macOS Security and Privacy Permissions

Since macOS Mojave (10.14) special permissions are required in order for a Technician to view or control a remote macOS machine. These permissions are required for both Remote Support and Remote Access sessions. This guide details how these permissions can be granted, and what facilities SimpleHelp includes in order to better understand what permissions have been granted or denied.

In macOS Mojave SimpleHelp requires Accessibility permissions to control the mouse and to issue keyboard events. On macOS Catalina SimpleHelp also requires Screen Recording permissions to be able to capture the screen.

If you initiate a session to a remote macOS machine, and only the desktop wallpaper and menu bar are captured, then this indicates that permissions for Screen Recording have not been granted.

macOS Permission Request Dialogs

When macOS detects that an application is trying to control the machine or view the desktop the following permissions dialogs are shown to the user.

It is important to note that these dialogs are created by macOS, and not by the application that requires permissions. Granting or denying permissions is an action that must be taken by the user.

• Deny - the application will not be granted the permission. The operating system will remember this setting and, by default, the user will not be prompted again.
• Open System Preferences - if the user wishes to grant access they must do so via System Preferences.

Missing Permissions in Sessions

In SimpleHelp v5.2.14 and later, the session will notify the technician when one or more permissions is missing. A message titled Additional Permissions Required will be shown. The technician can then request permissions from within the session in one of two ways:

• Expand the Additional Permissions Required message, and choose the Request Permissions action.
• Expand the drop-down menu in the Session User Interface and choose the macOS Permissions option.

The macOS Permissions dialog will be shown. Here the technician can easily see which permissions have been granted. If a permission has not been granted, they can guide the remote user to set the permissions by using the appropriate Request button.

The drop-down menu beside the Request button can be used to activate the default macOS prompt on the remote machine, or to open the Security and Privacy panel with the relevant section selected.

The default Request action will open the Additional Permissions Required dialog on the remote computer. By following the steps detailed in the dialog the remote user can grant permissions to a SimpleHelp session while it is running.

The Security and Privacy dialog may ask the user whether or not to quit the current application. This is not required. If the user chooses Later, then the session will continue with the new permissions.

Granting Access via System Preferences

To grant access to SimpleHelp the following steps must be taken.

Step 1: Open System Preferences and select the Security & Privacy section.

Step 2: Locate the permission you wish to grant. Here we have highlighted the Accessibility permission.

Step 3: Granting permissions requires you to enter your user account password. Click on the lock icon to do this.

Step 4: Locate the application to grant access to, and check the check box beside the application name.

The same process can be repeated for any permissions to be granted.

Verifying Access Service Permissions

Since SimpleHelp v5.2 the state of macOS permissions are listed in the Remote Access Service's configuration application. Permissions are listed for Accessibility and Screen Recording.

When installing the service the administrator can immediately request and approve permissions by invoking the Request button for the particular permission they wish to grant.