‘/Users’ Folder Bug Botches Permissions in Addition to Visibility

Rich Trouton:

The permissions on the /Users folder were also changed to be world-writable, so that anyone could read and write to the /Users folder.

After considerable investigation by the folks in the ##osx-server IRC room, it looks like the issue has been tied to two causes:

  1. iTunes 11.2 being installed

  2. iCloud’s Find My Mac being enabled.

That’s a pretty bad permissions bug. Trouton has a script that fixes all the damage (restore visibility to /Users and /Users/Shared, then run Repair Permissions), but note that you must turn off Find My Mac, or it will just happen all over again when you restart.

★ Friday, 16 May 2014