Opera GX Secret Recordings (?)

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

Sorry if this has been discussed, but both a regular search and a title suggestion didn’t pull up anything relevant. This is just from me noticing it since setting things up on a brand new M2 Mac mini, but it should be reproducible for anyone with Ventura.

Opera GX surreptitiously accesses your microphone on launch and MacOS is unable to stop this.

Every time I open the software, the microphone notification appears. I noticed it in the Menu Bar, immediately panicked and took a screenshot, and then investigated Control Center for more information.

Navigating to System Preferences to put a stop to this nonsense (of which I was never notified), I get this.

Excuse me. No, Apple, it technically didn’t “request” to use my microphone; IT JUST USED IT ON ITS OWN. So how do I stop this, if the Privacy settings menu doesn’t even know about it? Thanks.

 

[DeltaMac]

Go into Opera GX/Settings, then Privacy & Security.
Open Site Settings, then click on Microphone.
You can completely disable microphone in Opera GX, or set just one site (or whatever sites you need) for using microphone, or turn the microphone off completely while using Opera GX. Seems to be plenty of options for however you need to use the microphone - for gaming or whatever (or not at all)

 

[kitKAC]

So how do I stop this, if the Privacy settings menu doesn’t even know about it? Thanks.

Personally, I’d delete the app. Not sure why’d you want to keep using an App that has been doing things behind your back.

 

[svenmany]

If I’m understanding @DeltaMac correctly, the solution is found within the settings of the application itself. That would be depending on the application to protect yourself from potential abuses of the application. Apple’s marketing suggests that macOS has that responsibility and that responsibility is managed in the privacy section of system settings.

I’m surprised that the application managed to access the microphone without macOS alerting you and requesting you grant permission for that access. But this is not the first time I’ve overestimated or misunderstood the protections afforded by those privacy settings.

I don’t necessarily blame Opera unless it has made special efforts to exploit some weakness in the protections of the operating system.

 

[bogdanw]

From Terminal:
Reset camera authorization

tccutil reset Camera

Reset microphone authorization

tccutil reset Microphone

Reset all permissions for Opera GX

tccutil reset All com.operasoftware.OperaGX

Documentation https://developer.apple.com/documen...ting_authorization_for_media_capture_on_macos

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

You can completely disable microphone in Opera GX, or set just one site (or whatever sites you need) for using microphone, or turn the microphone off completely while using Opera GX.

That’s within the browser itself and operates with regard to specific websites’ access to my hardware, through that browser. I’m talking about the browser itself actively–without my permission–opening my microphone channel and using it to listen upon startup, every time, and sending those recordings to whomever owns Opera.

Personally, I’d delete the app. Not sure why’d you want to keep using an App that has been doing things behind your back.

Leaning toward that at this point, but then I’ll need to find a new secondary browser (for all the things Safari can’t do) to be able to trust…

Reset microphone authorization

tccutil reset Microphone

Reset all permissions for Opera GX

tccutil reset All com.operasoftware.OperaGX

Does nothing. Thank you, though! That seems closest to what I’d be looking for.

 

[bogdanw]

It might be just a macOS bug, displaying the dot when is not actually in use.
Try "OverSight monitors a mac's mic and webcam, alerting the user when the internal mic is activated, or whenever a process accesses the webcam."
https://objective-see.org/products/oversight.html

 

[svenmany]

Every time I open the software, the microphone notification appears. I noticed it in the Menu Bar, immediately panicked and took a screenshot, and then investigated Control Center for more information.

Does the microphone notification appear only briefly or does it stay there while using the application?

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

Does the microphone notification appear only briefly or does it stay there while using the application?

Just briefly, at launch (in the far right of the Menu Bar). When it goes away, the Control Center icon briefly shows the orange dot next to it (but that goes away, too), and clicking on it shows the above screenshot (telling me Opera used the mic recently). But NOTHING about permissions has ever appeared for me as a modal popup system-wide, nor does any information about a request for one appear in System Preferences.

 

[svenmany]

Just briefly, at launch (in the far right of the Menu Bar). When it goes away, the Control Center icon briefly shows the orange dot next to it (but that goes away, too), and clicking on it shows the above screenshot (telling me Opera used the mic recently). But NOTHING about permissions has ever appeared for me as a modal popup system-wide, nor does any information about a request for one appear in System Preferences.

I have a suspicion; it's based on cursory read of the documentation that @bogdanw linked. At a high-level my suspicion is that it's an Opera coding mistake and the microphone icon appears only when Opera is attempting to access the microphone before that attempt is rejected by the OS.

The documentation outlines the flow a developer should follow when asking for permission to use a device. When the code asks for that permission, the OS prompts the user, records their answer in System Preferences, and then returns that answer to the program. After that, the program's attempt to use the device will be either rejected or accepted by the OS based on the user's previous answer. That's my guess of how this is supposed to work.

Imagine if Opera attempted to access the device without ever making the call to ask for permission. Then the user would have never been notified and there would be no entry in System Preferences. Opera's attempt to access the mic would be rejected by the OS. But, you still might briefly see the mic icon during the attempt. That's another guess.

All of this is wrong if Opera has in the past triggered the OS to ask for permission to use the mic and you've responded. Have you? Also, it's wrong if you're able to make a setting inside Opera to enable the Mic and the OS doesn't intervene to ask for permission and record the answer in System Preferences. Can you use the Mic without the OS getting your permission?

 

[Pierre535]

The title is misleading. No evidence of secret recordings.

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

The title is misleading. No evidence of secret recordings.

Valid point; I should’ve added a question mark.