araym

Q: Parental Controls bug in Mountain Lion 10.8.2

For years I've used Parental Controls, not to restrict my daughter's web content, but to limit her time on the computer.  But tonight I upgraded Mountain Lion from 10.8.1 to 10.8.2 and something broke.

 

Suddenly every secure web page she tries to access (to include google, gmail, amazon, etc.) fails.  It says "Parental controls restricts access to secure websites".

 

A little hunting around turned up the following Apple Knowledge Base article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2900 that says "https note: For websites that use SSL encryption (the URL will usually begin with https), the Internet content filter is unable to examine the encrypted content of the page. For this reason, encrypted websites must be explicitly allowed using the Always Allow list. Encrypted websites that are not on the Always Allow list will be blocked by the automatic Internet content filter."

 

I understand that logic however that should NOT apply to me since I'm not trying to automatically restrict her adult web content or create allowed/blocked site lists, etc.  She has *unrestricted* web site access, so the Internet content filter shouldn't even be in play here.

 

Just to get this up and running, I did type the Admin account and password in at the prompt to let her gain access to the web pages.  However that did not work.  Even though it said it would now allow access - it did not.

 

I also tried going into Parental Controls, turning ON web site filtering, going into Custom, and adding in approved secure web sites (google, etc.)  Even *that* did not work.

 

Everything was great until 10.8.2 came along but now her account is for all intents and purposes unusable.

 

Help?  And thanks.

MacBook, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iPod touch 2nd gen 16GB, iPad 1st gen 3G 16GB

Posted on Sep 20, 2012 11:37 PM

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Q: Parental Controls bug in Mountain Lion 10.8.2

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  • by Richardi99,

    Richardi99 Richardi99 Oct 4, 2012 2:51 PM in response to Weborican
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2012 2:51 PM in response to Weborican

    I am far from rejoicing.  With this, and the endless ways in which Apple has broken my iPhone with IOS6, I'm looking at alternatives.

  • by Horsman,

    Horsman Horsman Oct 4, 2012 5:57 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2012 5:57 PM in response to araym

    I've installed the OS update and created a new managed account with Parental Controls. I have applied time restrictions to the account and set the Web settings to 'Try and limit access ....'.

     

    The update has worked with Safari as stated in the update and I no longer get any https warnings in the restricted account. I have however found that the https security warnings still appear if I try to use Google Chrome with the account. It looks like the fix is application (Safari) specific.

     

    Parental Controls are now usable again for me and my family. It appears that we are forced to use Safari with Parental Controls but I am not overly concerned about that for the kids. I can still use my browser(s) of choice in my own unrestricted account.

     

    Thanks Apple for attending to this but some communication would have helped people avoid searching for work-arounds and temporary fixes.

  • by bluedakar,

    bluedakar bluedakar Oct 4, 2012 8:59 PM in response to Weborican
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2012 8:59 PM in response to Weborican

    Mine is working again. Thank you Apple but in the future let's get somebody testing Parental Controls before the updates are released!

  • by danykaffee,

    danykaffee danykaffee Oct 4, 2012 10:28 PM in response to Horsman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2012 10:28 PM in response to Horsman

    Hi,

     

    I've quickly tried it on both Safari and Chrome. As a matter of fact, with Chrome, you still get warnings, but once you've granted access to those sites, it's ok.

    Same with Dropbox client: need to grant access, then it's ok.

  • by danykaffee,

    danykaffee danykaffee Oct 5, 2012 1:41 AM in response to danykaffee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 1:41 AM in response to danykaffee

    I've tested a little bit more this morning. Still pop-ups with Chrome or Firefox for each https web site. Once you have granted access, no more pop-up. With Safari, you do'nt have to grant access to each https site... strange...

  • by Jose Manuel Mota,

    Jose Manuel Mota Jose Manuel Mota Oct 5, 2012 3:04 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 3:04 PM in response to araym

    Installed and tested.

     

    All works again.

    Parental control of internet. https sites also, with both safari and firefox.

    applications controls

    time controls

     

    Instalado y funcionando correctamente de nuevo los controles parentales. Tanto en control de internet, aplicaciones y horarios.

  • by raama.srivatsan,

    raama.srivatsan raama.srivatsan Oct 5, 2012 3:11 PM in response to Jose Manuel Mota
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 3:11 PM in response to Jose Manuel Mota

    all programs work. dropbox, facebook, google drive, found, and all othr programs including browsers like chrome and firefox work

  • by Rohit L,

    Rohit L Rohit L Oct 5, 2012 9:13 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 9:13 PM in response to araym

    I installed the latest supplemental update and all seems to be working again. I still get a pop up for the secure sites but now when I provide my admin credentials it accepts and remembers the exception. So at this point for me at least, I am calling this resolved. I did have to accept all the background secure sites for Google and Apple, but at least I only had to do it the one time... for each account

     

    Anyhow, good luck to everyone else.

     

    Ps. We miss you Steve.

  • by angus_stirling,

    angus_stirling angus_stirling Oct 6, 2012 2:33 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 2:33 AM in response to araym

    Yup, all seems to be working now. 

     

    We have pehaps grown to expect too much from Apple but to quote Some Like It Hot: "Nobody's perfect".  No one would think any then less of them if they occasionally admitted their own fallability "yup, guys, we've discovered a bug but give a few days and we'll get it sorted..." instead of sneakily deleting posts from the feedback on the App Store.  I for one would respect a litle honesty in future.

  • by Jan-Joost,

    Jan-Joost Jan-Joost Oct 6, 2012 8:57 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 8:57 AM in response to araym

    Naw.. Still problems here; my son cannot use his web bank account; even with parental controls completely off, the https site will not authenticate him. When logged on under my account, there's no problem....

  • by danykaffee,

    danykaffee danykaffee Oct 6, 2012 11:20 AM in response to Jan-Joost
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 11:20 AM in response to Jan-Joost

    Hi. As a matter of fact, my son could not log off from his Google account with Firefox... but it works perfectly with Safari. So, as a conclusion, parental controls are fixed for Safari, not for other brothers (that keep blind to https protocol). Apple probably knows that, and probably knows that other brothers' companies will not stay still in front of that: sort of a way to keep monopol on OSX. I guess a more mature fix will come after. For the moment, my advice is to use Safari with parental controls and wait and see...

  • by Jan-Joost,

    Jan-Joost Jan-Joost Oct 6, 2012 11:36 AM in response to danykaffee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 11:36 AM in response to danykaffee

    Not quite, unfortunately; no firefox involved here, Updated Mountain Lion with Safari. Parental Controls wreaking havoc with everything internet at first, after the update all appears well, but no authentication on my son's account, no probs on my administrator account. Turning off parental controls completely doesn't alleviate the problem. Guess I'll set up a fresh account and see how far I get with that.

     

    Royal pain in the patokus, though. The move to Mac has been blissfully painless for 3 years, but I'm starting to get windows deja vu..

  • by jsalino,

    jsalino jsalino Oct 6, 2012 11:44 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 11:44 AM in response to araym

    I would have to charachterize this as a stop gap mesure but NOWHERE NEAR A COMPLETE FIX.  Here is why:

     

    Yes safari works for secure web

    No other browsers do not

    Not sure about anything Java based at this point (lots of kids play Minecraft)

    The app control feature, which is INTEGRAL to the web content control feature, is certainly NOT repaired:

     

    1) There are multiple instances of each app showing up in the list including Apple software (eg, 3 instances of iPhoto), and

    2) with app controls turned on, Sophos antivirus adds each of its compenets to the list again on each log-in and boot up, and

    3) other apps have their individual contents showing up in the list (for example HP printer utility) and without an encyclopedic knowledge of the inner functioning of these apps it is virtually impossible to know how to accurately control applications

     

    The jury is still out on whether the bug which rears its ugly head when one selects both bedtime and hour limits.

     

    Has anyone had the chance to fully test these functions?

     

    PS:  [Apple please take note] the self serving editing of the forums and the feedback on the app store will harm your reputation irreparably. Much more so than the practice of not acknowledging design flaws. I know what has drawn this user to Apple, albeit years ago, was, in great part, the quest for transparency.

  • by danykaffee,

    danykaffee danykaffee Oct 6, 2012 11:51 AM in response to jsalino
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 11:51 AM in response to jsalino

    I'd like to temper a little bit: other brothers keep asking for access granting with https protocol. Not perfect, but when you grant this access, it is now taken into account (was not the case before last update) at they do not ask anymore after... ok, lots of exchanges between sites and their customers (for ads and all) need https protocol, then access granting from admin...

    Besides, apps like DropBow now ask once for access, and then it's OK. Before last update, it did not work at all.

     

    So: not as good as it would be if it were fully solved, but really better than before.

  • by qwist,

    qwist qwist Oct 6, 2012 1:46 PM in response to danykaffee
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 1:46 PM in response to danykaffee

    Agree w danykaffee. My 10.8.2 setup (iMac and two MBPs) works perfectly with Parental Control (w Safari as main browser). True, you have to approve google.com (https) w Firefox and Chrome, but thereafter,. no problem. So seems OK.

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