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I understand that turning on Find My Mac also turns on a "Guest" account (in "login only" mode). For a variety of reasons, I would prefer not to have an enabled Guest account at all.

Does Find My Mac still function with the Guest account turned off? Is its functionality limited in some way by the absence of the Guest account. Or will the Guest account be re-enabled by Find My Mac when I reboot?

orome
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1 Answers1

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Yes, it will still function without the guest account. However, in order for Find my Mac to locate your Mac, the Mac needs to be connected to the internet. If your account is secure and your Mac is stolen, presumably the thief would not know your password, and so wouldn't be able to login and join a WiFi network.

Leaving guest access enabled allows them to login without a password, in the hopes that they then join a WiFi network and your Mac is located (and immediately locked/wiped/etc).

Harv
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  • Is that how it works. Someone has to log in for me to be able to remotely wipe, so that disabling the Guest account makes it impossible of for me to wipe (or, presumably, get a current location)? – orome Sep 24 '14 at 18:35
  • More accurately, the Mac needs to have internet access in order to receive the commands to wipe itself. Also in order to send its coordinates. It can't do these things if there's no communication. So the guest account allows a would-be thief to at least log in and give the Mac an opportunity to communicate. The same is true of the iOS - it needs a data connection, whether it be on a cell network or WiFi. – Harv Sep 24 '14 at 18:37
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    However if there's no guest account but still the Mac is located somewhere you've been before, and it automatically joins the local WiFi -- you would be in luck. You may want to think about what the chances of that happening are. If I were a thief, I would get as far away from where I committed the crime as possible, as quickly as possible. – Harv Sep 24 '14 at 18:38
  • If I were a thief (and what you're saying is true), I'd turn of WiFi, or go where there was none. Are you sure this is how it works: the whole thing relies on a thief being connected to the internet? – orome Sep 24 '14 at 18:43
  • Right, but you have the luxury of knowing what you know. Often thiefs don't know that. They just want to sell the thing or use it. And yes, I am sure -- how else would the Mac send its location or receive commands to wipe? Communication is required. – Harv Sep 24 '14 at 18:44
  • Look - try it. Download the iOS app if you have an iPhone, and send a message to your Mac, and play a sound or lock it. Then, turn off WiFi and try again. – Harv Sep 24 '14 at 18:48
  • I guess I thought Apple had some magic. That's pretty stupid on two counts: (1) it means it offers no protection from any real thief and (2) I can completely disable protection (by turing off the guest account) without being warned. – orome Sep 24 '14 at 18:54
  • Nothing will protect you from a real thief anyway. Security has no silver bullet. If there were a dedicated chip say, always connected to Apple satellites, a "real" thief would bring a faraday cage to put the device into, rendering it useless. You can't win, but you can hedge your bets and protect your data at least. Insurance, backups, encryption, strong passwords and a decoy (guest) account, plus good software (check out preyproject.com) are all you can do. It had always been this way. Stupid? Maybe just realistic. – Harv Sep 24 '14 at 19:04
  • Well, the defense (if you'd really like to take it up) of inadequate (and over marketed) "security" measures is off topic. If what you say in the answer is true, I find FMM pretty useless. – orome Sep 24 '14 at 19:21
  • I wouldn't say it's useless, but it's not that useful. Your real security comes from FileVault and insurance. In that regard, http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82706/is-the-guest-account-a-security-risk-with-full-disk-encryption-on-mountain-lion/82707#82707, http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/60834/guest-account-on-lion-vs-mountain-lion/60854#60854, http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/29206/guest-login-got-enabled-even-though-filevault-2-is-enabled-and-guest-login-is-di/29252#29252 – Alan Shutko Sep 24 '14 at 20:44
  • now that is clever, did not think of it :) – Ruskes Sep 24 '14 at 21:26