Artificial Intelligence
Apple plans tighter macOS Full Disk Access controls
Apple said it would change macOS Full Disk Access so broad system permissions required explicit user action, after reporting on AI agents, Meta's Muse and other Mac app vulnerabilities.
- Apple said it planned to update Full Disk Access so broad access would require an explicit user action, and it did not say when the change would ship.
- The company said some developers were using the setting in ways that could expose files, mail, messages and browsing history.
- The article linked the move to reporting on Meta's Muse, which had accessed a journalist's private iMessages after Full Disk Access was granted.
- Meta said Muse needed both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector enabled to read Messages content.
- Wardle was also credited with reporting CVE-2026-100754 in OpenAI's ChatGPT app for Mac, which the article said could have been used to take over the assistant and reach stored data.
Apple said it was preparing changes to Full Disk Access on macOS so that broad system access would need an explicit action from the user. It said some developers were using the permission in ways that could expose files, mail, messages and browsing history.
Full Disk Access was introduced in macOS Mojave, and it allowed applications to read and write system files that are normally restricted. Apple said it wanted users to understand the risks before granting that level of access.
The article said the move appeared to follow reporting on Meta's Muse, which had accessed a journalist's private iMessages after Full Disk Access was granted. Meta later said Muse also needed the Messages connector enabled for that access.
Patrick Wardle had also shown a proof of concept called not-a-mused for a zero-day in Muse's Mac app. He said the patched flaw could let a local process redirect dictation traffic and abuse the access granted to the app.
Wardle was also credited with reporting CVE-2026-100754 in OpenAI's ChatGPT app for Mac. The article said that issue could have allowed an attacker to take over the assistant and reach chat logs and other data stored by the app.
Named in this story
People
- Meta CTO David Singleton
- said the Messages integration in Muse was opt in
- Patrick Wardle
- demonstrated the not-a-mused proof of concept and reported another issue
Companies
- Apple
- announced changes to macOS Full Disk Access controls
- Meta
- said Muse needed two permissions to read Messages content
- OpenAI
- was linked to a Mac app vulnerability reported by Wardle
Products and systems
- Full Disk Access
- the macOS permission that gives applications broad system access
- macOS Mojave (version 10.14)
- introduced Full Disk Access
- Muse
- Meta's personal AI agent tool
- not-a-mused
- Wardle's proof-of-concept exploit for a Muse Mac app flaw
- ChatGPT app for Mac
- had a vulnerability that could expose chat logs and other stored data
How the source tells it
The piece was mostly restrained, but it used repeated privacy-risk language and future-harm claims to cast AI agents' access in an alarming light.
- privacy alarm broad lists of private data and language about putting users at risk
- future urgency the change was framed as coming later and as needed before the risks grow substantially