App keeps asking for Keychain Access

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Level 1

17 points

App keeps asking for Keychain Access

So I have this app from a vendor, and it requires Keychain access. I'm assuming that's because the app will reconfigure or manage networks. So I added the app as a trusted app with "full control". I then also went into Keychain and "unlocked" the keychain... which in my understanding means while unlocked (for 5 minutes) I should not get any keychain access attempted messages? The vendor is not supporting their app, and it's super complicated, not wanting to make any trouble. It was painful on Big sur and is painful on Monterey too, so it's not really a Monterey and not an M1 related issue.

What have I miss-understood when I unlock the keychain and still get keychain access prompts (4 in a row) and asking me for system credentials prompts directly after unlocking (for 5 minutes.) What does the 5 minutes "unlock" really mean? Assume I know nothing about the operating system security. Yes I set this mac-mini up and installed it all myself, it's not on a domain and has no special security, and am tempted to use up a day re-installing the OS, but want to know why "unlock" is not really doing what I expect it to.

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Aug 16, 2022 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

d3v1ce

Level 1

27 points

Aug 16, 2022 11:06 AM in response to conradbraam

Hey conradbraam,

Can you please specify which application this is? If the vendor does not provide support and the download page looks sketchy, it might be a problem. Just for you to know- Keychain is Apple's password storing service. An app normally does not request for Keychain access to modify networks, and definitely not 4 times in a row. And please do take the time to backup your Mac Mini and reinstall macOS, it'll be a little faster and fresher.

Thanks,

d3v1ce

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Answer 2

conradbraam Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 17, 2022 7:25 AM in response to d3v1ce

Yep. The application itself was less of a concern, it requires access to a network certificate, since it's a VPN driver, which sadly is poorly supported, and have not integrated well with changes to the OS and requires very specific machine policy configuration to work well. If you make a mistake tweaking all the policies and then you tend to have to start all over again. So the app needs keychain access to get to the certificate, which just installs itself automatically when opened and is set to trusted. Which kinda breaks the security on my mac. Not sure that backups will help anymore.

For now I'll just type my password in 4 times quickly in a row. I was just hoping that a keychain 5 minute unlock was more like a sudo console for the session, but that analogy does not hold here.

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App keeps asking for Keychain Access

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