Tag: team id

Why do you need Team IDs?

Beginning with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), Apple is now blocking kernel extensions unless you, in recovery mode (or recovery mode–like environment), change the policy on the machine itself or use an MDM profile to approve certain KEXTs by Team ID.

How do you find these Team IDs, though?

sqlite3

One way is to install the KEXTs on a 10.13 machine, user approve them, and then check the sqlite database to see what the Team IDs are:

Here's an example of some of the output you might see:

In this example, EQHXZ8M8AV is the Team ID and com.google.dfsfuse.filesystems.dfsfuse is the bundle ID.

You can use Control-D to exit the sqlite3 session.

Acknowledgements: Got commands from Enabling Kernel Extensions in High Sierra

codesign

Another way is to run this command on an existing bundle from the vendor:

For example, if you run

you should see in the output a line like

This approach can be helpful in fringe cases (you just need the Team ID and not the bundle ID, which may be the case, and the KEXT you're looking for has an associated bundle you can run codesign on.

Acknowledgements: Got command from MunkiReport-PHP extensions module

Isn't there a list somewhere of all these Team IDs?

There is a list, actually. There's a spreadsheet that a bunch of Mac admins are sharing with each other. Unfortunately, at this point, it's a spreadsheet that anyone with the link can edit, so I wouldn't really count on that. At this point, I don't see anything malicious in there (and I haven't verified every single Team ID, of course), but I would probably play it safe and just get the Team IDs yourself. Chances are that you'll have to do it only once or twice a year at the most.