What is Privileges.app for macOS?
Privileges.app is an application that makes it very simple to temporarily get administrator privileges (also known as Admin Rights) on your Mac. It functions very similar to the Make User Admin tool in Jamf Self Service, with the additional feature of changing accounts back to a Standard user after a set period.
How-to: Admin rights on an Ithaca College Mac with Privileges.app
Time limit on admin rights granted by Privileges.app
The set period for granting admin rights is 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, Privileges.app will return your account to a Standard User. If you still need admin rights, you can simply click the button on the dock again to regain admin rights for 30 minutes.
Why use Privileges.app?
From a security viewpoint, it’s best practice to run as a standard user wherever possible. This helps reduce the risk of silent exploits and drive-by attacks being able to gain a permanent hold on computers. Privileges.app allows macOS users to temporarily gain admin rights to do things such as update their third-party apps or other specific tasks, while reducing the risk of running as administrator all the time.
I need admin rights and I don’t have Privileges.app. How do I get it?
Launch Jamf Self-Service and go to the Featured or Utilities category. Find the green Privileges icon and click Install to install Privileges on your Mac.
My Privileges.app dock icon is gone!
If the green Privileges.app icon is gone from the dock, you can restore it by looking in /Applications in Finder or Launchpad. Once the icon is on the dock, you can pin it to the dock by dragging it to the permanent area, or 2 finger tapping (or right-clicking with a mouse) on the icon and choosing Keep in Dock.
