From speech synthesisers and Blu-ray encoders to wallpapers and widgets, appexes have proliferated far beyond the wildest dreams of the OpenDoc designers, but so little is known about they’re managed by macOS.
LaunchServices
The magic of Mac was how you could double-click a document and it opened in the right app. Now that works differently with LaunchServices, it offers me 70 apps to edit any text document. Can we return to magic please?
The hidden command tool lsregister can be used to control LaunchServices and its registry, but there are now snags in most of its features, as explained here.
Overview of how different subsystems work together during launching a notarized app, from LaunchServices to checking WritingTools and AI availability.
Get started browsing your Mac’s log using this lightweight and friendly utility. A walkthrough looking at what happened when I launched an app.
App launch security is built in multiple layers, and not all check are run on every launch of an app. Syspolicy plays a key role, CDHashes are now central, and XProtect scans can make checks on large apps slow.
Three malicious apps – Atomic Stealer, Genieo and XCSSET – against macOS 14.6.1, with full security, SIP disabled, and Gatekeeper disabled.
If you thought spctl disabled Gatekeeper assessments, and disabling SIP had little effect, then you might like to think again.
Details of security checks including Gatekeeper, XProtect and notarization, performed when launching an app in full security.
All apps now undergo Gatekeeper assessment, but only some have XProtect checks for malware, and the unfortunate few get translocated too.
