File Vault Stripping Permissions

(Note: this is reposted here at the suggestion of a sysadmin on the Tiger group).
I've written a C++ application that will be used by both Windows and OSX clients. The app is simple and console based and is distributed as a simple binary file, compiled separately for Windows and as a Universal OSX application. I edit with AquaEmacs and compile from within using a simple makefile. I don't think any of this is relevant, but it might so I share it.
I've sent the file to one of my OSX testers who happens to be using an Intel Mac (MacBook) running OSX 10.4.10. The file is named "Sartain" and I send it as a file attachment to an email, not it .dmg format. Just for insurance, I use chmod to set file permissions to universal r,w,x (sudo chmod 777 Sartain). With this background, here is the problem I'm trying to sort out.
My tester seems to receive this file as "Sartain." (note the period). Moreover, when he tries to execute the file (./Sartain) from his home directory, he gets "permission denied". I had him check permissions and the received file has stripped off all the write and execute permissions, leaving him only with universal "read" permission. The only way he can run the program is to use chmod to reset permissions.
He is not a Mac sophisticate and so I don't really know what to have him check. He reports that he DOES NOT use virus protection on the machine but he has FILE VAULT turned on. This is the only thing I can think of that would produce this problem. I've scanned the net widely but cannot find conclusive evidence that FILE VAULT changes permissions on received files, but I'm stumped where else to look. He uses a Novell email client and I suppose that his mail server could be stripping off the permissions, but I'd like to rule out FILE VAULT before having to phone his sysadmins to find out what the default setting is on their mail server.
Any thoughts here would be welcome. Thanks for your help.

I don't think this problem has anything to do with File Vault or a virus or anything else on the recipients machine. Rather it's due to trying to send the raw executable file through the e-mail system. File permissions are not contained within the file and hence would not be transferred when you attached the file to an e-mail message.
The addition of the "." (period) on the end of the attachment name may also be a side effect of sending through the mail system.
I think you'd have better luck putting the file in a disk image and sending the .dmg file. The file should definitely keep it's permissions within the dmg and I think it will also retain them once the recipient drags the file out of the dmg.
Steve

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File Vault changes permissions?

I've written a C++ application that will be used by both Windows and OSX clients. The app is simple and console based and is distributed as a simple binary file, compiled separately for Windows and as a Universal OSX application. I edit with AquaEmacs and compile from within using a simple makefile. I don't think any of this is relevant, but it might so I share it.
I've sent the file to one of my OSX testers who happens to be using an Intel Mac (MacBook) running OSX 10.4.10. The file is named "Sartain" and I send it as a file attachment to an email, not it .dmg format. Just for insurance, I use chmod to set file permissions to universal r,w,x (sudo chmod 777 Sartain). With this background, here is the problem I'm trying to sort out.
My tester seems to receive this file as "Sartain." (note the period). Moreover, when he tries to execute the file (./Sartain) from his home directory, he gets "permission denied". I had him check permissions and the received file has stripped off all the write and execute permissions, leaving him only with universal "read" permission. The only way he can run the program is to use chmod to reset permissions.
He is not a Mac sophisticate and so I don't really know what to have him check. He reports that he DOES NOT use virus protection on the machine but he has FILE VAULT turned on. This is the only thing I can think of that would produce this problem. I've scanned the net widely but cannot find conclusive evidence that FILE VAULT changes permissions on received files, but I'm stumped where else to look. He uses a Novell email client and I suppose that his mail server could be stripping off the permissions, but I'd like to rule out FILE VAULT before having to phone his sysadmins to find out what the default setting is on their mail server.
Any thoughts here would be welcome. Thanks for your help.

You should try posting this to the Developers forum at http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=164

How can I repair a File Vault sparsebundle?

Apple has directions for repairing a File Vault sparseimage under 10.3-10.4 here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2631
I couldn't find anything more up-to-date, so I followed those directions but using the different permissions setup in 10.5. Everything seemed to work fine up until it came time to mount the sparsebundle. It wouldn't mount. I could drag the sparsebundle into Disk Utility, but when trying to "Repair" or "Verify" I get this error message:
Unable to attach “testserver.sparsebundle”. (Operation not supported on socket)
\[DUDiskController viewablePartitions\] expecting DUDisk, but got nil
As I was typing this post, I figured out what to do. Being an Admin doesn't cut it; you have to be root. I did not find it listed online, so I'm jotting it here; do this instead of what Apple says:
1. Disconnect from the network (turn off AirPort, unplug Ethernet) because we're about to temporarily log in as root, which could leave us exposed.
2. To enable the root user, open Applications / Utilities / Directory Utility. Unlock the icon with your admin password, then choose "Edit menu > Enable Root User". If this is the first time, enter a password for the root user, or if you have forgotten your root password, choose "Edit menu > Change Root Password".
3. Log in as root: Log out of the current account, then in the blank login screen, enter "root" as the username along with your root password. Or, if you have fast user switching enabled, make sure you are logged out of the FileVault in question, then pick "Login Window..." from the user menu. If you aren't allowed to type in a user name, open System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options, then disable "Automatic Login" and by "Display login window as" pick "Name and password".
4. Mount the sparsebundle: From the Finder's "Go" menu, pick "Go to folder..." and enter "/Users/". Drill down to the sparsebundle inside your FileVault account, and double-click it to mount it. When asked for your keychain password, cancel. Then you will be asked for your FileVault account's password. For security, make sure the "Store this password in my keychain" checkbox is NOT checked. Enter your FileVault password. The sparsebundle should mount.
5. Repair normally from Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility. The sparsebundle should appear as both a disk and a volume in the left pane of the Disk Utility. When done, quit, eject the sparsebundle and log out of the root account.
6. IMPORTANT: Log back in to a normal administrator account, open Applications / Utilities / Directory Utility, unlock it if necessary, then pick "Edit menu > Disable Root User". Lock the utility and quit.
7. If you disconnected from the network in step 1, it's okay to reconnect now.
From a security standpoint, it's best to leave the root user disabled. Most of the time, an admin user can get temporary root privileges; this just happens to be an exception.

Figured it out and shared solution.

I cannot log in to a MAC 10.5.8 and File Vault was NOT turned on.

Dear Mac Experts:
I know that there are many pages of information about using, remembering and managing passwords. I have read most of them.I know the passwords and File Vault was not on. I am working at someone's home on their computer and running their business. The computer is running MAC 10.5.8 and I don't know if it can be updated. The computer had an Admin account and no user accounts. I tried to change this so the compuer would be secure but my client did not want to.    When I left yesterday the computer was fine. When I came in today there were a number of apps hanging. I forced quit Firefox and some other apps and logged out an shut down the computer. When I tried to log into the Admin Account which is the main user account I got the error messages below:
Your FileVault-protected home folder did not open and needs to be repaired.
click ok to repair the folder and continue logging in.
I clicked ok
then I got a new error message:
You are unable to log in to the user account "x" at this time because and error occured.
Clicked OK
File Vault was not turned on at anytime that I know of in the last couple of months. I luckily had a guest user set up and logged in as guest. In order to create another Admin account I had to use the password for the initial Admin main user account which unlocked the preferences pane and allowed me to create a new Admin Account.
   Checked that FileVault was turned off.
After reading all of your comments and suggestions for the last 2 hours my head is spinning.
I don't know unix or type commands. I don't know where the install discs are.
As the new Admin I went into the keychain files and tried to verify and repair the original Admin's info.
Here is what I got:
Verification started
Checking keychain configuration for Susan F (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/suero
Checked login keychain
Error: login keychain not found
Unable to get info for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain, reason: No such file or directory
Checked password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
Unable to verify password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain (-25294)
Unable to read settings for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain (-25294)
Checked default keychain
Problems were found; you should choose the Repair option to fix them
Verification failed
Repair started
Checking keychain configuration for Susan F (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/suero
Checked login keychain
Error: login keychain not found
Warning: some problems were not fixed
Repair failed
The machine is backed up onto a lacie external hard drive every hour.
In addition, while I was poking around I found the following:
com.apple.kerberos.kdc   certificate
not trusted
com.apple.systemdefault certificate
not trusted
Could there be some malware at work? What can I do to get her files, home directory and everything back?
Thank you in advance for your patience with an old OS and a MAC user who does't feel comfortable mucking around under the hood.
Tracy
Message was edited by: TracyCV

Hi Tracy,
I don't suspect Malware yet, Id guess Disk corruption or failing Hard Drive with Files not found.
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.

Can't enable File Vault 2 in Lion on Mac Pro

Going insane trying to get file vault 2 enabled on my mac pro.
It's an older octocore mac pro (2x2.8 GHz Xenon) with 10 GB RAM. I have a 2 tb startup disk, another 2tb disk, and a pair of 1.5TB disks that form a mirrored RAID.
i tried enabling file vault on one of the startup disks and it would enable then restart, and i would get to the login screen after the restart and the keyboard would be frozen (usb) and so would the mouse. i started going nuts and tried to boot into recovery mode but i would hold down my keys and would be greeted with (after the initial grey startup screen) a white screen for a second, and then it would just boot up normally.
ok...
repaired permissions and verified disk, said it needed repair. coudln't figure out how to get it fixed because the stupid computer won't boot in recovery mode. made a recovery usb disk and it still wouldn't boot in recovery mode even with the stick.
started it as a targeted disk and ran disk util from my laptop. coudln't repair it, siad the disk was corrupted and needed to be formatted.
SO.
formatted the OTHER startup disk, extended/journaled, and installed lion on it cleanly using my usb installer. figured i'd turn on file vault on the brand new untouched install and then run migration assistant.
guess what: when i restarted it, i still got the login screen without the ability to use the mouse or keyboard.
pushed the power button, turned it back on, and it ignored all my attempts to get into recovery mode and continued to boot up normally.
what's going on?!!? pulling my hair out...!! any thoguhts are much appreciated!

It seems your hard disk is damaged from time to time this give tremandous problems even before booted as the Mac wants to read stuff he can't...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4790

File Vault issues. How can I turn it off?

After reading all about the issues people have been having with File Vault and because the constant encrypting-decrypting is slowing down my computer, I decided to turn File Vault off.
There's just one problem. I can't. Every time I try to turn off File Vault, the computer logs off, starts the operation, then I get the following error message:
"An error occurred during decryption ( An error occurred during copying ), FileVault will be turned on for this home folder and the home folder will still be encrypted."
In seeing explanations in other discussions regarding File Vault, the first thing I noticed was that I may not have had enough space to do the decryption, so I got an external hard drive, copied the contents of each of the folders inside my encrypted hard drive to the external drive (thus decrypting them), then deleted them from the internal hard drive. Then I shut the computer down to allow File Vault to re-claim the disk space. I was ultimately able to bring the free space on my hard drive to about 195 GB, with only about 35 GB in use. I continued to get the error.
Next, I repaired permissions, then verified the disk. I found a volume structure error which could not be repaired by Disk Utility, but I had Disk Warrior, which had no problem repairing it. Unfortunately, I still get the error when trying to turn File Vault off.
At this point, it is pretty safe to assume that the initial Volume Structure error caused the File Vault decryption error, and repairing it will not fix the issue. From continued reading, it would seem the next course of action is to completely back up my home folder, install the OS fresh, then manually import the data. Is there an easy way to do this? I have a lot of installed applications and settings that I don't want to go through the trouble of re-installing and re-setting.
Would it work if I set up a new user account, manually migrated the data copied to the external drive, tested to see if the new user account was working, then deleted the encrypted one?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Would it work if I set up a new user account, manually migrated the data copied to the external drive, tested to see if the new user account was working, then deleted the encrypted one
I think that's worth trying first - you could always fall back on the OS erase and install if it doesn't work out.
I would do a GetInfo on the external drive and check the Ignore Ownership box at the bottom, in order to avoid any permission problems when copying back.

Problem with file vault

One of the desktops on my macbook 2007 steel case will not open.
The message i get on screen at login is that there is a problem with file vault.
my dissertation is on that desktop.
all other desktops/user accounts are unaffected and i have admin permissions on them
i recently upgraded to osx 10.9.4
how can i get back in?
chaiman 22

If you restored the account to which the FileVault protected Home folder belonged, then you need to log into that account and enable FileVault.
If you just need access to the data in the FV protected Home folder, then locate the sparsebundle disc image file that contains the encrypted folder. Double-click on it as if to mount it. You will then need to enter the FV password associated with the account to gain access (this is NOT the admin nor login password.)

Anyone have success recovering from a disk failure after turning on File Vault

My wife is running at 13" Macbook Pro Late 2011/Early 2012 running OS 10.7.3. I updated several Apple fixes and a firmware fix the other day for here. I also activated her File Vault to encrypt her files when not in use. She had some intermittent issues with slow startups yesterday and today I was forced to do a hard reboot. Swirling pinwheel that didn't seem tied to any application and and Command/Alt/Esc did not work to force quite or even see if anythng was hanging.
This morning I a was getting a white screen followed by a file with a question mark...I have attempted to use Command-R internet recovery feature in Lion and managed to it to start up so I can open Utlilities and see if there are issues with the disk. It is showing a 500.11 GB Toshiba MK5065GSXF Media and not a Macintosh HD. I am unable to Verify or Repar Permissions or the Disk as these are grayed out.
Did she lose the hard drive? What are my options here. My wife - after I convinced her to use a Mac - has lost four hard drives in less than a year and is on here second system (the first one was replaced by Apple after she lost three hard drives!)
Any chance this is an issue with File Encyrption? Any suggestions on how to fix this?

5 days after I had recieved my mbp, my harddrive failed as well. I did try to reinstall the OS but with no luck. At some point during installation, it would stop telling me to try again. So I took it to the nearest technical service center and they confirmed the hd-failure and replaced it. this was the 80gig @ 5200rpm. but since you were able to reinstall the OS again, you should be fine. have you run the diskutility again?

Login screen on MacBook Pro Retina (Late 2013) with enabled File Vault is extremely slow (suttering)

Hi
I have a MacBook Pro Retina (Late 2013) with enabled File Vault on OS X Mavericks. When I boot up the mac freshly it takes quite long to get to the initial login screen (which as I understand is a pre-boot login provided by the recovery partition if File Vault is enabled). However, what is even more bothering me is that once I get to this screen, the whole UI is behaving extremely slow. The mouse makes jumps of a few inches on the screen and the animations (e.g. if you click a user and then an animation shows the password entry field) are running in slow motion and only update every few seconds. Typing the password afterwards runs smothly again (altought for example moving the mouse at this point still behaves as described before). After loggin in to the account OS X runs fine without any hicks. Can anyone give me a hit what this could be and how I could resolve this?
This has already been done:
Reset PRAM
Boot into recovery partition and run repaired disk and disk permissions
Run all OS X maintenance operations and cleared caches using OnyX
What I could imagine is that somehow the recovery partition is damaged (which as I understand is used to boot to the login screen if File Vault is enabled).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Chris

Just ordered a Retina MacBook Pro11,2 (mid-2014 15", 2.2GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, OSX 10.9.4 Pre-installed - Build 13E28) and have the exact same issue. The first thing I did when i booted it for the first time was enable FileValut2 and encrypt the disk. Though I failed to notice this behavior prior to encrypting the disk, the stuttering/lag happens without fail every time I have logged in from a cold boot, locked screen or sleep. Additionally I have noticed the same stuttering behavior when switching tabs on various built-in OSX applications such as the tabs on the About This Mac > More Info.... (System Information) dialog for example, and similarly other dialogs that experience this behavior of resizing when switching tabs. I was running no other software than About This Mac > More Info ... (System Information) and OSX 10.9.4 itself. The issue happens without fail with and without a USB mouse plugged in.
I am really glad to have found this thread and with such recent posts. I'd love to find out that this is just a software bug that will be fixed when OSX 10.10 "Yosemite" is released. If not, I hope the cause of this bug is determined soon so I can still exchange or have it repaired.
Migflono and Matthew, would you be able to post your hardware specs for comparison?

How do I turn off file vault when my hard drive is full?

I am trying to migrate all my files onto a new MacBook Pro but my current computer has file vault turned on. To turn it off and decrypt my user home folder I need more space on my hard drive. I have tried cloning my MBP onto a larger external drive and starting up from there but every time I try to shut off file vault I get an error after about a half hour of the process.
What should I try next?

Hi Jeremy,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If 10.7.0 or later...
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.

File Vault decryption problem

Hi guys,
I'm running 2013 2.6GHz i5 13' MBP on 10.9
I have trouble unlocking my 2TB WD external drive.
I have encrypted it with disk utilities when i formated it 4 months ago.
Everything worked fine up to this moment.
I cannot unlock it, but my pasword is 100% fine.
It keeps on shacking on me like the password is wrong.
I used terminal to unlock it, and it seemd like the passphrase was fine, but there is some sort of error.
MacBook-Pro-Jan:~ JRK$ diskutil cs unlockVolume 105D836C-7502-43AF-A779-88A6A2D4039D
Passphrase:
Started CoreStorage operation
Logical Volume successfully unlocked
Logical Volume successfully attached as disk2
Error: -69842: Couldn't mount disk
I have tried to unlock it on other machine running 10.8 but it kept on disregarding my passcode.
Is there a way I can have my data back?
I tried to repir the disk with diskutil, but it didn't work out.
Please help

Why do you have to turn off file vault encryption? Log into the old machine. Boot the new machine in Target Disk Mode and connect it. Copy your files to the new machine. You may have to repair permissions when you are done, but it shouldn't be too bad. Don't try to copy directly into your home directory. Copy the files to a neutral place, then log into the new machine, and copy them to where they should go.
But, before you do this, are you running file vault on your new machine? If so, stop now and turn that off. It sounds like your files are important. You don't want to trust them to FileVault.
Filevault is a clever hack - no more. It got out of control and people started putting Music libraries and iMovie productions in it and it just can't handle that.
Create an encrypted disk image on your new machine for your sensitive files. Copy all those files into that image. If the names of the files aren't sensitive, you can even create aliases to the files inside the disk image. Then, when you double-click on the alias, it will prompt you for a password, mount the disk image, and open the file.

When file vault is on, file associations don't persist across restarts

The subject says it all. Neither do things like default browser. A related thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8417405#8417405
has been marked as solved, in spite of the fact that this problem persists today on a brand new machine with 10.5.5.
I've tried deleting caches, restarting launch services, etc. as suggested in some other posts, but nothing has been effective. Has anyone actually solved this problem? (as opposed to thinking of things that might solve it)
Alternatively, does anyone use file vault with file associations that persist over restarts? (i.e., is this working for anyone? 8))

This is just to keep this topic alive in the event that someone has discovered a workaround short of disabling the FileVault (which I may end up doing).
I am running 10.5.6 - upgraded via the combo update, and this problem still persists.
I find that the associations that get reset on reboot: chat, mail, web browser, and office-related files (i.e., .doc, .xls). I'm wondering if there is some way to manually edit the preference files that store these associations to somehow force the change? Any ideas?
I have tried clearing caches, repairing permissions, etc; it definitely appears to me that the rules are somewhat different for the FileVault. In fact, I had an issue getting Apache working due to the FileVault (which was thankfully resolved by this article: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071224093830773).
Thanks!
Scott

Mail Attachment after File Vault Turned on.

I turned on File Vault in my iMac and it took nearly 9 - 10 hrs to completely encrypt. Today, when I sent mail attachments in jpeg format, (only images of scanned copies) my friends couldnt open it. I resent it a few times and finally I had to send it in PDF. Before turning on the File Vault, this has not happened. I dont understand this. If it is due to File Vault, then, should I convert all the images to PDF before attaching with mail? Members, please explain me the system and help me. Thanks.

It should be shareable as long as you are logged in. If you want it shareable at other times, put the iTunes library (and any audio files that are not in the library) outside your home folder. Itunes Help has instructions on moving the library. Set the permissions so others can read the library. If the other user holds Option when starting iTunes there will be an option to choose the library.

File vault process/interruption

If file vault is interrupted (computer turned off) is the data lost?

Depends on many factors.
How mych free space do you have on what size drive?
Try a Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

How do I eliminate File Vault Message at Shutdown?

Hi,
I am hoping to reduce or eliminate the File Vault message (asking whether or not to reclaim disk space) at shutdown in order stop having to come back to the iMac to click on it in order to continue shutdown.
If anyone knows how to do this, any advice would be appreciated!
iMAC G5 20" Mac OS X (10.4.7) File Vault enabled

Hi, Paul.
AFAIK, there's no way to avoid this message if you've enabled FileVault, other than to disable FileVault.
If you use FileVault, then you should not ignore the message.
When FileVault prompts you to permit it to reclaim space, this is because the encrypted sparse disk image that FileVault creates of your Home folder has unused space that must be reclaimed. With this sparse disk images, when you trash a file and empty the Trash, while the file is gone, the space it occupied is still being consumed by the sparse disk image. The sparse disk image only returns to the size of the files it contains when it is compacted, which is what FileVault is requesting permission to do.
Unless you let FileVault periodically reclaim this space, the sparse disk image could grow to fill your hard drive, even though your encrypted Home folder contains far fewer files than the capacity of the drive.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

File Vault Stripping Permissions

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