a customer.
The only way it could work is for Apple to add exceptions lists to SIP. And they are not going to do that.
It’s called Boot Camp, and I don’t give a rat’s ass if it works. I haven’t tried getting it to work with El Capitan.
Howie, He’s talking about this….
http://lifehacker.com/bootchamp-boots-into-boot-camp-from-the-menu-bar-1505762718
OK. Thanks. Instead of being mad at Apple, go complain to the devleoper of the software. If they don’t make their product compliant with SIP then they obviously don’t want your business.
Often software requires access to areas blocked by SIP. For instance CDock relies on SIMBL, as do many other pieces of software. SIMBL doesn’t seem to be compatible with SIP and until it is made compatible or an alternative is developed, any software that depends on SIMBL needs to be installed with SIP disabled. After installation SIP can be reenabled and the software will run fine.
Personally I feel that Apple is locking down the OS too tightly without allowing easy access to legitimate benign software. They went too far too fast to allow developers to react. Software that I’ve counted on for years, i.e. Menu Meters was rendered inoperable by the introduction of SIP and I preferred to stay with Yosemite than do without some of my favorite utilities (and other reasons not related to SIP). I like the idea of SIP but feel that Apple was too heavy-handed in its implementation. If Apple keeps going in this direction, we may start losing the ability of any software not purchased from the Mac App Store. I refuse to live in that world and will switch to Windows if that’s their ultimate goal.
10.11 is not ready for prime time and I’d rather stick with Yosemite, which I already think is a downgrade from Mavericks.
Bottom line. I care more about security than someone’s pet project UI mod. Period. If it’s that important to you, then live with less security. Just keep in mind that SIP will likely be re-enabled after every software update. And if you reset NVRAM, it will be turned back on. I don’t think Apple was too heavy handed at all. Don’t like it? Don’t upgrade to El Capitan.
I had to disable this. My audio drivers that M-Audio has NOT updated since 10.7 did not work at all with SIP on. If I disable it, the drivers work just fine.
My local server XAMPP can’t query the database from Microsoft SQL Server no matter how much I google how to do it. Could this be the answer?
Default Folder – an important program (for me at least) – does not work with SIP enabled, yet…
Additional information:
http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/el_capitan.html
I like how the author doesn’t give examples of needing this. To those who said they’ve needed to, get in touch with the manufacturers and ask about this. You may need to find another solution, because this isn’t going to go away.
the technology may disallow the installation of a particular update or software application that has been flagged as a false positive
No, not exactly. The bigger problem is applications that have not been updated to fit within Apple’s allowed feature set (limiting or killing off system access) or have not been fitted with a proper security certificate approved by Apple.
IOW: Many applications that worked in Mavericks and/or Yosemite are now broken, UNLESS you turn off System Integrity Protection.
I’m going to dare to say that: At this point it time, it is not a big deal to turn off System Integrity Protection. There isn’t anything out-in-the-wild (that I personally know of) that’s going to PWN your Mac if this is off, as long as you:
– NEVER install WAREZ software
– ALWAYS verify the integrity of software you download and install.
– Only download from Apple, the Mac App Store or directly from a verified trustworthy developer or vendor.
– NEVER use off-sight download mirrors (which frequently infect installers with adware, ad nauseam).
– STAY AWAY from known adware/malware infesting software download websites. That includes the likes of C|NET’s Download.com, which is a hell hole of adware.\
IOW: The usual safe user practices.
AND as ever: Always make regular full backups or your Mac. Time Machine plus an encrypted cloud backup qualify. Making a backup is the #1 Rule of Computing & Computer Security. If you don’t back up, you get what you deserve, which is eventually going to be hell. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.
The CD Rom in my early 2009 mini is u/s. I’ll just buy an external Apple SuperDrive (cost over the odds!) so that I can reinstall VM ware and Windows 7. Fortunately I checked the pre-requisites before opening the package only to find that the early 2009 mini does not support Apple’s own SuperDrive!! How crazy is that? Exploring 3rd party advice, I find that if I disable SIP and then insert a string “abased” in the Library>Prefs>Bootstrap it’ll recognise the drive. I have now ordered a replacement SD form Amazon which I hope I can install.
The Superdrive is an overpriced underpeerformer, avoid it at all cost.
“abased” should read “mbasd” for MacBook Air superdrive.
Wait! Didn’t you build this? Reminds me of… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxOIebkmrqs
Had to disable mine as well to fix an issue with Audio Unit plugins. Re-enabled it after and all was fine.
Well, I had to deinstall El Capitan because my CH320 USB->serial driver stopped working. MDN can claim “don’t do this” all they want, but when you’re down and can’t work on projects, something has to be done.
I have a choice, stick with Yosemite (where the particular SIP/kext feature was disabled anyway) or disable the kext feature in El Capitan so I can use my serial driver and get work done.
Someday the driver will probably be fixed. Sorry, I can’t wait around for it.
csrutil enable –without kext
worked wonders for me.
Screw ALL of y’all!
I’m turning mine OFF (right after I pee on this electric fence…)
There are some situations, apparently with media files on servers, where SIP is an issue. Scroll down to “ShareBrowser.”
https://studionetworksolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204740359-OS-X-El-Capitan-w-SNS-Products
I spent some hard earned cash on a theming program called “Flavours” (Flavours 2) I noticed it wouldn’t start after I upgraded to El Capitan. I went to their website and they basically say that SIP has killed their software and they will no longer be able to update it- so if you want to theme your OSX- you can use Yosemite or older. I was initially bummed but now i’m over it.
Must not work very well.
I got a call for help recently from a neighbor that is also an old schoolmate who had a fully up to date Mac infected with adware trying to pose as ransomware. A drive by virus courtesy of letting his kid use his Mac.
The files were not infected, but Safari was locked on to the screen and was totally unresponsive, even restoring the screen after a reboot.
There is some seriously nasty shit out there and apparently Apple is not doing all it can to eliminate the risk.
I have no Flash, Java on a very short leash, run ad blocking SW and browse through a VPN. Also use both the OS X and Intego Firewalls. As someone who trades stocks, manages finances, pays bills and such online, I prefer to be careful.
Safari is pretty brain damaged, especially 9.0, the version that comes with El Cap.
When Safari locks up, force quit it and restart it while holding down the shift key. It’ll open to an empty window. Then run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and then check your home page, search engine and extensions in preferences.
I gave up on El Cap and went back to Yosemite and Safari 8.0.8. Life is too short.