2.4.1 Ensure Remote Apple Events Is Disabled

Information

Apple Events is a technology that allows one program to communicate with other programs. Remote Apple Events allows a program on one computer to communicate with a program on a different computer.

Disabling Remote Apple Events mitigates the risk of an unauthorized program gaining access to the system.

Solution

Graphical Method:

Perform the following steps to disable Remote Apple Events:

- Open `System Preferences
- Select `Sharing
- Set Remote Apple Events to disabled

Terminal Method:

Run the following commands to set Remote Apple Events to Off:

$ /usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/systemsetup -setremoteappleevents off

setremoteappleevents: Off

Impact:

With remote Apple events turned on, an AppleScript program running on another Mac can interact with the local computer.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/15552