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My System root certificate is not trusted and I cannot open Preferences with my Administrator password.

My computer was hacked three days ago and malware installed. After consultation with Apple Support I reinstalled the OS and all seemed to be well. Today I tried to set some Preferences but my Admin password wouldn't work. I tried to reset it using my Apple ID, to no avail. Checking in Keychain Access I found that under System, my Certificate contains a message: 'This root certificate is not trusted'.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 30, 2015 9:49 AM

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9 replies

Mar 30, 2015 12:26 PM in response to Linc Davis

I did not erase the startup volume. I was following the Apple tech's instructions. The malware caused Safari to be redirected to a number of sites, including MacKeeper, and ended up with a pop-up, supposedly from Apple, warning me of dire consequences if I didn't phone a 1-800 to get it fixed. I no longer use Avast as I never got around to installing on this computer, but I will now.

Mar 30, 2015 12:46 PM in response to michaelfromkimberley

DO NOT install "Avast." I asked about it as a possible cause of the problem, not as a solution.

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem. But with the aid of the test results, the solution may take a few minutes, instead of hours or days.

The test works on OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later. I don't recommend running it on older versions of OS X. It will do no harm, but it won't do much good either.

Don't be put off by the complexity of these instructions. The process is much less complicated than the description. You do harder tasks with the computer all the time.

2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.

There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.

3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. As I wrote above, it changes nothing. It doesn't send or receive any data on the network. All it does is to generate a human-readable report on the state of the computer. That report goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. If you prefer, you can act on it yourself without disclosing the contents to me or anyone else.

You should be wondering whether you can believe me, and whether it's safe to run a program at the behest of a stranger. In general, no, it's not safe and I don't encourage it.

In this case, however, there are a couple of ways for you to decide whether the program is safe without having to trust me. First, you can read it. Unlike an application that you download and click to run, it's transparent, so anyone with the necessary skill can verify what it does.

You may not be able to understand the script yourself. But variations of it have been posted on this website thousands of times over a period of years. The site is hosted by Apple, which does not allow it to be used to distribute harmful software. Any one of the millions of registered users could have read the script and raised the alarm if it was harmful. Then I would not be here now and you would not be reading this message. See, for example, this discussion.

Nevertheless, if you can't satisfy yourself that these instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.

4. Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:

☞ Copy a line of text in this window to the Clipboard.

☞ Paste into the window of another application.

☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.

☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.

The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time. Details follow.

5. Try to test under conditions that reproduce the problem, as far as possible. For example, if the computer is sometimes, but not always, slow, run the test during a slowdown.

You may have started up in "safe" mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.

6. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.

7. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

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$NF"\f"a[split($(NF-1),a," ")];} ' '|tail -n'{${p[6]},${p[10]}} ' s/.+bus /Bus: /;s/,.+[(]/ /;s/,.+//p;' ' { $NF=$NF" Errors: "$1;$1="";} 1 ' ' 1s/^/\'$'\n''/;/^ +(([MNPRSV]|De|Li|Tu).+|Bus): .|d: Y/d;s/:$//;$d;p;' ' BEGIN { RS=",";FS=":";} $1~"name" { gsub(/["\\]/,"",$2);print $2;} ' '|grep -q e:/' '/[^ .]/p' '{ print $1}' ' /^ +N.+: [1-9]/ { i++;} END { if(i) print "system: "i;} ' ' NF { print "'{admin,user}' "$NF;exit;} ' ' /se.+ =/,/[\}]/!d;/[=\}]/!p ' ' 3,4d;/^ +D|Of|Fu| [0B]/d;s/^ |:$//g;$!H;${ x;/:/p;} ' ' BEGIN { FS=": ";} NR==1 { sub(":","");h="\n"$1"\n";} /:$/ { l=$1;next;} $1~"S"&&$2!~3 { getline;next;} /^ {6}I/ { i++;L[i]=l" "$2;} END { if(i) print h;for(j=0;j<'${p[24]}';j++) print L[i-j];} ' ' /./H;${ x;s/\n//;s/\n/, /g;/,/p;} ' ' {if(int($6)>'${p[25]}')printf("swap used %.1f\n",$6/1024)} ' ' BEGIN{FS="\""} $3~/ t/&&$2!~/'{${k[24]},${k[29]}}'/{print $2} ' ' int($1)>13 ' p ' BEGIN{FS="DB="} { sub(/\.db.*/,".db",$2);print $2;} ' {,1d\;}'/r%/,/^$/p' ' NR==1{next} NR>11||!$0{exit} {print $NF"\f"substr($0,1,32)"\f"$(NF-7)} ' '/e:/{print $2}' ' /^[(]/{ s/....//;s/$/:/;N;/: [)]$/d;s/\n.+ ([^ ]+).$/\1/;H;};${ g;p;} ' '1;END { exit "find /var/db/r*/'${k[21]}'*.{BS,Bas,Es,J,OSXU,Rem,up}*.bom -mtime -'${p[23]}'s"|getline;} ' ' NR<='${p[26]}' { o=o"\n"$0;next;} { o="";exit;} END{print o|"sed 1d"} ' ' {o=o"\n"$0} NR==6{p=$1*$5} END{if(p>'${p[27]}'*10^6)print o|"sed 1d"} ' );c1=(system_profiler pmset\ -g nvram fdesetup find syslog df vm_stat sar ps crontab kextfind top pkgutil "${k[30]}\\" echo cksum kextstat launchctl smcDiagnose sysctl\ -n defaults\ read stat lsbom 'mdfind -onlyin' env pluginkit scutil 'dtrace -q -x aggsortrev -n' security sed\ -En awk 'dscl . -read' networksetup mdutil lsof test osascript\ -e netstat mdls route cat uname powermetrics codesign lockstat );c2=(${k[21]}loginwindow\ LoginHook ' /L*/P*/loginw*' "'tell app \"System Events\" to get properties of login items'" 'L*/Ca*/'${k[21]}'Saf*/E* -d 2 -name '${k[32]} '~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 \)' -i '-nl -print' '-F \$Sender -k Level Nle 3 -k Facility Req "'${k[21]}'('{'bird|.*i?clou','lsu|sha'}')"' "-f'%N: %l' Desktop {/,}L*/Keyc*" therm sysload boot-args status " -F '\$Time \$Message' -k Sender kernel -k Message CRne '0xdc008012|(allow|call)ing|Goog|(mplet|nabl)ed|ry HD|safe b|succ|xpm' -k Message CReq 'bad |Can.t l|corru|dead|fail|GPU |hfs: Ru|inval|Limiti|v_c|NVDA[(]|pa(gin|us)|Purg(ed|in)| err|Refus|s ful|TCON|tim(ed? ?|ing )o|trig|WARN' " '-du -n DEV -n EDEV 1 10' 'acrx -o%cpu,comm,ruid' "' syscall::recvfrom:return {@a[execname,uid]=sum(arg0)} syscall::sendto:return {@b[execname,uid]=sum(arg0)} syscall::open*:entry {@c[execname,uid,copyinstr(arg0),errno]=count()} syscall::execve:return, syscall::posix_spawn:return {@d[execname,uid,ppid]=count()} syscall::fork:return, syscall::vfork:return, syscall::posix_spawn:return /arg0<0/ {@e[execname,uid,arg0]=count()} syscall:::return /errno!=0/ {@f[execname,uid,errno]=count()} io:::wait-start {self->t=timestamp} io:::wait-done /self->t/ { this->T=timestamp - self->t;@g[execname,uid]=sum(this->T);self->t=0;} io:::start {@h[execname,uid]=sum(args[0]->b_bcount)} tick-10sec { normalize(@a,2560000);normalize(@b,2560000);normalize(@c,10);normalize(@d,10);normalize(@e,10);normalize(@f,10);normalize(@g,10000000);normalize(@h,10240);printa(\"1\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@a);printa(\"2\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@b);printa(\"11\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%s\f%d\n\",@c);printa(\"12\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%d\n\",@d);printa(\"13\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%d\n\",@e);printa(\"14\f%@d\f%s\f%d\f%d\n\",@f);printa(\"3\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@g);printa(\"4\f%@d\f%s\f%d\n\",@h);exit(0);} '" '-f -pfc /var/db/r*/'${k[21]}'*.{BS,Bas,Es,J,OSXU,Rem,up}*.bom' '{/,}L*/Lo*/Diag* -type f -regex .\*[cght] ! -name .?\* ! -name \*ag \( -exec grep -lq "^Thread c" {} \; -exec printf \* \; -o -true \) -execdir stat -f'$'\f''%Sc'$'\f''%N -t%F {} \;' '/S*/*/Ca*/*xpc*' '-L /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems -type f -exec file {} +' /\ kMDItemContentTypeTree=${k[21]}{bundle,mach-o-dylib} :Label "/p*/e*/{auto*,{cron,fs}tab,hosts,{[lp],sy}*.conf,mach_i*/*,pam.d/*,ssh{,d}_config,*.local} {/p*,/usr/local}/e*/periodic/*/* /L*/P*{,/*}/com.a*.{Bo,sec*.ap}*t {/S*/,/,}L*/Lau*/*{,/*} .launchd.conf" list '-F "" -k Sender hidd -k Level Nle 3' /Library/Preferences/${k[21]}alf\ globalstate --proxy '-n get default' vm.swapusage --dns -get{dnsservers,info} dump-trust-settings\ {-s,-d,} '~ "kMDItemKind=Package"' '-R -ce -l1 -n5 -o'{'prt -stats prt','mem -stats mem'}',command,uid' -kl -l -s\ / '--regexp --files '${k[21]}'pkg.*' '+c0 -i4TCP:0-1023' ${k[21]}dashboard\ layer-gadgets '-d /L*/Mana*/$USER' '-app Safari WebKitDNSPrefetchingEnabled' '-Fcu +c0 -l' -m 'L*/{Con*/*/Data/L*/,}Pref* -type f -size 0c -name *.plist.???????' kern.memorystatus_vm_pressure_level '3>&1 >&- 2>&3' '-F \$Message -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq "'{'n Cause: -','(a und|I/O |gnment |jnl_io.+)err|disk.+abo','USBF:.+bus'}'"' -name\ kMDItem${k[33]} -T\ hfs '-n get default' -listnetworkserviceorder :${k[33]} :CFBundleDisplayName $EUID {'$TMPDIR../C ','/{S*/,}'}'L*/{,Co*/*/*/L*/}{Cache,Log}s -type f -size +'${p[11]}'M -exec stat -f%z'$'\f''%N {} \;' \ /v*/d*/*/*l*d{,.*.$UID}/* '-app Safari UserStyleSheetEnabled' 'L*/A*/Fi*/P*/*/a*.json' users/$USER\ HomeDirectory '{/,}L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist -exec plutil -s {} \;' ' -F "\$Time \$(Sender): \$Message" -k Sender Rne "launchd|nsurls" -k Level Nle 3 -k Facility R'{'ne "user|','eq "'}'console" -k Message CRne "[{}<>]|asser|commit - no t|deprec|done |ect pas|fmfd|Goog|ksho|ndum|obso|realp|rned f|/root|sandbox ex" ' getenv '/ "kMDItemDateAdded>=\$time.now(-'${p[23]}')&&kMDItem'${k[33]}'=*"' -m\ / '' ' -F "\$Time \$(RefProc): \$Message" -k Sender Req launchd -k Level Nle 3 -k Message Rne "asse|bug|File ex|hij|Ig|Jet|key is|lid t|Plea|ship" ' print{,-disabled}\ {system,{gui,user}/$UID} '-n1 --show-initial-usage --show-process-energy' -r ' -F "\$Message" -k Sender nsurlstoraged -k Time ge -1h -k Level Nle 4 -k Message Req "^(ER|IN)" ' '/A* -type d -name *.app -prune ! -user 0' -vv '-D1 -IPRWck -s5 sleep 1' );N1=${#c2[@]};for j in {0..20};do c2[N1+j]=SP${k[j]}DataType;done;l=({Restricted\ ,Lock,Pro}files POST Battery {Safari,App,{Bad,Loaded}\ kernel,Firefox}\ extensions System\ load boot\ args FileVault\ {2,1} {Kernel,System,Console,launchd}\ log SMC Login\ hook 'I/O per process' 'High file counts' UID {System,Login,Agent,User}\ services\ {load,disabl}ed {Admin,Root}\ access Font\ issues Firewall Proxies DNS TCP/IP Wi-Fi 'Elapsed time (sec)' {Root,User}\ crontab {Global,User}' login items' Spotlight Memory\ pressure Listeners Widgets Parental\ Controls Prefetching Nets Volumes {Continuity,I/O,iCloud,HID,HCI}\ errors {User,System}\ caches/logs XPC\ cache Startup\ items Shutdown\ codes Heat Diagnostic\ reports Bad\ {plist,cache}s 'VM (GiB)' Bundles{,' (new)'} Trust\ settings Activity Free\ space Stylesheet Library\ paths{,' ('{shell,launchd}\)} Data\ packages Modifications );N3=${#l[@]};for i in {0..8};do l[N3+i]=${k[5+i]};done;F() { local x="${s[$1]}";[[ "$x" =~ ^([\&\|\<\>]|$) ]]&&{ printf "$x";return;};:|${c1[30]} "$x" 2>&-;printf "%s \'%s\'" "|${c1[30+$?]}" "$x";};A0() { Q=6;v[2]=1;id -G|grep -qw 80;v[1]=$?;((v[1]))||{ Q=7;sudo -v;v[2]=$?;((v[2]))||Q=8;};v[3]=`date +%s`;date '+Start time: %T %D%n';printf '\n[Process started]\n\n'>&4;printf 'Revision: %s\n\n' ${p[0]};};A1() { local c="${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}";shift 2;c="$c ` while [[ "$1" ]];do F $1;shift;done`";((P2))&&{ c="sudo $c";P2=;};v=`eval "$c"`;[[ "$v" ]];};A2() { local c="${c1[$1]}";[[ "$c" =~ ^(awk|sed ) ]]&&c="$c '${s[$2]}'"||c="$c ${c2[$2]}";shift 2;local d=` while [[ "$1" ]];do F $1;shift;done`;((P2))&&{ c="sudo $c";P2=;};local a;v=` while read a;do eval "$c '$a' $d";done<<<"$v";`;[[ "$v" ]];};A3(){ v=$((`date +%s`-v[3]));};export -f A1 A2 F;B1() { v=No;! ((v[1]))&&{ v=;P1=1;};};eval "`type -a B1|sed '1d;s/1/2/'`";B3(){ v[$1]="$v";};B4() { local i=$1;local j=$2;shift 2;local c="cat` while [[ "$1" ]];do F $1;shift;done`";v[j]=`eval "{ $c;}"<<<"${v[i]}"`;};B5(){ v="${v[$1]}"$'\n'"${v[$2]}";};B6() { v=` paste -d$'\e' <(printf "${v[$1]}") <(printf "${v[$2]}")|awk -F$'\e' ' {printf("'"${f[$3]}"'",$1,$2)} ' `;};B7(){ v=`egrep -v "${v[$1]}"<<<"$v"|sort`;};eval "`type -a B7|sed '1d;s/7/8/;s/-v //'`";C0() { [[ "$v" ]]&&sed -E "$s"<<<"$v";};C1() { [[ "$v" ]]&&printf "${f[$1]}" "${l[$2]}" "$v"|sed -E "$s";};C2() { v=`echo $v`;[[ "$v" != 0 ]]&&C1 0 $1;};C3() { B4 0 0 63&&C1 1 $1;};C4() { echo $'\t'"Part $((++P)) of $Q done at $((`date +%s`-v[3])) sec">&4;};C5() { sudo -k;pbcopy<<<"$o";printf '\n\tThe test results are on the Clipboard.\n\n\tPlease close this window.\n';exit 2>&-;};for i in 1 2;do eval D$((i-1))'() { A'$i' $@;C0;};';for j in 2 3;do eval D$((i+2*j-3))'() { local x=$1;shift;A'$i' $@;C'$j' $x;};';done;done;trap C5 2;o=$({ A0;D0 0 N1+1 2;D0 0 $N1 1;B1;C2 31;B1&&! B2&&C2 32;D2 22 15 63;D0 0 N1+2 3;D0 0 N1+15 17;D4 3 0 N1+3 4;D4 4 0 N1+4 5;D4 N3+4 0 N1+9 59;D0 0 N1+16 99;for i in 0 1 2;do D4 N3+i 0 N1+5+i 6;done;D4 N3+3 0 N1+8 71;D4 62 1 10 7;D4 10 1 11 8;B2&&D4 18 19 53 67;D2 11 2 12 9;D2 12 3 13 10;D2 13 32 70 101 25;D2 71 6 76 13;D2 45 20 52 66;A1 7 77 14;B3 28;A1 20 31 111;B6 0 28 5;B4 0 0 110;C2 66;B2&&D0 45 90 124;D4 70 8 15 38;D0 9 16 16 77 45;C4;B2&&D0 35 49 61 75 76 78 45;B2&&{ D0 28 17 45;C4;};B2&&{ A1 43 85 117;B3 29;B4 0 0 119 76 81 45;C0;B4 29 0 118 119 76 82 45;C0; };D0 12 40 54 16 79 45;D0 12 39 54 16 80 45;D4 74 25 77 15&&{ B4 0 8 103;B4 8 0;A2 18 74;B6 8 0 3;C3 75;};B2&&D4 19 21 0;B2&&D4 40 10 42;D2 2 0 N1+19 46 84;D2 44 34 43 53;D2 59 22 20 32;D2 33 0 N1+14 51;for i in {0..2};do A1 29 35+i 104+i;B3 25+i;done;B6 25 27 5;B6 0 26 5;B4 0 0 110;C2 69;D2 34 21 28 35;D4 35 27 29 36;A1 40 59 120;B3 18;A1 33 60 121;B8 18;B4 0 19 83;A1 27 32 39&&{ B3 20;B4 19 0;A2 33 33 40;B3 21;B6 20 21 3;};C2 36;D4 50 38 5 68;B4 19 0;D5 37 33 34 42;B2&&D4 46 35 45 55;D4 38 0 N1+20 43;B2&&D4 58 4 65 76 91;D4 63 4 19 44 75 95 12;B1&&{ D4 53 5 55 75 69&&D4 51 6 58 31;D4 56 5 56 97 75 98&&D0 0 N1+7 99;D2 55 5 27 84;D4 61 5 54 75 70;D4 14 5 14 96;D4 15 5 72 96;D4 17 5 78 96;C4;};D4 16 5 73 96;A1 13 44 74 18;C4;B3 4;B4 4 0 85;A2 14 61 89;B4 0 5 19 102;A1 17 41 50;B7 5;C3 8;B4 4 0 88;A2 14 24 89;C4;B4 0 6 19 102;B4 4 0 86;A2 14 61 89;B4 0 7 19 102;B5 6 7;B4 0 11 73 102;A1 42 86 114;j=$?;for i in 0 1 2;do ((i==2&&j==1))&&break;((! j))||((i))||B2&&A1 18 $((79+i-(i+53)*j)) 107+8*j 94 74||continue;B7 11;B4 0 0 11;C3 $((23+i*(1+i+2*j)));D4 $((24+i*(1+i+2*j))) 18-4*j 82+i-16*j $((112+((3-i)*i-40*j)/2));done;D4 60 4 21 24;D4 42 14 1 62;D4 43 37 2 90 48;D4 41 10 42;D2 48 36 47 25;A1 4 3 60&&{ B3 9;A2 14 61;B4 0 10 21;B4 9 0;A2 14 62;B4 0 0 21;B6 0 10 4;C3 5;};D4 9 41 69 100;D2 72 21 68 35;D2 49 21 48 49;B4 4 22 57 102;A1 21 46 56 74;B7 22;B4 0 0 58;C3 47;D4 54 5 7 75 76 69;D4 52 5 8 75 76 69;D4 57 4 64 76 91;D2 0 4 4 84;D2 1 4 51 84;D4 21 22 9 37;D0 0 N1+17 108;D4 76 24 38;A1 23 18 28 89;B4 0 16 22 102;A1 16 25 33;B7 16;B4 0 0 34;D1 31 47;D4 64 4 71 41;D4 65 5 87 116 74;C4;B4 4 12 26 89 23 102;for i in {0..3};do A1 0 N1+10+i 72 74;B7 12;B4 0 0 52;C3 N3+5+i;((i))||C4;done;A1 24 22 29;B7 12;B3 14;A2 39 57 30;B6 14 0 4;C3 67;A1 24 75 74;B4 1 1 122||B7 12;B4 0 0 123;B3 23;A2 39 57 30;B6 23 0 4;C3 68;B4 4 13 27 89 65;A1 24 23;B7 13;C3 73;B4 4 0 87;A2 14 61 89 20;B4 0 17;A1 26 50 64;B7 17;C3 6;A1 4 88;D5 77 44 89;D4 7 11 6;D0 0 N1+18 109;A3;C2 39;C4;} 4>&2 2>/dev/null;);C5

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

8. Launch the built-in Terminal 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.

Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste by pressing command-V. The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.

9. If you see an error message in the Terminal window such as "Syntax error" or "Event not found," enter

exec bash

and press return. Then paste the script again.

10. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, just press return three times at the password prompt. Again, the script will still run.

If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.

11. The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, a series of lines will appear in the Terminal window like this:

[Process started]

Part 1 of 8 done at … sec

Part 8 of 8 done at … sec

The test results are on the Clipboard.

Please close this window.

[Process completed]

The intervals between parts won't be exactly equal, but they give a rough indication of progress. The total number of parts may be different from what's shown here.

Wait for the final message "Process completed" to appear. If you don't see it within about ten minutes, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, press the key combination control-C or command-period to stop it and go to the next step. You'll have incomplete results, but still something.

12. When the test is complete, or if you stopped it because it was taking too long, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.

At the top of the results, there will be a line that begins with the words "Start time." If you don't see that, but instead see a mass of gibberish, you didn't wait for the "Process completed" message to appear in the Terminal window. Please wait for it and try again.

If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.

13. When you post the results, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "You are not authorized to post." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

14. This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak for themselves, not for me. The test itself is harmless, but whatever else you're told to do may not be. For others who choose to run it, I don't recommend that you post the test results on this website unless I asked you to.

______________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Use Agreement for the Apple Support Communities website ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

Mar 30, 2015 5:23 PM in response to michaelfromkimberley

Please take these steps to restore administrator privileges to your account. This somewhat tedious procedure is only necessary if you've confirmed that no administrator account exists on the system.

If you don't already have a current backup of all your data, you must back up before taking any of the steps below. Ask if you need guidance. You won't need the backup unless something goes wrong—which is always possible.

Step 1

Start up in Recovery mode. The OS X Utilities screen will appear.

Step 2

Take this step only if you use FileVault 2. Launch Disk Utility, then select the icon of the FileVault startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) It will be nested below another icon with the same name. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar and enter your login password when prompted. Then quit Disk Utility to be returned to the main screen.

Step 3

Select

Utilities Terminal

from the menu bar. In the window that opens, type this:

resetp

Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

resetpassword

Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Select your startup volume if not already selected. Pull down the menu labeled

Select the user account

and select

System Administrator (root)

Follow the prompts to set a password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9. I suggest you write down the password. If you don't write it down and forget it, you'll have to start over from Step 1.

Select

Restart...

from the menu bar.

Step 4

This step, like Step 2, applies only if you use FileVault. Log in as usual, then select

Log Out...

from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-Q. Don't restart. You'll be returned to the login screen.

Step 5

At the login screen, click Other... Enter "root" (without the quotes) in the Name field, and enter the password you set in Step 3 in the Password field. You should now be logged in as root. This is a potentially dangerous condition. Do nothing while logged in as root except as indicated below. You'll be fine as long as you don't deviate from the plan.

Open the Users & Groups preference pane. Select your usual administrator account in the list of users and check the box marked

Allow user to administer this computer

You'll be prompted to restart. Do that and log in as yourself—not as root. Your administrator status should now be restored.

Step 6 (optional, but recommended)

Follow the instructions in this support article under the heading "Disable the root user." You must authenticate in Directory Utility as "root" with the password you set in Step 3. Authenticating as another administrator won't work.

Credit for this idea to ASC member wessongroup.

My System root certificate is not trusted and I cannot open Preferences with my Administrator password.

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