Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices" has been modified and will not be repaired.

It has nothing to do with being "right". It's to try and prevent other users from following very bad advice removing files a person has no business digging through if you want your Mac to continue running.

No one is saying you're not having issues, but trying to find a problem in Disk Utility's permissions report, which Apple themselves have said to ignore, is not going to help you.

AmazonWoman1 wrote:

Since Apple will not allow a disc to be shipped I have no idea what is truly getting downloaded when I reformat.

This comment suggest you are using Lion or Mountain Lion - is that correct? You've posted in the forum for Snow Leopard. Please ask again in the appropriate forum, giving as many details as you can including your System and type of hardware. Obviously you have a problem which need addressing, but please believe that the specific issue in this forum, of the Disk Utility permissions 'errors', is a red herring

Thank you to you and other users for informing us. As much as there are probably issues you are right and most of us would probably do more bad than good by trying to change them.

But then again as with anything we are relying in hope that something doesn't go wrong and if it does then there are exemption clause to make sure it is the consumer that bares the ultimate bill. Sorry, I am a little bitter after buying a recommended RAM expansion by apple that corrupted both the hard drive and my external drive with the backup. Guess what exemption clause the company had in their warranty? Before that installation had no problem with permissions/disks/or the missing databases; just speed. When the apple tech put it in he ran some tests and said my computer is good as new and will last me a few years (money well spent right? only lasted me a month before real problems started that so far cost me 3 times the value of that recommended component). The person fixing it said for me to hope/pray non of the components go in my macbook as I won't be able to replace them.

Oh well, could be worse I could be using Windows.

Sorry, I am a little bitter after buying a recommended RAM expansion by apple that corrupted both the hard drive and my external drive with the backup.

I can certainly understand that, but that could have happened with any OS on any type of computer. Sounds like you got some particularly bad RAM. Like any other computer maker (Dell, Sony, Asus, etc.), Apple does not make the RAM they put in their computers. They buy them, like everyone else. Also like all other computer vendors, they don't spends hours testing the RAM before selling it.

A place I used to work at had an issue like that. One particular computer would ruin images worked on in Photoshop. Nothing else was affected. After a couple of weeks of first figuring out the issue was with one Mac in particular and not that version of Photoshop, they discovered when the image went over a certain size, the data was reading into a bad stick of RAM. Anything saved then had corruption lines through the image. Replaced the RAM, no more problems.

Guess what exemption clause the company had in their warranty?

Every computer and RAM manufacturer has the same exclusion. You can't single out Apple on that. It's somewhat similar to Kodak's exclusion on their film. Lost all of the pictures you took on a very expensive trip to Europe because of bad film processing, or they lost the film? The only thing Kodak would reimburse you for was the cost of a roll of film. No way could you sue them for a percentage of that lost "experience and precious photos".

When the apple tech put it in he ran some tests and said my computer is good as new and will last me a few years (money well spent right?

And it likely did test good. But like any other electronic device, they can be unknowingly borderline "good", and then fail later. The future is not something you can test for.

I am unable to empty my trash because of a permission problem. I came to this support community to see if there was a possible solution, and was directed to the Disk Utility file. I followed the instructions for "first aid" to repair the permissions. This is when I saw the "SUID file .... will not be repaired" message. I followed all the instructions and to no avail. I restarted my computer. I tried using the shift-option-empty trash securely procedure. I am still getting the message that I do not have permission to empty the trash!

Oops, I see I am in Snow Leopard and that I should be in another part of this forum because I have OSX version 10.7.5. This is the first time I'm asking a question here so forgive me.

You can ignore that SUID file warning:

As long as the report ends up with 'Permissions repair complete' then, as far as permissions go, you are fine. You can ignore the various statements in the report:

Permissions you can ignore on 10.5 onwards:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448

Using 'should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r--' as an example, you will see the that the permissions are not changed, but the | indicates a different location. This is because an update to Leopard onwards changed the location of a number of system components.

Poster rccharles has provided this description of what it all means:

drwxrwxrwx

d = directory

r = read

w = write

x = executeable program

drwxrwxrwx

| | |

| | all other users not in first two types

| |

| group

|

owner

a little more info

Before the user had read & write. A member of the group had read.

After, only the user had read & write.

LenoreColorado wrote:

I am unable to empty my trash because of a permission problem.

This page offers a solution: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963

Specifically:

1. Open the Terminal application.
2. Type: sudo rm -rf
   Note: Type a space after "-rf". The command does not work without the space. Do not press Return until Step 6.
3. Open your Trash.
4. Choose Select All from the Edit menu.
5. Drag all of your Trash into the Terminal window. This causes the Terminal window to automatically fill in the name and location of each item in your Trash.
6. Press Return.

All of the items in your Trash are deleted.

Follow these instructions exactly. Do not type anything else in Terminal. Close Terminal immediately when done.

i want to ignore it but it coincided with a bunch of issues and when i used to repair permissions before this, it would come back clean now i have a page of repairs. every time.just sayin hope its coincidence. thx all

We've been over and over this. Please see Klaus's post above, and the Apple page on the subject:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448

As long as at the bottom of the report it says 'Permissions repair complete' there are no problems, and all the 'errors' listed are not errors but due to the fact that Disk Utility has not been upgraded to recognize some changes made in the system.

Thank you Klaus1 "

As long as the report ends up with 'Permissions repair complete' then, as far as permissions go, you are fine."

is all I needed to know.

RD

Be careful if you move up to 10.8, I did and the ARDAgent.app not being repaired stopped the working of my Focusrite VRM Box, it works when not enabled but stops audio out put when enabled.

Apple Care says I must re-install 10.8 to get a new copy, and I guess this is just the beginning since I will have to un-install the VRM Box and re-install it every time I repair permissions.

I wish I had never bought an Apple now,what a fing mess they are making.

i kno this is the 10.6 forum but I had googled the term and it led me here so I am just warning of what to expect if moving up to 10.8.

How is Disk Utility upgraded? Is there a method to upgrade Disk Utility? As all of these replies in this thread are website copy/paste replies, has anyone read the method to update/upgrade Disk Utility to recognize changes made a very long time ago with countless reboots, etcetera?

Roger Wilmut1 wrote:

..... all the 'errors' listed are not errors but due to the fact that Disk Utility has not been upgraded to recognize some changes made in the system.

The problem, or inaccurate coding of Disk Utility by Apple, Inc. is especially problematic when installing Apple Remote Desktop. I have never had so many issues with my Macs, not since installing Apple Remote Desktop - I am seeing this error, post-install of ARD, on all OS systems from Leopard, SL, Lion, ML, Mavericks.

Also, I have not made user permissions changes on any of my Macintosh Apple computers, so that reason provided may not be the "issue"...

Having errors and permissions issues showing on a computing system and the manufacturer stating "Oh, we know about that, just ignore it" is more like a beta OS/Config. These Operating Systems are completed, not beta. All of this should be polished and corrected by now.

I do have one computer that does not have the "red harring" (whatever that means)- I'm tempted to copy/paste as suggested by someone in previous page posting, as it corrected his/hers Disk Util's output. My thing is, if I run "Repair" and it states that the "Mile-Long" list is repaired, then I click "Repair" again and it does the exact same thing, then I close everything, reboot, pull up DUtil again, click "Repair" and it does the same thing, showing the same areas, literally hundreds of lines being repaired, something is wrong with either Disk Utility or something is wrong with the newly added "Apple Remote Desktop" which is the only change since having no issues to having hundreds of repairs as well as a glitchy system.

Worked Perfectly. I too enjoy a machine without permission repairs.

I stumbled on this thread when searching for this exact warning. I must say that the responses of just "ignore it" do nothing to reassure people who have this problem.

Firstly, why is this error there in the first place? If it's benign and Apple have a list of files where the permissions do not matter (see the linked kb article), why don't they build this exception list into Disk Utility? If they truly believe this is a false positive, they really should exempt it from being scanned and fixed. As it stands, this is just creating needless panic and confusion.

Secondly, how do you know it's benign? ARDAgent.app has been exploited before, so suspicion is not unwarranted. Factor in the raft of RAT exploits out in the wild, this paranoia is even more justified.

While this is the Snow Leopard (10.6) forum, this particular problem still exists in Mavericks (10.9). I have no solution to this, but I know I will be keeping a very close eye on my firewall logs.