Really Worried.

[LethalUK]

First time Mac user here, just got a Mac a couple of weeks ago, and when trying to verify permissions on the disk, or repair them I get this:

2009-09-23 18:09:47 +0100: Warning: SUID file
"System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2009-09-23 18:10:47 +0100: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Locum" has been modified and will not be repaired.

What's going to/is happening?

How can I fix it?

 

[Consultant]

That doesn't matter. Just hit repair permissions. Ignore the output.

 

[Makosuke]

To add a bit, the terms "repair" and "fix" may be what throws people off so often with these completely benign messages, since it implies something is "broken". All you're doing with a permissions repair is setting the read/write/ownership/group permissions on files that got put where they are by an installer to what the installer said they should be.

In almost all cases having them set differently won't negatively affect anything, and in most of the ones where it might it's a very, very minor security weakness. Situations where it will actually cause something to malfunction do exist, but they're rare.

And, there are plenty of situations where a system file has different or unusual settings that cause status messages like those to appear in a permissions repair operation. If they were actually screwed up, it'd have fixed them--the fact that it's not pretty much tells you that it's leaving them as-is for a reason.

Also note that there are a number of installers (Adobe's come to mind as common culprits) that don't even bother to set permissions right when they run--things ONLY get set if you run a permissions repair after the fact. And of course they will run perfectly fine for the 99% of people who don't run a repair operation.

Apple should probably rename it "set permissions to defaults" or something like that.

 

[jodelli]

SUID is Set User ID. It means repair permissions isn't going to change it.