How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

1) If Zoom can do this then it's a MacOS security bug.

2) UX matters. Users don't care about the technical details, they want a smooth experience and that can be the difference between a billion-dollar business or a failed startup. And yes the desktop version is more stable than the web-based UI.

3) Malware is defined by what it does, not how it's installed.

> 3) Malware is defined by what it does, not how it's installed.

Well, from the tweet thread:

> If the App is already installed but the current user is not admin, they use a helper tool called "zoomAutenticationTool" [sic] and the AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges API to spawn a password prompt identifying as "System" (!!) to gain root (including a typo).

It's not malicious, and you have to give it permissions somehow to finish the install.

Dropbox (used to?) patch system files to integrate with Office better, and that wasn't considered malware either.