Each time I turn on my Mac I receive several requests (from unknown email addresses) for permission to access my keychain - are these hackers? what can i do other than hit DENY DNEY DENY ????? help!
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)
Back up all data before proceeding.
Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
Select the login keychain from the list on the left side of the Keychain Access window. If your default keychain has a different name, select that.
If the lock icon in the top left corner of the window shows that the keychain is locked, click to unlock it. You'll be prompted for the keychain password, which is the same as your login password, unless you've changed it.
Right-click or control-click the login entry in the list. From the menu that pops up, select
Change Settings for Keychain "login"
In the sheet that opens, uncheck both boxes, if not already unchecked.
From the menu bar, select
Keychain Access ▹ Preferences... ▹ First Aid
There are four checkboxes in the window that opens. Check all of them. if they're not already checked. Close the window.
Select
Keychain Access ▹ Keychain First Aid
from the menu bar and repair the keychain. Quit Keychain Access.
If you use iCloud Keychain, open the iCloud preference pane and uncheck the Keychain box. You'll be prompted to delete the local iCloud keychain. Confirm. Then re-check the box. Follow one of the procedures described in this support article to set up iCloud Keychain on an additional device.
Please re-read the dialog & post it in full (anonymise the email address).
The keychain is used to store password for other apps to access, so it seems likely that somewhere you have an account setup on the Mac that uses this email address - it's possible that it is left over from 'botched settings' created when setting up an email account in Mail etc.
Make a note of the address & then search for that in the keychain (in /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access). If you are certain the password is not needed delete it. However the app will simply prompt you again whenever it next needs to use it. At this point you should look at that app & see what accounts are configured.
It seems very unlikely that hackers would be prompting you like this, it looks more like an annoying side effect of a mis-configured account.
Keychain access from unknown people
