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Sophos Home for macOS shows that this device is vulnerable

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Sophos Home Support
  • Updated

Applies to: Sophos Home Premium and Free (Mac)

What's happening: 

"This device is vulnerable" or "Computer is vulnerable" messages may appear when Sophos Home components are not properly loaded or installed.
These messages are most common after installing or upgrading Sophos Home, or when upgrading your Mac operating system (macOS).

 

What to do first

The first steps are to restart your Mac computer. This allows the new or updated Sophos Home components to properly load. You'll also want to make sure there is no other antivirus software installed that might be conflicting with Sophos Home. You can check this by reviewing this article.

  • If the issue persists after restarting, you can run a scan to check the antivirus permissions on your Mac:
    • Click on the the Sophos Home Shield on your Menu Bar
    • Click on the three dots (...)
    • Click on Scan

If any permissions were missing, you will be prompted to re-adding them and the message should clear right after.

Depending on the specific message you're seeing, there may be additional steps required. Review the list below and find the scenario that matches what's being displayed on your Sophos Home Shield or your Mac's screen.

Troubleshooting Computer is Vulnerable

Ensure no conflicting security software is installed 

If you are running multiple security software programs, you may encounter they can conflict with each other and prevent one another from installing or loading correctly.
Please remove any other antivirus software you have installed, besides Sophos Home.  Click here for instructions

Check if Sophos Home components need to be allowed

  1. Trigger a Scan by clicking on the Sophos Home Shield > ...> Scan 
  2. If prompted, follow the steps to allow Sophos Home under Full Disk Access
    1. Click Let's Start
    2. Click on "Click Here"
    3. Drag the "Drag this" icon into the Full Disk Access Panel (Might need to scroll down to find it).  

      Video Steps

  3. If no prompt appears, but the shield is not Green and protected, do this:  
    1. Click on the Apple Menu > System Settings > Privacy & Security.
    2. Scroll down to find Security, click Details...
    3. Type your Mac's password
    4. Enable the Sophos Extensions by clicking on the sliders

    • Video steps

    • Click on the Apple menu from the taskbar then select   System Preferences…OR    >  System Settings > Privacy & Security (Ventura/Sonoma)

    • Select Security & Privacy > General  OR scroll down until you find Security (Ventura/Sonoma)
      NOTE: If using macOS versions before Ventura click on the padlock to make changes
    • Ensure "App Store and identified developers" option is selected under "Allow apps downloaded from" 
    • You will see either "Details..." if more than one extension needs to be allowed, or "Allow"

      mceclip0.png mceclip1.png
      (Images are illustrative, your Mac might display this differently, but the content will be the same)
    • Checkmark/click each extension to enable them (checkmarks or sliders will be present)
    • Restart your Mac

Restart the mac

If no components are pending, the alert will clear 10-15 minutes after restarting the Mac. This ensures all components are re-loaded on the system.

Check your dashboard settings

If protections were manually disabled via Sophos Home dashboard, re-enable them following these steps: The real-time protection is disabled.

OS Specific steps

Support for macOS 15 Sequoia  

 

Action Required messages

Please see Action Required messages for macOS 

 

 

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