Apple locks down Full Disk Access, and AI agents are the reason

Apple has been forced to make macOS even more locked down, to the dismay of some developers. It has announced plans to introduce more user-facing control over the process of giving apps Full Disk Access. Some developers are upset, believing this will put more barriers in place to those creating apps outside the App Store. Endpoint security vendors voiced some concern but understand the cause: “poorly written/insecure/greedy AI agents/assistants insisting on Full Disk Access, and then once granted/obtained, abusing that, to access ,” as Objective-See co-founder Patrick Wardle wrote on X. Explaining its plans, Apple says it will still make it possible for customers to choose to enable Full Disk Access; it’s just going to make the decision much more intentional, with additional steps to ensure that users know what they are signing up for. Why is Apple doing this? It may or may not be in reaction to Meta’s Muse AI agent, which was accused of reading a journalist’s private messages without permission — a claim Meta denies. But even if it is not a reaction to that, the move attempts to put additional obstacles in place to prevent users from casually giving AI agents the power to ransack…

≈