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How Dropbox Hacks Your Mac

(applehelpwriter.com)
1037 points 8bitben | 1 comments | 09 Sep 16 15:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.328s | source
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tomku ◴[09 Sep 16 16:25 UTC] No.12463685[source]▶
Non-clickbait title: "How Dropbox uses the root access that you give it during installation to give itself Accessibility authorization without triggering the usual popup".
replies(7): >>12463788 #>>12463995 #>>12464020 #>>12464453 #>>12464504 #>>12466157 #>>12468163 #
1. seanhunter ◴[09 Sep 16 17:45 UTC] No.12464453[source]▶
Not exactly. If you remove dropbox from the accessibility auth list while the client is still running (without removing /Library/DropboxHelperTools) it just adds itself back in. Also it prompts for the password after installation.

So it's more like "how dropbox uses the root access you give it after installation to install software which will permanently re-add itself to accessibility even if you attempt remove its authorization".