The macOS system must require administrator privileges to modify systemwide settings.

The system must be configured to require an administrator password in order to modify the systemwide preferences in System Settings.

Some Preference Panes in System Settings contain settings that affect the entire system. Requiring a password to unlock these systemwide settings reduces the risk of a nonauthorized user modifying system configurations.

Verify the macOS system is configured to require administrator privileges to modify systemwide settings with the following command:

authDBs=("system.preferences" "system.preferences.energysaver" "system.preferences.network" "system.preferences.printing" "system.preferences.sharing" "system.preferences.softwareupdate" "system.preferences.startupdisk" "system.preferences.timemachine") result="1" for section in ${authDBs[@]}; do if [[ $(/usr/bin/security -q authorizationdb read "$section" | /usr/bin/xmllint -xpath 'name(//*[contains(text(), "shared")]/following-sibling::*[1])' -) != "false" ]]; then result="0" fi done echo $result

If the result is not "1", this is a finding.

Configure the macOS system to require administrator privileges to modify systemwide settings with the following command:

authDBs=("system.preferences" "system.preferences.energysaver" "system.preferences.network" "system.preferences.printing" "system.preferences.sharing" "system.preferences.softwareupdate" "system.preferences.startupdisk" "system.preferences.timemachine")

for section in ${authDBs[@]}; do /usr/bin/security -q authorizationdb read "$section" > "/tmp/$section.plist" key_value=$(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :shared" "/tmp/$section.plist" 2>&1) if [[ "$key_value" == *"Does Not Exist"* ]]; then /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :shared bool false" "/tmp/$section.plist" else /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :shared false" "/tmp/$section.plist" fi /usr/bin/security -q authorizationdb write "$section" < "/tmp/$section.plist" done