Who's "wheel"?

Question

Who's "wheel"?

I discovered that for two of my five volumes connected to my computer, one group that is permitted to read (but not write to) that volume is "wheel." The name for an authorized group on the other three volumes is "staff." I'm not sure where they came from. "Staff" sounds vaguely official but "wheel" sounds entirely bogus, like something that malware might cause to appear. Here's a screen snap of the Get Info panels for all five volumes. Anyone have any insight or experience with this?

27" iMac, latest version of Yosemite.

Posted on Jan 16, 2015 12:05 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 16, 2015 12:53 PM in response to Leopardus

Thanks for your quick replies, Kappy and Leopardus

Unknown uaergroups appearing on my computer doesn't make me feel nice and secure in this age of hacking.

How did they get there? I bought this machine in 2012 and had it serviced at an Apple store within the first year. Would they do that? I had a previous iMac, which had a HD failure and I took it to a repair store (not Apple) to recover the contents of the HD. I know they installed their own user name in order to so some stuff during the recovery, but the guy told me that he created his own log-in ID. Anyhow, I backed that iMac up with Time Machine and then within a year, the video card failed, so I bought the new iMa. I used the Time Machine backups to install everything when I set up the new Mac.

Two questions:

1. Can I get rid of 'wheel'?

2. If I do, will that mess up stuff and cause me problems running the computer?

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Answer 2

Leopardus

Level 4

1,303 points

Jan 16, 2015 12:14 PM in response to Michael Brady

Ok Michael,

After you have read the Wiki piece, the following.

Both are placed by the system for access to the Drives or folders. You've read about wheel. Staff is also placed there by the system, and will grant or deny Users in this Group access rights. If you create other users on your Mac, they would normally become members (or users) under this group.

Dont delete or remove them

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Jan 16, 2015 12:32 PM in response to Leopardus

This is not technically correct, so for clarity:

Wheel is a user group, not a user. Members of the group have the same privileges as an admin user. Staff users who are able to switch between Staff and Admin are placed in the Wheel group. Wheel members have the same privileges as one gets using "sudo."

Because disk drives and some folders (not all) may have Wheel privileges because those users accessing them need more privileges than belong to a Staff member. When you add a new user to your system, they do not necessarily get put in Wheel, but into Staff. Only Admin users will also be put into the Wheel group instead of into Staff or into Staff as well.

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Jan 16, 2015 12:52 PM in response to Leopardus

I knew that, so that's why I made my addition "for clarity." Didn't wish to leave you thinking I was trying to give a hard time, I wasn't. Sometimes I write things that require others to help make sense of. it can often be a challenge to get what's in your head through to your fingers, then to the keys on the keyboard. 🙂

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Answer 5

Jan 16, 2015 1:00 PM in response to Michael Brady

Wow! I just noticed that "wheel" has write privileges to one drive and "Staff" has write privileges to three. The three volumes on the left are external hard drives, and "staff" can write to them; the top right volume is my HD; the bottom right is actually a phantom drive. I think it represents the DVD that I used to set up one of the Western Digital external drives. I've tried to get rid of it but it always reappears. Sometimes after I wake up the computer, I get a bunch of notifications that the drive could not be dismounted.

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Answer 6

Leopardus

Level 4

1,303 points

Jan 16, 2015 2:04 PM in response to Michael Brady

Hi Michael,

The answer to the first question is NO! You will mess up your entire system, it is a Unix requirement.

Second question is already answered. You will mess up the total system, probably loose all your data, as you might have to format the drive again, and do a reinstall of the system.

It is supposed to be like that. Leave it.

If you close the front door to your Virtual Home, thieves, robbers and what have you not can not enter your system.

That you set up in System Preferences, Security & Privacy, and set the Button on Apps from the App Store. BE CAREFUL who or what you allow to enter into your Virtual Home. You have a built in Firewall. Use it and good housekeeping and your Home will be safe and secure

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Answer 7

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Jan 16, 2015 12:07 PM in response to Michael Brady

Wheel (Unix term) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Answer 8

Leopardus

Level 4

1,303 points

Jan 16, 2015 12:39 PM in response to Kappy

I just tried to keep it simple, but of course you are correct. I never said it is a user, but didn't want to confuse him. (OK I read my piece again, and it could be misinterpreted)

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