Hello --
I'm trying to find out if software like VIA and Karabiner-Elements are safe to use, or if they create security risks on a Mac? I've read conflicting answers to this question online, nothing definitive, so taking a shot here on the Apple Community.
Thanks
FWIW, I don't know VIA but I do know Karabiner-Elements and it is safe, I have it installed on one of my Macs and is the one most often recommended here.
Hi mapping team!
Comments on the difference between Karabiner and Ukulele. Both seem well supported.
Karabiner installs software fairly deep into the operating system to redirect keystrokes as defined by the mapping fed to the background resident karabiner programs.
Ukulele defines a new keyboard definition file as if you'd built a new hardware keyboard with a different layout that you wanted to install on the mac. It installs the new keyboard definition with the others (eg British, QUERTZ etc) already on the system. As such it is a lighter approach. As the keyboard definition files are standard this works well with Sonoma (well it has with me anyway).
Ukulele can move around the modifier keys so that control presses command instead (etc etc) as well as moving keys around. I only wanted to swap the " and @ keys which it has done admirably.
The karabiner security discussion was interesting and reminded me (I've worked in security for a while) how little I understand about security. I think the attacker would have to know a lot about your machine before taking advantage of any weakness that might exist.
I've not tried the 'maestro' program.
Hope this brings some light to the query. Thanks for raising it!
mycleverusername wrote:
Hello --
I'm trying to find out if software like VIA and Karabiner-Elements are safe to use, or if they create security risks on a Mac? I've read conflicting answers to this question online, nothing definitive, so taking a shot here on the Apple Community.
What exactly are you trying to remap? If just characters, I recommend Ukelele. Otherwise Karabiner. Never heard of VIA.
Hey, thanks for your reply. Yeah, I get the sense that the few places I've seen someone disparaging Karabiner over security concerns have been few and not backed up by anecdotal evidence, just speculation.
I think I'm going to go ahead and give it a try.
Appreciate it.
Hey, thanks for weighing in. I'm not entirely sure yet what I'm going to remap, there's a really nice keyboard I'm looking at that could be fantastic if its key settings were as I'd like them to be.
I'll take a look at Ukelele though, appreciate the tip.
Also, for what it's worth, I installed a program called Keyboard Maestro which has allowed me to do something I've been trying to figure out forever: making CTRL + BACKSPACE perform the forward delete function that's so easy to do on Mac keyboards because of the lower right placement of the FN key (I've developed typing muscle memory for that). At any rate, Keyboard Maestro was an exciting find and worth a look if you haven't heard of it.
mycleverusername wrote: I'll take a look at Ukelele though, appreciate the tip.
If you need help, there is a user group at
https://groups.google.com/g/ukelele-users?pli=1
Ukelele can only remap keys that have a letter or a number printed on them to different letters or numbers, it's not useful for the others.
wintergardensbassplayer wrote: Ukulele can move around the modifier keys so that control presses command instead (etc etc)
I think that's mistaken, Ukelele can really only remap character keys. But MacOS itself has some settings that let you change what modifier keys do.
Some info I found on VIA:
I don't recall having seen any mention of someone using it here or over at
https://apple.stackexchange.com
Copy that, thanks again
You're absolutely right! It was mentioned in the Ukulele manual and is in the mac system settings under modifier keys. Mea Culpa! Thanks Tom.
Keyboard remapping software safety
