araym

Q: Parental Controls bug in Mountain Lion 10.8.2

For years I've used Parental Controls, not to restrict my daughter's web content, but to limit her time on the computer.  But tonight I upgraded Mountain Lion from 10.8.1 to 10.8.2 and something broke.

 

Suddenly every secure web page she tries to access (to include google, gmail, amazon, etc.) fails.  It says "Parental controls restricts access to secure websites".

 

A little hunting around turned up the following Apple Knowledge Base article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2900 that says "https note: For websites that use SSL encryption (the URL will usually begin with https), the Internet content filter is unable to examine the encrypted content of the page. For this reason, encrypted websites must be explicitly allowed using the Always Allow list. Encrypted websites that are not on the Always Allow list will be blocked by the automatic Internet content filter."

 

I understand that logic however that should NOT apply to me since I'm not trying to automatically restrict her adult web content or create allowed/blocked site lists, etc.  She has *unrestricted* web site access, so the Internet content filter shouldn't even be in play here.

 

Just to get this up and running, I did type the Admin account and password in at the prompt to let her gain access to the web pages.  However that did not work.  Even though it said it would now allow access - it did not.

 

I also tried going into Parental Controls, turning ON web site filtering, going into Custom, and adding in approved secure web sites (google, etc.)  Even *that* did not work.

 

Everything was great until 10.8.2 came along but now her account is for all intents and purposes unusable.

 

Help?  And thanks.

MacBook, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iPod touch 2nd gen 16GB, iPad 1st gen 3G 16GB

Posted on Sep 20, 2012 11:37 PM

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Q: Parental Controls bug in Mountain Lion 10.8.2

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  • by bomelkr,

    bomelkr bomelkr Oct 6, 2012 3:40 PM in response to qwist
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 6, 2012 3:40 PM in response to qwist

    The Supplemental update does not work at all! Perhaps with Safari, and you just have to approve a few HTTPS sites, but try running Skype, and you'll experience how many sites Skype addresses all the time, hundreds, literally.

     

    I think it is embarrassing how faulty 10.8.2 is. I would have thought Apple had a better quality control!

     

    /Bo

  • by Jose Manuel Mota,

    Jose Manuel Mota Jose Manuel Mota Oct 7, 2012 12:20 AM in response to bomelkr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 7, 2012 12:20 AM in response to bomelkr

    I tested, and only request authoritation for 7 places. no more. After we did some videoskype normally.

  • by bomelkr,

    bomelkr bomelkr Oct 7, 2012 4:24 AM in response to Jose Manuel Mota
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 7, 2012 4:24 AM in response to Jose Manuel Mota

    Yes it will work, but everytime I open Skype I am asked to approve of additional HTTPS sites.

  • by jamesfromhillsboro,

    jamesfromhillsboro jamesfromhillsboro Oct 22, 2012 8:04 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2012 8:04 PM in response to araym

    So long as you are not making online purchases, filing your taxes or other activities that require encryption, SSL isn't really necessary.

     

    So as a work-around to get the kids back to browsing the web, SSL can be turned off from Keychain Access:

     

    Turn off SSL in Keychain Access:

    1. Launch Keychain Access
      • Go/Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access
      • Keychain Access/Preferences/Certificates tab
        • Set OCSP & CRL to "Off."
  • by Scotch_Brawth,

    Scotch_Brawth Scotch_Brawth Oct 23, 2012 4:13 AM in response to jamesfromhillsboro
    Level 3 (820 points)
    Oct 23, 2012 4:13 AM in response to jamesfromhillsboro

    So long as you are not making online purchases, filing your taxes or other activities that require encryption, SSL isn't really necessary.

    Whilst I can see that you're trying to offer a workaround for a pernicious bug, this advice is less useful than you might think.  The number of sites that require SSL is larger than you might have supposed, and disabling SSL really would form quite a hurdle to useful web access.  I mean, the Apple Discussion Forums themselves require SSL for login—the same goes for a great many support sites.  Even web search can be affected: Google and DuckDuckGo both offer an SSL option.

     

    Whilst it may prove useful for someone, this workaround would cripple web access too much to make it generally advisable.

  • by shaneprychun,

    shaneprychun shaneprychun Nov 7, 2012 9:15 PM in response to jamesfromhillsboro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2012 9:15 PM in response to jamesfromhillsboro

    So long as you are not making online purchases, filing your taxes or other activities that require encryption, SSL isn't really necessary.

     

    This is true, however ... as per some of the latest news on securing websites, many sites have chosen to secure their entire site regardless of whether or not you are doing anything that would normally require SSL.  It's a trend that should not be overlooked.

     

    Take for instance the educational site:  www.xtramath.org.   They require SSL from the get go, therefore eliminating the chance that my kids will be allowed to use it under parental controls.

     

    (I have the same issue on my kid's MacBook running 10.6.8)

  • by qwist,

    qwist qwist Dec 6, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Jan-Joost
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Dec 6, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Jan-Joost

    Same here - great pains with 10.8.2, Parental Controls completely broken. Installed patch, it fixed it - UNTIL NOW!!! For some odd reason, the problem has reappeared. The timer now works (it seems), but he cannot access websites without the annoying https fault.

     

    So, Apple faulted it, fixed it, and then faulted Parental Controls again - you start wondering whether it is engineers or monkeys qualifying their software (probably unfair to the monkeys of this world). I am getting the Windows shivers...

  • by angus_stirling,

    angus_stirling angus_stirling Dec 28, 2012 4:50 AM in response to qwist
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 28, 2012 4:50 AM in response to qwist

    Yup. More pain. My kids' accounts won't connect to the internet anymore even if I switch parental controls off. All they get is an error message that they are not connected to the internet...  This is tiresome.   

  • by SammiRye777,

    SammiRye777 SammiRye777 Jan 6, 2013 9:14 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2013 9:14 AM in response to araym

    Fixed it personally by changing

     

         System Preferences -> Parental Controls -> Guest User -> Web -> Website Restrictions

     

    from

     

         "Try to limit access to adult websites automatically"

     

    to

     

         "Allow unrestricted access to websites."

     

    Even though my user is an administrator and not a Guest User, this removed that dialog from Chrome when Chrome access https sites.

     

    Message was edited by: SammiRye777

  • by whgraham,

    whgraham whgraham Jan 15, 2013 8:02 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 15, 2013 8:02 AM in response to araym

    Is this now fixed, still broken, or re-broken? Like many, I need the time limit settings in Parental Controls, and I would prefer to not be forced into adding more utilities to fill in Apple's gaps. We use OpenDNS, and other things, but none of them deal as easily as time of day AND amount of time.

     

    Can someone with first hand experience please confirm that going back to 10.8.1 will restore the functionality that's broken? I'm hoping that's the case, but it will be a hassle; the last physical discs I have Snow Leopard.

  • by Scotch_Brawth,

    Scotch_Brawth Scotch_Brawth Jan 18, 2013 11:12 PM in response to qwist
    Level 3 (820 points)
    Jan 18, 2013 11:12 PM in response to qwist

    qwist wrote:

    I am getting the Windows shivers...

     

    Right there with you.

     

    you start wondering whether it is engineers or monkeys qualifying their software

    The simple fact is, they're just not pouring enough money into the required testing.  This is disappointing coming from what is now, "the most valuable company of all time".

  • by LenTS,

    LenTS LenTS Mar 17, 2013 6:25 PM in response to SammiRye777
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 17, 2013 6:25 PM in response to SammiRye777

    I had the error ""UBS is trying to access *amazonawd.com" when running email to iCloud from my daughter's parental control account. This is distressing because there is no way I'm going to allow access to a generic cloud service that hosts malware. Turned off the guest account and the problem went away, even though it is not the same account.

  • by mick80234,

    mick80234 mick80234 Mar 18, 2013 7:22 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2013 7:22 AM in response to araym

    Does anyone know if 10.8.3 fixes the issues with parental controls not working?

  • by LizFS2,

    LizFS2 LizFS2 Mar 20, 2013 1:08 AM in response to mick80234
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2013 1:08 AM in response to mick80234

    Not for me, not yet.  But then, I am having all kinds of problems with this Mac and, after reading a few recent articles on the way things are bing run at Apple, I am beginning to seriously rethink Windows.  Everything Apple has put out in the last year has been problem-ridden crap.

  • by Romelhr,

    Romelhr Romelhr Mar 22, 2013 10:06 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 22, 2013 10:06 AM in response to araym

    I have a solution: First time, not set parental to the User, name: Alumnos, run all programs in Administer, and then run all all programs in the user Alumnos, and now Reset. The 2nd time, set Parental to user Alumnos, but not rstrict nothing still, run programs in Administer user, and then run all programs to be restrict in Alumnos, and now Reset. Third Time, put the restrictions on the programs and/or Internet in user Alumnos, and Reset. Fourth Time run the all programs restricted and Internet sites in user Alumnos and answer with the User & password of administer when ask the System, al the end Reset again. Fifth Time, the restrictions of Parental is working more o less very well.

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