Overview

• As of macOS Ventura 13.4.1, Apple has changed the default behavior for Safari when downloading .zip files. It now auto-extracts them in the user's Downloads folder.
• This causes an issue as Apple automatically flags any .app file in Downloads, Documents, or Desktop with the Quarantine flag, which will prevent the installer from functioning properly.

Product and Environment

• Sophos Endpoint for macOS
• macOS Ventura 13.4.1 and later 

Impact

• Installations may fail, or show the downloading bar for an extended period before failing.
• The installer is stuck at the 'Starting services' phase during installation on macOS 27 Golden Gate.
• In the Sophos Diagnostics logs, paths including AppTranslocation will be seen.

For example:

2023-06-30 17:25:55.034605+0530 Sophos Installer[99092]: install debug : ExecutablePath = /var/folders/rs/h3kn2hk50rxbfnrn_np2s_3w0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/F660838F-5D7E-431C-AA65-C1638C36FE44/d/Sophos Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Sophos Installer, bundlePath = /var/folders/rs/h3kn2hk50rxbfnrn_np2s_3w0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/F660838F-5D7E-431C-AA65-C1638C36FE44/d/Sophos Installer.app

What to do?

There are three different workarounds for this issue:

1. Download the Sophos Installer using Chrome.
2. Turn off the auto extraction in Safari.
   • Open Safari.
   • Click Safari in the upper left.
   • Click Settings.
   • Clear Open "safe" files after downloading.
   • Download the Sophos Installer.
3. Remove the quarantine attribute from the installer, as seen below.
   • To check if the quarantine attribute has been set, open Terminal, then do the following:
     Note: This assumes the files are extracted into the user's Downloads folder. If your location is different, you will need to adjust the paths.
   • Run: xattr ~/Downloads/SophosInstall/Sophos\ Installer.app
   • This will likely display com.apple.quarantine. If this exists, continue.
   • Run: sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/SophosInstall/Sophos\ Installer.app
   • Run the installer normally.

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