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Monitor Your Mac with Folder Actions

TMO Quick Tip - Monitor Your Mac with Folder Actions

by , 7:30 AM EST, February 20th, 2006

Some application installers add items to your Library folder that you may not want to have, and there is the possibility that someone could try to trick you into installing something you would rather not have on your computer. With a little help from Mac OS X Folder Actions, you can take a proactive approach to defending your system and files.

Let's add a folder action to your StartupItems directory, so we'll know if any application installers add anything that will launch automatically when your Mac is turned on.

If Folder Actions hasn't already been enabled, we need to do that first. Here's how:

    - Launch Folder Actions Setup. It's in Applications > AppleScript > Folder Actions Setup.
    - Click the Enable Folder Actions check box.
    - Quit Folder Actions Setup.


Make sure Folder Actions are enabled.

Now let's attach the Folder Action to the StartupItems folder:

    - Navigate to your StartupItems folder. It's in the Library folder on your hard drive.
    - Control-Click (Right-Click on a two button mouse) the StartupItems folder and select Attach a Folder Action.
    - Select add - new item alert.scpt (The script should be at the top of the list.), and click the Choose button.


Use the StartupItem's contextual menu to add a folder Action.

Any time an item is added to your StartupItems folder, you'll see an alert dialog that can open the folder and highlight any new items.


The Folder Action Alert dialog.

Feel free to monitor other folders, too. If your Library folder has an InputManagers folder, that's a good one to attach this Folder Action to. Check the Library folder that's in your Home Directory. If you have an InputManagers folder there, be sure to attach this action to it as well.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:44 am Subject: user specific or system wide?

Very ggod tip, thank you for this. One question, is this a system wide change, or user specific?

Thanks


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Close Name:Wings Posts: 89 Joined: 30 Mar 2004
Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:18 am Subject: Contextual Menu "Attach" Does Nothing

Probably not the right place to post this, but...

When I right-click on StartupItems folder and choose Attach Folder Action, nothing happens. I have to go to the Folder Actions Setup app and click the "+" button to choose a folder to add an action to. MacOS 10.4.5


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Close Name:madgunde Posts: 66 Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:37 am Subject: Re: user specific or system wide?

It can be applied to ANY folder you want to watch. The example is targetting the /Library/StartupItems folder, but you could just as easily attach it to ~/Library/StartupItems (if it exists).

If you want to protect against the recent trojan, also apply it to your ~/Library/InputManagers folder and /Library/InputManagers. If those folders don't exist, create them first.

FYI, the tilde "~" indicates your home folder in Unix speak, while paths starting with just a slash "/" are paths beginning from the root of your system.


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Close Name:toefats Posts: 3 Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:54 am Subject:

Nice but there are more ways than that to make items start with start up.
You need also to monitor your ~/library/loginwindow.plist, and maybe
also /library/preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
and the same file in the ~library/preferences.

HP sticks a start up item in one of those last 2, I've forgotten which, and
it took me a LONG time to find out where it was.


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Close Name:Guest
Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:35 pm Subject:

Quote
madgunde wrote:
It can be applied to ANY folder you want to watch.


Sorry, I'll be more specific...it was the action, not the folder I was asking about...if I put a watch on the /library/Input Managers folder, would this flag up a change to whoever was logged in (system wide), or do I have to login and configure the action for each user to get it to do that (user specific)?


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Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2088 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:48 pm Subject: Monitoring startup items

Quote
Guest wrote:
Quote
madgunde wrote:
It can be applied to ANY folder you want to watch.


Sorry, I'll be more specific...it was the action, not the folder I was asking about...if I put a watch on the /library/Input Managers folder, would this flag up a change to whoever was logged in (system wide), or do I have to login and configure the action for each user to get it to do that (user specific)?


There is a startup items folder for each user, so you'd have to monitor each one.


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Close Name:Guest
Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:52 pm Subject:

Quote
gslusher wrote:
Quote
Guest wrote:
Quote
madgunde wrote:
It can be applied to ANY folder you want to watch.


Sorry, I'll be more specific...it was the action, not the folder I was asking about...if I put a watch on the /library/Input Managers folder, would this flag up a change to whoever was logged in (system wide), or do I have to login and configure the action for each user to get it to do that (user specific)?


There is a startup items folder for each user, so you'd have to monitor each one.


?

OK, I guess that could still be seen as ambiguous, so I'll try to be more specific...if I, logged in as me, put a watch on the [root] /library/Input Managers folder would this show an alert to whoever happened to be logged in at the time something changed in this folder, or would I need to get each of the users separately to put their own watch on this same folder?


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