The macOS system must prohibit user installation of software into /users/.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-268566	SRG-OS-000362-GPOS-00149	APPL-15-005080	SV-268566r1034638_rule	2025-02-20	1

Description
Users must not be allowed to install software into /users/. Allowing regular users without explicit privileges to install software presents the risk of untested and potentially malicious software being installed on the system. Explicit privileges (escalated or administrative privileges) provide the regular user with explicit capabilities and control that exceeds the rights of a regular user. [IMPORTANT] ==== Apple has deprecated the use of application restriction controls (https://github.com/apple/device-management/blob/eb51fb0cb9626cac4717858556912c257a734ce0/mdm/profiles/com.apple.applicationaccess.new.yaml#L67-L70). Using these controls may not work as expected. Third party software may be required to fulfill the compliance requirements. ====

Description

Users must not be allowed to install software into /users/. Allowing regular users without explicit privileges to install software presents the risk of untested and potentially malicious software being installed on the system. Explicit privileges (escalated or administrative privileges) provide the regular user with explicit capabilities and control that exceeds the rights of a regular user. [IMPORTANT] ==== Apple has deprecated the use of application restriction controls (https://github.com/apple/device-management/blob/eb51fb0cb9626cac4717858556912c257a734ce0/mdm/profiles/com.apple.applicationaccess.new.yaml#L67-L70). Using these controls may not work as expected. Third party software may be required to fulfill the compliance requirements. ====

ℹ️ Check
Verify the macOS system is configured to prohibit user installation of software into /users/ with the following command: /usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript << EOS function run() { let pref1 = ObjC.unwrap($.NSUserDefaults.alloc.initWithSuiteName('com.apple.applicationaccess.new')\ .objectForKey('familyControlsEnabled')) let pathlist = $.NSUserDefaults.alloc.initWithSuiteName('com.apple.applicationaccess.new')\ .objectForKey('pathBlackList').js for ( let app in pathlist ) { if ( ObjC.unwrap(pathlist[app]) == "/Users/" && pref1 == true ){ return("true") } } return("false") } EOS If the result is not "true", this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify the macOS system is configured to prohibit user installation of software into /users/ with the following command: /usr/bin/osascript -l JavaScript << EOS function run() { let pref1 = ObjC.unwrap($.NSUserDefaults.alloc.initWithSuiteName('com.apple.applicationaccess.new')\ .objectForKey('familyControlsEnabled')) let pathlist = $.NSUserDefaults.alloc.initWithSuiteName('com.apple.applicationaccess.new')\ .objectForKey('pathBlackList').js for ( let app in pathlist ) { if ( ObjC.unwrap(pathlist[app]) == "/Users/" && pref1 == true ){ return("true") } } return("false") } EOS If the result is not "true", this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure the macOS system to prohibit user installation of software into /users/ by installing the "com.apple.applicationaccess.new" configuration profile.