Strange privilege called "custom"

As you may have noticed, "More like this" to the immediate right of your original post has references to custom privileges and each has links to others. ... I haven't noticed any relating to Firefox but that doesn't mean they're not there ... somewhere.

The "More like this" legend is often an excellent source of info.

Usually the "custom access" is related to Access Control List (ACL) entries or other extended attributes (for example, the disk image shown in your post may have the quarantine attribute set). Unfortunately, Apple doesn't include a GUI utility to manage these, so if you are not familiar with using the Terminal application, third party utilities such as TinkerTool System (inexpensive, but not free) can be used.

I was checking that out myself and found a bundle in /System/Library that said "You have custom access." I looked at it with ls -la and there were no ACLs on it. In fact, there was nothing extra on it at all, no extended atttributes. This was puzzling. Leaves me wondering what custom access is.

Try ls -leO@d

Here's the output first from ls -leO@d, then ls -la

****:~ **** ls -leO@d /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel - 102 Oct 5 2009 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle

****:~ ****$ ls -la /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle

total 0

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Oct 5 2009 .

drwxr-xr-x 113 root wheel 3842 Jun 13 11:35 ..

drwxr-xr-x 5 root wheel 170 Aug 12 2011 Contents

GetInfo shows "You have custom access" for /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle

Message was edited by: WZZZ

Interesting. Everything I looked at in that folder has the "custom access", so maybe there is another flag that Apple uses.

As I mentioned earlier, it usually means there are some additional attributes. I'm not sure what is up with what is being shown for the /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle file, but since the file appears to be related to Time Machine, I would suspect there is something hidden. Items in the /System folder shouldn't be messed with anyway.

Repairing permissions does nothing inside a user account. I'm also not sure what you mean by "full rights" - the only user with full access is root, and you should not normally be running as root.

What exactly are you having permissions problems with, what are the permissions, and what were you doing when these permissions changed?

Things like Access Control Lists and file quarantine are applied on top of the normal permissions, so it will help to know exactly what permissions you are having troubles with, and where they might have come from (migration, downloads, shared folder, etc). An ACL entry can include inheritance, so the permissions of the containing folder may also apply.

To show the permissions of the item(s) you are having problems with:

1) Open the Terminal application located in the /Applications/Utilities folder;

2) Copy/paste the following command line into the Terminal window (do not press return yet) - there is a trailing space that needs to be included:

/usr/bin/whoami; /bin/ls -leO@d

3) Drag the problem item(s) from a Finder window to the Terminal window (this will paste the path);

4) Press return - this will run the command line and put the results into the Terminal window. The commands will display the ownership and permissions of the item(s), including any ACL entries and extended attributes.

OK, when I do this, I get the following result.

Portable:Desktop Ed$ /usr/bin/whoami; /bin/ls -leO@d Force.pdf

Ed

-rwxr--r--@ 1 Ed staff - 25334 Sep 7 2013 Force.pdf

com.apple.quarantine 26

0: group:everyone deny delete

I can go through a series of steps with the info utility and remove the Custon privilege, which will allow me to delete or move the file. Other than that, I can't figure out how to change this. Every file in my directory tree has this custom priviledge for the everyone access.