Any ideas? Mysterious user account login

[fitinferno]

Heh, I went back to lurking the forums for a while, but now a really random issue has arisen on my Mac that's confused the crap out of me.

I have two accounts on my computer. One is my main account and one is a friend's. They're both admin accounts. This friend used the computer two or three days ago and left his account logged in. When I wanted to use the eyetv programme I have, it said I couldn't as it was in use on his account. So, I decided to just restart the computer and log him out by using my admin password to force a restart. All was well and I happily got to use the eyetv.

But today, I put the computer to sleep and left for the day. This friend was not over at all (to the best of my knowledge). Yet when I got home and tried to connect my eyetv, I got the error message again and lo! His account was logged in

So the question is: can the Mac have a bout of accidentally logging in another users account and opening the programme but then allowing it to go back to my account without me noticing that the other account had been logged in? OR is it the case that my friend has somehow made himself a key copy and forgot to log out after secretly using the computer??

(Definitely confusing).

 

[ChrisA]

Is the compter connected to the Internet? If so purhaps he logged in remotly. You could check log files.

 

[balamw]

I'm not familiar with eyetv, so I could be way off base here, but could it be that eyetv starts up at boot running under his account name? Perhaps launched by cron or launchd to record somethign at a specified time?

B

 

[mad jew]

Also, your friend may have an alarm app or something that forces a login at a certain time or after a certain prompting process. This isn't anything that comes default on OSX so your friend would remember installing/applying this. Maybe ask your friend.

 

[fitinferno]

Is the compter connected to the Internet? If so purhaps he logged in remotly. You could check log files.

Thanks for the reply. I had that thought, but the remote login option in sharing is turned off. Furthermore, the directoryservice log claims that there were no wakes outside of the one this morning when I left and the one in the evening when I came back. Very strange. But it also fails to mention a few sleeps/wakes as well, so it may not be catching everything?

I'm sure that it must be the computer that's somehow managed this error, but I'd really love to know how it managed to do so...it's the weirdest I've seen in a while.

 

[fitinferno]

I'm not familiar with eyetv, so I could be way off base here, but could it be that eyetv starts up at boot running under his account name? Perhaps launched by cron or launchd to record somethign at a specified time?

B

Hmm...it's a good thought. I tried a reboot to see if the computer would start his account again. But it didn't...so I find that a bit odd as if that was the case it should be repeatable?

 

[fitinferno]

Also, your friend may have an alarm app or something that forces a login at a certain time or after a certain prompting process. This isn't anything that comes default on OSX so your friend would remember installing/applying this. Maybe ask your friend.

Hehe, I'm totally going to ask him, but it's late here so he didn't answer the phone. I was way too curious about the problem to wait

That's a really interesting idea. I'll have to see if he's changed anything recently on his account as this has not happened before and I (stupidly) leave my computer w/o a reboot for weeks on end.

 

[MisterMe]

....

I have two accounts on my computer. One is my main account and one is a friend's. They're both admin accounts. ....

In the future, do not give your friends administrative access to your computer.