HighOS hardeningBLWK-MAC-002

Gatekeeper is disabled

What this means

Gatekeeper checks that apps are signed and notarized before they run. With it off, a downloaded app — or one a malicious installer drops — runs without that check.

How to fix it

Run sudo spctl --master-enable, then confirm with spctl --status (it should print assessments enabled).

Check it yourself

Run a scan and look for BLWK-MAC-002 in the results:

bulwark scan

Installed the standalone CLI package instead of the app? The command is bulwarkctl.

How Bulwark decides

Bulwark reads macos_security and reports this check when:

gatekeeper_on_known == true and gatekeeper_on == false

If a value can't be read, Bulwark reports the check as undetermined rather than passing it. View the rule source.

References

• MITRE ATT&CK T1553.001

Related checks

• Cron entry runs a downloader piped to a shell · BLWK-ACCT-001
• Password maximum age is excessively long · BLWK-ACCT-002
• Password minimum age is zero · BLWK-ACCT-003
• Password hashing rounds are not explicitly configured · BLWK-ACCT-004
• Default UMASK is not explicitly configured · BLWK-ACCT-005
• A sensitive system file is world-writable · BLWK-FS-001