In my login items I have found 2 unusual (2 me!) items in the "allow in the Background" list: Mark Allan, and Vincent Burel. When I try to turn them off, I am asked to enter my password to modify. If I do so will those items steal my password?
I have a MacBook Air M1 running Sonoma 14.4.1
[Edited by Moderator]
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.4
brisopdiva wrote:
In my login items I have found 2 unusual (2 me!) items in the "allow in the Background" list: Mark Allan, and Vincent Burel. When I try to turn them off, I am asked to enter my password to modify. If I do so will those items steal my password?
It looks like those two apps haven't been updated for recent versions of macOS. Older apps like this will display only with the name of the app's developer. Mark Allan is the developer of the ClamXAV antivirus app. Vincent Burel is the developer of various audio apps.
You are only asked for your password because you had originally allowed these apps to install with administrator permissions. So when you are turning parts of them off like this, you need those same administrator permissions. It is Apple's software that is using your password in this case. Your password isn't being passed to those apps.
Ironically enough, these two apps are probably the least likely of all the apps in your list to siphon up all of your personal information. This does not include your password, but that's about the only thing they don't collect.
It is generally a better idea to uninstall any apps you don't want instead of partially disabling them this way. When you turn off that switch, you are disabling part of the app. That means it won't work properly anymore.
brisopdiva wrote:
In my login items I have found 2 unusual (2 me!) items in the "allow in the Background" list: Mark Allan, and Vincent Burel. When I try to turn them off, I am asked to enter my password to modify. If I do so will those items steal my password?
It looks like those two apps haven't been updated for recent versions of macOS. Older apps like this will display only with the name of the app's developer. Mark Allan is the developer of the ClamXAV antivirus app. Vincent Burel is the developer of various audio apps.
You are only asked for your password because you had originally allowed these apps to install with administrator permissions. So when you are turning parts of them off like this, you need those same administrator permissions. It is Apple's software that is using your password in this case. Your password isn't being passed to those apps.
Ironically enough, these two apps are probably the least likely of all the apps in your list to siphon up all of your personal information. This does not include your password, but that's about the only thing they don't collect.
It is generally a better idea to uninstall any apps you don't want instead of partially disabling them this way. When you turn off that switch, you are disabling part of the app. That means it won't work properly anymore.
You already gave them your password to install the software. The only way those can show up as background items is if you give the installer your password.
Since the developer did not provide any information in the system modification you installed, Sonoma just shows the name on the signing certificate.
The items are probably in /Library/LaunchDaemons or /Library/LaunchAgents. They will not likely be named anything like that name shown in Background Items. The names will be something like, com.company.appname.plist
You may be able to determine the name of the software by searching the web for that name.
No, your password won't be revealed. This window is a macOS security window that prevents any users having access to your Mac to change your settings.
i would remove defender , as i had that on my mac and it could cause conflicts with mac os security. as it logs itself as an antivirus program.
Thank you. I found your response very clear and helpful.
Thanks for that information. very helpful.
I found two unusual items in Login Items
