I'm receiving an odd keychain notification after updating to MacOS 14.1.1
I've never had this prompt come up on previous updates, and I've been using the same MBA since 2019. What is this?
MacBook Air (2018 – 2020)
User level: Level 6 9,440 points
Jul 5, 2022 10:09 PM in response to dainiswmichel
This popup has to do with your iCloud Keychain, which holds all the passwords you've stored there. It allows you to use Touch ID to log in to various services, rather than type out your password. From time to time, it may ask for the login password to re-authenticate Keychain. So don't worry, it's safe!
If it appears frequently, see here - If your Mac keeps asking for your keychain password - Apple Support
Hope this helps!
accountsd wants to use your confidential … - Apple Community
User level: Level 6 9,440 points
Jul 5, 2022 10:09 PM in response to dainiswmichel
This popup has to do with your iCloud Keychain, which holds all the passwords you've stored there. It allows you to use Touch ID to log in to various services, rather than type out your password. From time to time, it may ask for the login password to re-authenticate Keychain. So don't worry, it's safe!
If it appears frequently, see here - If your Mac keeps asking for your keychain password - Apple Support
Hope this helps!
accountsd wants to use your confidential … - Apple Community
> These warnings are very concerning to security-minded users. You should provide a more useful message.
I agree. But such messages might also be forged.
FWIW a detour to the Terminal indicates that it is legit macOS component:
which usernoted
/usr/sbin/usernoted
man usernoted
usernoted(8) System Manager's Manual usernoted(8)
NAME
usernoted – Notification Center daemon
DESCRIPTION
usernoted is a daemon that provides notification services on the system
There are no options for usernoted, and users should not run usernoted
manually.
macOS July 4, 2018 macOS
Start with this of M1 or M2 Mac...
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.
Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.
Select a volume.
Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.
Restart normally.
Start with this if IntelMac...
Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes or more.
Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.
If still not working...
To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...
Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.
Does it work in the new account?
I spoke with an Apple support staff and this is what they told me to do.
1 In the Keychain Access app  on your Mac, click “login” in the Keychains list.
2 Choose Edit > Change Settings for Keychain “login.”
3 Select the “Lock after” checkbox, then enter a number of minutes.
(I put 10 minutes)
4 If you want to require a password each time the computer goes to sleep, select the “Lock when sleeping” checkbox.
5 Click Save.
I waited a little bit and it worked for me. The pop up went away!
Usernoted is a process that is responsible for notifications on OS X.
Just a comment for Apple. These warnings are very concerning to security-minded users. You should provide a more useful message. You could provide a specific (not general) prompt, indicating it's some genuine and safe OS extension. Also, these messages as well as password prompts should show the publisher. I've occasionally received password prompts that I have no idea what software they're coming from. I always decline them and wait to see what breaks.
Which is exactly why if it's apple doing it, it needs to be prompted another way. Nothing about it felt like an Apple UX. I consider myself tech literate and the above screen grab was one of maybe 4 prompts asking for my "confidential information". It seems tied to the Sonoma update, so I would have expected a prompt screen similar to the initial setup of an apple product.
Also, "usernoted" sounds like a new user profile asking for access.
Yep, they can be spoofed, which is why Apple needs to find some secure method to present these messages. Even if they added release notes - I got the message this morning after I upgraded to 17.2. Nothing in release notes about legitimate requests you may get from the OS. Did a search and only this thread tells me anything about it. No official Apple Support note on the various legitimate components of the OS that may generate messages. Thanks for the info above, but I shouldn't have to dig into the man page.
In fact, if it's legitimate and part of the OS, why even ask me? It never asked me when I installed macOS, so why ask now? OK, nice security check maybe, but again why? I guess macOS could tell me "hey, just re-authenticated keychain access for usernoted, if you want to turn this off go to...".
So if I decline to allow it to reauthenticate, do I lose all system notifications? That's not very good. And how would I go back and turn it on? There's probably a command line to do it, but again, why? Why would the user ever decline to allow this?
See my points? Not well thought out, not very "Apple".
If I wanted this type of OS, I could just switch to windows or run native UNIX/Linux. We love Apple because they don't present this crap to users.
Again - why even present it to the user if it's a basic part of the OS? What purpose does that serve? What if I decline it?
In my case it is a continuous loop after the upgrade. I put in the password 10 times and it keeps popping up
I keep denying it, but it will to leave my screen.
i keep entering the password and ‘Always Allow’ but it keeps popping up again and again. Can’t get rid of the notification
usernoted wants to use your confidential information
